While virtually unknown outside of Japan, tamaryokucha (玉緑茶 literally "ball-green-tea") is a major tea category drunk primarily in the southern Japanese island of Kyushu (Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, etc). It can be pan-fired (kamairi tamaryokucha) or steamed (mushiguri or guricha), but the key characteristic is the skipping of the last rolling process so that the leaves are curled instead of straight. The flavor of tamaryokucha is similar to sencha, but is (in general) less astringent and soft.
