appropriately wabi look and feel. Matcha Modern Japanese matcha is made by grinding loose dry tea leaves (rather than the bricks of tea originally introduced from China) into powder. Matcha's sweet flavor and deep green color are created by shading the tea leaves from the sun in the last weeks before plucking, increasing the chlorophyll and decreasing the tannin content of the leaves. This technique emerged in the 16th century among Uji tea growers. It is also used to produce gyokuro. Edo period Under the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan's Edo period (1603–1868), new forms of tea emerged, accompanied by new developments in tea culture. Influenced by China's Ming dynasty, steeped loose leaf tea emerged as an alternative to powdered tea, leading to the development of sencha. Sencha By the 14th century, the practice of drinking powdered brick tea had fallen out of fashion in China. Instead, most tea was hand-fired over a dry wok to stop the process of oxidation and purchased as loose leaves rather than compressed bricks. At first, the loose leaves would still be ground into a powder and whisked with hot water to produce the finished beverage. By the late 16th century, however, tea connoisseurs were steeping the leaves in hot water in teapots and pouring the tea into teacups. This new way of producing and drinking tea arrived in Japan in the 17th century. Its advocates, most notably the monk Baisao, were opposed to the strict rituals of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, which was based around the older practices of powdered tea. Instead, they promoted a carefree, informal approach to tea, inspired by ancient Chinese sages and the scholar-recluse tradition. The method of steeping loose tea leaves in hot water came to be known as , and it soon led to a new way of producing green tea that would work well with this technique. In 1737, an Uji-based tea grower named Nagatani Sōen developed what is now the standard process for making leaf teas in Japan: tea leaves are first steamed, then rolled into narrow needles and dried in an oven. The process imparts a vivid emerald color to the leaf, along with a "clean", sometimes sweet flavor. Nagatani's tea caught the attention of Baisao, becoming synonymous with the sencha method of steeping tea. It thereafter came to be known by the same name. Sencha grew in popularity over time and is now