Kamairicha: The Complete Guide to Japan's Pan-Fired Tea

By Christian Mauerer, founder of One with Tea. Built from Japanese tea-science papers, two agricultural cooperatives and Japan's Norin cultivar registration table, checked 1 October 2026.

Kamairicha (釜炒り茶) is Japanese green tea whose fresh leaf is fired in a hot iron pan instead of steamed. Almost all of it comes from Kyushu, and the mountain district of Nishiusuki in Miyazaki, home to Takachiho, Gokase and Hinokage, makes about 200 metric tons a year, the most in Japan. The pan leaves a toasty aroma called kamaka and a clear golden cup.

That makes it the odd one out. Japan's official food composition tables put it plainly: most Japanese green tea is steamed, kamairicha is made only in parts of Kyushu, and almost all green tea from mainland China is made the kamairicha way. So this is the Japanese tea that kept the Chinese method. I haven't stood in a kamairicha factory, so everything below comes from Japanese research papers and cooperative sources, each one linked where it's used.

What is kamairicha?

Kamairicha is green tea made by firing freshly picked leaf in a kama, an iron pan, to stop it from oxidizing. Every green tea needs that kill-green step, because without it the leaf's own enzymes would keep turning it darker. Japan's food composition tables split green tea into exactly two families on this point: the steamed kind and the pan-fired kind (MEXT, Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan).

The steamed family is the one most people know, and it's the rule behind almost every tea in our guide to the main types of Japanese green tea. Kamairicha is the exception. The World Green Tea Association names four prefectures that make it: Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Miyazaki (O-CHA NET).

Kamairicha is rare. The biggest producing district in Japan, Nishiusuki in Miyazaki, makes about 200 metric tons a year, and even in Ureshino, which JA Saga calls the birthplace of kamairicha, it's only about 5% of local tea (JA Saga).

Nationally, Sakamoto estimates kamairicha at under 0.5% of Japan's tea output today, now made, by his count, in three prefectures, Saga, Kumamoto and Miyazaki (Sakamoto, 2018), and the Tokyo Tea Cooperative puts it at 1% or less. Both are estimates rather than an official count, and I explain why the official statistics don't carry one in our piece on the rare Japanese teas that break the steaming rule. This page goes one level deeper: how it's made, where the two styles came from, which cultivars were bred for it, and how to brew it.

How is kamairicha made, step by step?

Fresh leaf goes into a pan hot enough to stop oxidation, then alternates between rolling and drying in the pan, and finishes with a last firing called shime-iri that dries the leaf into its final shape. The clearest record of the hand method comes from Sakamoto, a researcher at the Kumamoto Industrial Technology Center, who interviewed Ureshino tea makers about how they worked before machines took over (Sakamoto, Tea Research Report 124, 2017).

The old seven-stage hand method

His reconstruction of the pre-mechanization Ureshino sequence runs like this:

1. Iriha (炒り葉), the first firing. Fresh leaf goes into a pan above 300°C (572°F). In the Ureshino style, the leaf loses 30 to 35% of its weight here.
2. Jūnen (揉捻), rolling. The softened leaf is rolled to break it open.
3. First suikan (第一水乾). Back into the pan to drive off moisture.
4. Rolling again.
5. Second suikan (第二水乾). Another round of pan-drying.
6. Resting. The leaf is spread out loose and left to settle.
7. Shime-iri (締め炒り), the final firing. The leaf is fired until dry, which tightens it into its finished shape.

Two details in that paper stopped me. When the leaf goes limp in the first firing, makers used a fan to vent all the steam at once, which Sakamoto says closely resembles the method in an old Chinese tea manual, the Chajian (茶箋). And firing the rolled leaf until it's dry matches the method in the Nōgyō Zensho (農業全書), a Japanese farming manual from the late 17th century. So the method was already in print more than three hundred years ago.

Miyazaki's account gives a different number. JA Miyazaki describes the old hand method like this. Fresh leaf went into a big pan heated to about 400°C (752°F), then out onto a goza mat to be rolled carefully by hand. It was scattered over bamboo baskets to dry slowly over charcoal, then fired in the pan once more for aroma (JA Miyazaki). The two temperatures describe different regions and come from different sources, so I read them as a range rather than a contradiction.

How machines do it today

Today it's machine work, but the logic is the same. The Global Japanese Tea Association describes the modern line as a high-temperature mechanical pan, several rounds of rolling, drying in a rotating drum, and one last firing in a hot pan to develop the kamaka aroma (Global Japanese Tea Association). Tea-industry testing labs and manufacturers developed a dedicated shime-iri roaster for that last step, which is what shapes the leaf into balls (O-CHA NET).

