Most Japanese teas are made from well handled leaves and much of their elegance and style is due to the processing: steaming immediately after plucking and then air drying. Kukicha is made from the stems, stalks and twigs of Gyokuro and Sencha tea plants. This gives the tea its unique character and visual appearance. Kukicha is known for its light flavor and fresh green aroma with a very light yellow-green color. The thinner and less green the infusion, the higher the quality of the tea. Since Kukicha is made from the stalks and stems, the tea contains less caffeine and tannins then finer grades of Japanese teas. This also produces a milder cup of tea that allows Japanese parents to give the tea to their children.

Japanese tea gardens look different from tea plantations in other parts of the world. The bushes are cultivated in long rows and trimmed so the row has the appearance of a long dome. This curved form of the tea bush gives the largest plucking table (the area where the new shoots used in high quality tea production grow is called the plucking table - not only in Japan but in other parts of the tea growing world as well). It is on the long regularly shaped plucking table that the pickers take the leaves and the new buds. In the early season plucking is only done by hand, but once the first few weeks pass, mechanical plucking is the preferred method. The Japanese have been very innovative in this aspect by developing a curved machine that is handheld but clips the tea bush with automatic scissors that look like electric hair clippers.

Tea has always had a place in Japanese life. It has been used to show respect to honored guests, as a medicinal drink to aid digestion after meals and in the tea ceremony whose rules were laid down by Rikuyu. Recent research has revealed numerous chemical and mineral components in green tea. Japanese green tea contains the following components: Theanine, Catechins (polyphenols), Flavonoids, Vitamins C, B1, B2, Niacin, Caffeine, Amino Acids and Minerals F, Zn, Mn, Cu, and Se.