08/21/2026
Tana-gake vs. jika-gake 🍵 What’s the difference?
Before matcha is harvested, the tea plants used to produce tencha—the raw material for matcha—are shaded from sunlight. How they’re shaded can make a difference.
🌿 Tana-gake (棚掛け) uses a raised structure to suspend shading above the tea plants, without touching the leaves. As the spring shoots develop, sunlight is carefully reduced before harvest. This traditional, labor-intensive method is associated with high-quality tencha and gyokuro.
Why shade matcha? Reducing sunlight helps preserve L-theanine, an amino acid associated with tea’s umami and sweetness, while also influencing chlorophyll and flavor development. The result can be deeper green color, stronger umami, more sweetness and softer astringency.
🌿 Jika-gake (直掛け) places shading material directly over the tea bushes. It requires less infrastructure and is easier to scale, making it increasingly common as global matcha demand grows.
Importantly, jika-gake does NOT automatically mean bad matcha. Excellent tencha can be produced this way. Cultivar, terroir, harvest, shading and processing all matter.
That’s why at Yoko Matcha, we encourage you to look beyond terms like “ceremonial grade.” Ask where it was grown, the cultivar, harvest, how it was shaded and how it was processed.
Our matcha comes from Shizuoka, Japan, where we work directly with a third-generation tea producer. Our first-harvest matcha is made from Yabukita leaves selected for vibrant color, umami, aroma and smoothness.
Quality starts in the tea field long before matcha reaches your bowl. 🍵🌱