What does kamairicha look like?

Kamairicha leaf is twisted and curled, not needle-straight like sencha, and the final shime-iri firing is what shapes it. Ureshino-style leaf, per Sakamoto's sources, is round, bead-like and yellow-green, and brews a deep golden liquor (Sakamoto, 2017).

What are Ureshino-sei and Aoyagi-sei?

Japanese kamairicha splits into two schools, and the difference is the angle of the pan. Ureshino-sei uses an inclined pan set at 45 degrees and belongs to Saga and Nagasaki. Aoyagi-sei uses a flat pan, called a hiragama (平釜), set parallel to the ground, and belongs to Kumamoto and Miyazaki (Sakamoto, 2018; Tokyo Tea Cooperative). The Global Japanese Tea Association adds that the Ureshino pan tilts toward the person working it.

Where did each school come from?

The Ureshino line has a date and a name. In 1504, a Ming-dynasty potter named Kōreimin (紅令民) brought a pan from China to Ureshino and passed on the Nanjing-kama firing method, which JA Saga marks as the start of Ureshino-style kamairicha (JA Saga). The Tokyo Tea Cooperative traces tea in Ureshino back further, to 1440, when people from Ming China who had arrived at Hirado settled in the area, made pottery and grew tea for their own use. I told that story in full in our piece on Ureshino tea and Saga's tamaryokucha country. One wrinkle from Sakamoto's papers: a Ureshino tea merchant passes on a theory that "Kōreimin" may not be one person at all, but a way of saying "people from Goryeo", the Korean kingdom.

The Aoyagi line has a name story and a theory. The name itself is documented. Sakamoto quotes an account from the Genroku era (1688 to 1704). An official at the border checkpoint between the old provinces of Higo and Hyūga judged the tea from around Yabe and Mamihara to be outstanding. He named the refined tea "Aoyagi" and presented it to the domain lord, Hosokawa, who was delighted with it (Sakamoto, 2018). He gives the production heartland as Yamato town in Kumamoto (the former Yabe and Soyō) and Gokase and Takachiho in Miyazaki.

The origin is less certain. One theory holds that Korean carpenters, stonemasons and plasterers brought over by the daimyo Katō Kiyomasa (1562 to 1611) stayed on after building Kumamoto Castle (1596 to 1607). They made tea from the native mountain tea, yama-cha, and presented it to the lord of the castle, and their technique is said to have become Aoyagi-sei. The same paper records a competing tradition that kamairicha was already being made when Katō sent troops to Korea. Both Sakamoto and the Tokyo Tea Cooperative, an association of Japanese tea specialty shops, present the Korean-craftsmen account as one theory, and so do I.

The bigger dates don't line up either. JA Miyazaki says the method arrived from China around the 15th century. The Global Japanese Tea Association says it seems to have entered through Kyushu around the 17th century, possibly by more than one route. Both can be partly right, which is exactly what two schools with two origin stories would suggest.

Sakamoto's 2017 paper makes two arguments I hadn't seen in English. First, the inclined pan was probably the original import, since it survives in Saga and Nagasaki. Second, one older source claims the tilt was invented for mass production when Chinese tea exports to Britain grew. Sakamoto disagrees: the inclined-pan method already appears in the Nōgyō Zensho before those exports grew, and it's slow, so saving the maker's labor is the likelier reason. He also found traces of inclined pans in Kumamoto and Miyazaki that disappeared quickly once machine processing arrived. The neat two-region map is partly what the machines left behind.

How did kamairicha nearly disappear?

Kamairicha was once banned, quite possibly by mistake, and it used to be far more common than it is now. Both points come from a 2018 paper by the same researcher, and they're the part of this story I find most useful (Sakamoto, Tea Research Report 125, 2018).

Start with the scale. Citing Japan's cumulative tea industry statistics, Sakamoto writes that in the early Meiji years kamairicha production came to nearly 30,000 metric tons, and that it was made all over Japan. Today the biggest district in the country makes about 200.

He also quotes Morizono Ichiji (森薗市二), a Shizuoka-born tea researcher with experience in Miyazaki. In his account, Ureshino-sei and Aoyagi-sei were high-grade teas drunk by the upper classes, while ordinary people drank pan-fired bancha made widely across Kyushu, Shikoku and the Chūgoku region. Under the one word "kamairicha" sat two very different things: a refined green tea, and a coarser pan-fired, sun-dried tea classed as bancha. Nobody much distinguished them.

