Sanko Usu One

Tencha is the leaf used to make matcha powder. It is generally considered a crude or intermediary product, and it is a type of green tea. What sets tencha apart from other green teas is that it is shade grown before harvest, steamed to deactivate oxidative enzymes, never rolled, and destemmed and deveined so that only the most tender portions of the leaf remain to be milled.

Sourcing tencha is a relatively new concept, since most people do not have the equipment to mill it. You can try to purchase tencha directly from the farmer, from a wholesaler or third party middleman, or directly from other tea companies that have access to tencha supply. We are happy to make introductions to our tencha supply partners when you purchase Sanko Usu One.

If you are sourcing yourself, directly from the source, we highly recommend using an AI to research farmers and to draft inquiry messages in Japanese. Here is a prompt to get started:

I am looking to source tencha in Japan. I am interested in single cultivar matcha that I can buy directly from a farmer or wholesaler in Japan. I am early in my product search and want to explore possibilities to source cultivars such as okumidori, samidori, kirari 31, saemidori, seimei, yabukita, and even zairai among others. I want to source from a single region or sub-region such as Uji city, Wazuka, Ujitawara or Joyo in Kyoto, or outside Kyoto in prefectures such as Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Shizuoka, Mie, Shiga, Nara and Nagasaki. I need to work with a producer with experience exporting tencha to [your country].

Most Japanese tencha that would typically be labeled ceremonial grade is priced between $100 and $600 per kilo, depending on growing region, harvesting method, cultivar, days shaded, harvest season and so on. Some Chinese producers of shaded tencha are now producing latte worthy products for between $70 and $120 USD per kilo.

Yes, there are no specific requirements about whose tencha you can use. We recommend tencha that has undergone thorough destemming and deveining, as the woody stems tend not to mill as well.

Tencha is hygroscopic and extremely dry. It acts like a sponge, pulling water from the air, so it is very important that it stays in an airtight bag. Left out in a humid room, you will notice the leaves become hydrated, pliable, and no longer brittle in less than an hour.

Tencha is best stored cool, and in a refrigerator or freezer it keeps for extended periods, months to years. Please let your tencha warm up to room temperature after cold storage before opening the bag.

So long as the tencha is not in contact with moist air, it technically is not a perishable product from a food safety perspective. A lot of blend houses store tencha for years, sometimes 5 to 10, to use in their blends. Typically tencha gets milder as it ages, where harsh edges become soft and balanced. Under colder storage the sweet and savory amino acid compounds degrade slower than the bitter and astringent catechins.

It depends on the RPM speed you set and the pressure. At maximum compression you can typically mill most tencha between 40 and 80 grams per hour. At slightly looser compression you can mill up to 150 grams per hour.

Not all tencha mills at the same speed. How coarse or dense the material is affects the rate. Organic tencha tends to mill slower than non-organic, and pre-broken tencha, which you can achieve by putting tencha in an ordinary blender, feeds much faster than classic tencha.

In our experience there is about a 5 gram retention of material by the machine.

Absolutely. In our testing we have experienced profiles we had never really had in matcha before. Fresh milled matcha can be profound, and it is historically the only way matcha was consumed.

Different tencha have different degradation paths. Some taste sharp immediately after milling and peak a few days or a week later. Most of the tencha we have milled has its best flavor expression within the first 1 to 3 days.

Fresh milling not only raises the ceiling, protecting the integrity of the best produced tencha in the world, it also raises the floor of cheaper and more industrial tencha. In our experiments the super power of fresh milling is turning mid-range tencha into something fresh, expressive and nuanced. Not to mention more nutritious.

We will have guides and video tutorials on every relevant function of Sanko Usu One before you receive it. It is designed to be used easily by anyone who works in a professional cafe environment.

Shipping is EXW, or Ex Works, meaning the burden of shipping, logistics, customs clearance and duties is arranged and covered by the buyer. That said, we strive to make purchasing a mill as frictionless as possible, and we are happy to provide you with a quote for shipping options from our partners. All of our machines are produced and warehoused in Guangzhou, China.

Not all countries or regions have full white glove service from door to door that takes on customs clearance, duties, freight shipping and last mile delivery. If you already have a relationship with a courier such as DHL, FedEx or UPS, we highly recommend reaching out to them, as sometimes they are able to offer prices cheaper than our partners, especially if you have significant transaction history with them.

If you have any questions or concerns about this, please let us know and we are happy to talk it out. Our mission is to make sure all mills arrive quickly, safely, and as inexpensively as possible at their final destination.

Sanko Usu One comes with a 1 year manufacturer’s warranty. The machine is modular, most parts can be replaced without a technician, and our team is distributed across the US East Coast, Europe and Asia, so someone is usually awake.

In most cases a repair is as simple as sending a replacement part with written and video instructions on how to complete it. Remote support over a video call can also be scheduled for free during the first year of warranty coverage.

We will not guarantee a refund, but depending on the situation this can definitely be a discussion.

Sanko Usu One was designed and manufactured in Guangzhou, China. It uses state of the art technology and materials that require complex supply chains, and manufacturers with the capacity to take on small startups like us, ranging from advanced ceramics and sensors to electronics and rapid prototyping infrastructure. We believe designing and manufacturing these mills in China was the only plausible and cost effective way to bring this technology to market.