Sanpincha

Where it grows

Inherited from its components — Japan is the level this record can honestly claim. The everyday tea of Okinawa and a scenting rather than a growing: the jasmine-scented green base is brought in from the mainland, so the leaf's ground is a property of the base and the Okinawan part of the story is the drinking rather than the farming.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
2. 2. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
3. 3. Basket drying (hong gan) — Dries leaf by still radiant and convective heat in a basket above a low fire, without pressing or tumbling it against a hot surface.
4. 4. Scenting — Transfers floral volatiles into the leaf by repeated contact with fresh blossom, without leaving the blossom in the product.
5. 5. Re-firing — Removes reabsorbed moisture from finished tea at a temperature low enough not to add roast character.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Jasmine-scented green tea — A finished green tea re-enters the factory in the flowering season and goes round a loop — layer with fresh blossom, screen it out, re-dry — as many as nine times.

  Where it is practised: Fujian above all, with Guangxi and Sichuan also producing at scale. The base tea and the flowers frequently come from different provinces, which is why the trade is organised around moving finished tea to where the jasmine is.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

• Kill-green (fixation)
  • locks 2-Phenylethanol
  • locks Anthocyanins
  • locks Catechins
  • locks cis-3-Hexenol
  • locks Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks L-theanine
  • locks Leaf lipids
  • locks Methylated catechins
  • locks Theogallin
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Basket drying (hong gan)
  • creates Melanoidins
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
• Scenting
  • raises 2-Phenylethanol
  • raises Indole
  • raises Jasmine lactone
• Re-firing
  • raises Epimerised catechins
  • raises Melanoidins

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 80–90 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  3–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 4 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Cold brew tea

  0.7–1.3 g/100 ml · 2–10 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Glass teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

Common mistakes

• Ordering it in Okinawa expecting a green tea and receiving a floral one — sanpincha is the default 'tea' on many Okinawan menus.
• Comparing it directly with a graded Chinese jasmine. It is the everyday tier of the same tradition, priced and made accordingly.

When the cup goes wrong

Written against green tea as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 37 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• I bought a big bag to save money and it was stale before I finished it — A large quantity bought at a good unit price faded well before it was drunk, so the saving turned into waste.
• I bought a water filter for my tea and it changed nothing — A filter jug or tap filter was bought specifically to improve the tea, and the cup tastes the same as it did before — with the same dullness, the same film and the same scale in the kettle.
• I have too many teas open and most of them are going stale — A dozen or more packets are open at once, three or four get drunk regularly, and the rest fade quietly on the shelf until they are thrown away.
• Leaves stick to the cup, the pot and my teeth — Fine leaf clings to the inside of the vessel, comes through into the cup, and ends up in the last mouthful.
• My bamboo whisk is losing tines — Fine bamboo tines snap off during whisking and turn up in the bowl, and the whisk feels stiff and splayed.
• My cold brew tastes like faintly flavoured water — After a night in the fridge the jug is pale and tastes of very little, with none of the sweetness cold brewing is supposed to give.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

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