Then came the export boom. Once Japan began exporting tea in the late Edo period, sales grew fast, prices climbed, and fraudulent and poor-quality tea grew with them, until laws were brought in to crack down. The sun-dried tea was banned for damaging the reputation of Japanese tea.

And, perhaps because it had been mistaken for kamairicha, kamairicha itself ended up banned. Sakamoto gives one marker: in 1893 the Shizuoka prefectural tea guild federation banned kamairicha, and from 1894 the agriculture ministry's statistics dropped it as a surveyed tea type, which he reads as a nationwide move. Over the same period, new drying tools came in for kamairicha: the tea hoiro, the muro drying room, and what was called the "India hoiro".

His conclusion is the reason I'd read any kamairicha label closely. Because it's made in only part of Kyushu and in small volumes, its quality differences get ignored and it isn't judged on its merits. Lumping pan-fired bancha in with it is one cause. The name has always covered a wide range, and the research says it still does.

Which tea cultivars are bred for pan-firing?

Japan's Norin cultivar registration table, covering Cha Norin No. 1 to No. 52, lists exactly five cultivars whose designated use is pan-fired tea, and four of the five were bred in Miyazaki (Norin registration table, as reproduced by Minorien).

Two things jump out of that table. Yamanami was bred from a seedling introduced from Hubei Province in China, so one of Japan's pan-fired cultivars carries Chinese tea genes into a Chinese-method tea. And the Miyazaki entries form a family line: Takachiho came from native seed, Unkai crossed Takachiho with another line, and Minekaori crossed Unkai with Yabukita. That's three generations of breeding aimed at the same pan.

A cultivar on that list isn't a requirement, though. Yabukita, Japan's best-known sencha cultivar (Norin No. 6, 1953), is designated for sencha, and Saga's tea research station still made kamairicha from it for the taste study below.

What does pan-fired green tea taste like?

Kamairicha pours a clear golden liquor with a toasty, clean aroma called kamaka (釜香), and tastes mellow with a refreshing finish (JA Miyazaki). JA Saga describes the same thing from Ureshino: a clear golden cup, the aroma of the pan standing out, and a crisp finish.

The more interesting finding is what it isn't. Researchers at the Saga Prefectural Tea Experiment Station made kamairicha, steamed tamaryokucha and sencha from the same Yabukita fresh leaf. Then they ran the first three infusions of each through a taste sensor and a chemical analysis (Yamaguchi and Miyazaki, Tea Research Report 125, 2018). Against sencha, kamairicha showed no significant difference in estimated umami in the first and second infusions, and lower estimated astringency.

They give three reasons. Kamairicha gets less kneading, so its components dissolve out less readily. Its infusion has a lower ratio of catechins to amino acids. And galloyl-type catechins, the more astringent kind, make up a smaller share of its total catechins. So it isn't a thinner sencha. It's comparable savoriness with the astringency turned down and a toasted aroma on top.

How much caffeine is in kamairicha?

Roughly 10 mg per 100 mL of brewed tea, against roughly 20 mg for sencha. Japan's food composition tables list kamairicha infusion at 0.01 g of caffeine per 100 g and sencha infusion at 0.02 g. Both were brewed the same way, 10 g of tea in 430 mL of 90°C (194°F) water for one minute (MEXT, Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan 2015). Those values are rounded to 0.01 g and come mainly from middle-grade tea, per the tables' own explanatory notes, so read them as a listing, not a promise about the cup in your hands.

The leaf-shape row comes from the Global Japanese Tea Association, which notes that most Japanese teas have a straight needle shape and kamairicha doesn't. The hojicha row comes from the same MEXT notes, which describe hojicha as roasted from bancha and sencha.

How do you brew kamairicha?

Use hotter water than you would for sencha: 80 to 85°C (176 to 185°F), which JA Saga recommends to lift the aroma. The Global Japanese Tea Association gives a simple starting ratio, and it's the one I'd use:

1. Weigh out 5 g of leaf for 200 mL of water.
2. Heat the water to 85°C (185°F).
3. Steep for 45 seconds.

Don't throw the leaf away after one cup. JA Saga describes Ureshino tea as one that holds up over several infusions, with the taste and aroma shifting each time you pour. My own habit, not part of anyone's official method: pour out every last drop each round, so the leaf isn't sitting in water between infusions.

My reading of the taste chemistry above is that the higher temperature makes sense: with less astringency to manage, there's less reason to hold the water back the way you would for a delicate steamed tea. For the general method, kettle to cup, our guide to brewing green tea properly covers the basics.

Where does pan-fired tea come from today, and why don't we sell it?

