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Nutty like roasted soybeans, fruity and juicy — a new genre of Japanese green tea. Open the bag and the first thing you’ll notice is how it looks — golden stems mixed with dark green leaves, unlike anything you’ve seen in Japanese tea. The aroma is bold and nutty — remarkably close to roasted soybeans, or kinako (きな粉, Japanese roasted soybean powder). But the taste goes somewhere unexpected: fruity and juicy, with a gentle sweetness and a remarkably clean finish — if you enjoy our Yamakai for that same fruity quality, this one will resonate. One taster went even further, comparing it to a Chinese Dragon Well — saying it barely tasted like a Japanese green tea at all, with strong chestnut notes and a completely different character. Golden Tea comes from Sayama, in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo — one of Japan’s established tea regions. The cooler inland climate produces thicker leaves with a fuller body, and Sayama producers are known for finishing their tea with a stronger fire — a technique called Sayama Firing — which gives the tea its signature warm, nutty aroma. This tea takes that tradition even further. The producer, Matobaen, has developed an original machine and technique that skips the rolling process entirely. The freshly picked Sayama Kaori leaves are steamed and then rapidly dried at high speed, preserving their full natural shape — no kneading, no twisting. If that sounds familiar, you might think of tencha — the unrolled tea leaf used to make matcha. Like tencha, Golden Tea skips the rolling process entirely. But because of the way it’s dried, the leaves stay even more intact, with less surface area exposed — meaning fewer harsh or bitter notes make it into the cup. That clean base is then finished with strong Sayama Firing, and that’s where the bold, soybean-like nuttiness comes from. It’s classified as green tea, but it really feels like its own category. Also available in tea bag form .