The center of gravity is the mountains of northern Miyazaki. Nishiusuki County, which takes in the towns of Takachiho, Gokase and Hinokage, produces about 200 metric tons a year, the largest output in Japan. Miyazaki has also certified kamairicha from the area under its own prefectural brand, みやざき釜炒り茶「釜王」, Kamaō (JA Miyazaki).

Ureshino is the other pole. JA Saga puts Ureshino tea at 3% of Japan's national production and kamairicha at about 5% of that, which is a share of Ureshino tea, not of Japan. It's small and it's very good: JA Saga reports that Ureshino tea won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award, the top prize, in the National Tea Competition's steamed tamaryokucha and kamairicha divisions three years running, 2023 to 2025.

Now the honest part. One with Tea doesn't carry kamairicha. Our shelf is organic matcha, sencha, kukicha, genmaicha and hojicha, and nothing on it is pan-fired. The closest steamed counterpart we sell is our organic first-flush sencha, and if it's the roasted aroma you're after, our explainer on what hojicha is shows how Japan gets there from a steamed tea instead.

If we ever did go looking for kamairicha, here's what I'd check, all of it drawn from the research above:

1. Which school it is, Ureshino-sei or Aoyagi-sei, and whether the maker can tell you.
2. Whether the region and cultivar are named, Takachiho, Unkai or Minekaori, rather than just "Kyushu".
3. Whether it's the green tea or a pan-fired bancha sold under the same name, the confusion Sakamoto suggests may have caused the Meiji ban.

That checklist is how I think about every farm, not just this one. If you're sourcing for a cafe or a shop rather than your own kitchen, our guide to choosing a Japanese tea supplier for a small business goes further, and wholesale inquiries come straight to me.

Frequently asked questions

Is kamairicha the same as hojicha?

No. Hojicha starts as a steamed tea, bancha or sencha, and is roasted afterward. Kamairicha is never steamed at all: the pan does the kill-green step on fresh leaf. Japan's food composition tables list hojicha among the steamed green teas.

Does kamairicha have caffeine?

Yes, roughly 10 mg per 100 mL of brewed tea. Japan's food composition tables list kamairicha infusion at 0.01 g of caffeine per 100 g, against 0.02 g for sencha, with both brewed at 10 g of tea in 430 mL of 90°C water for one minute. The figures are rounded and based mainly on middle-grade tea.

Is kamairicha a Chinese tea?

It's a Japanese tea made with a method that came from China. JA Miyazaki dates the method's arrival to around the 15th century, and JA Saga credits a Ming-dynasty potter with bringing the pan to Ureshino in 1504. Japan's food composition tables note that almost all green tea from mainland China is still made this way.

What water temperature should I use for kamairicha?

80 to 85°C (176 to 185°F), per JA Saga. A good starting ratio is 5 g of leaf to 200 mL of water at 85°C for 45 seconds.

How is kamairicha different from sencha?

Sencha is steamed and rolled into straight needles. Kamairicha is pan-fired and ends up twisted and curled. In a Saga study using the same Yabukita leaf, kamairicha showed similar estimated umami to sencha and lower astringency. Our page on what sencha is covers the steamed side.

Sources

• Sakamoto, "傾斜釜でつくられる釜炒り茶" (Kamairicha made in inclined pans), Tea Research Report 124, 2017. DOI 10.5979/cha.2017.124_23. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• Sakamoto, "日本の釜炒り茶" (Japanese kamairicha), Tea Research Report 125, 2018. DOI 10.5979/cha.2018.125_1. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• Yamaguchi and Miyazaki, taste-sensor analysis of umami and astringency in kamairicha, steamed tamaryokucha and sencha, Tea Research Report 125, 2018. DOI 10.5979/cha.2018.125_45. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• JA Miyazaki (宮崎県農業協同組合), "お茶・釜炒り茶". Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• JA Saga (JAさが), "お茶・うれしの茶（嬉野茶）". Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• MEXT, Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan 2015 (Seventh Revised Edition), Chapter 16, Beverages, food numbers 16037 and 16038; classification and brewing-method notes from the 2010 edition's explanatory notes, Chapter 3, section 16. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• Norin cultivar registration table (茶農林登録品種一覧), Cha Norin No. 1 to 52, as reproduced in Minorien's tea-cultivar reference. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• Tokyo Tea Cooperative (東京都茶協同組合), "蒸さずに「炒る」日本茶・釜炒り茶（かまいりちゃ）をご存知ですか？". Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• Global Japanese Tea Association, "Kamairicha (釜炒り茶)", 30 June 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
• World Green Tea Association, O-CHA NET, "How to make Kamairicha". Retrieved 1 October 2026.