San-nen bancha sounds simple. San-nen means "three years," and bancha broadly refers to tea made from more mature leaves than the tender shoots typically used for sencha. So is san-nen bancha simply bancha aged for three years? Not necessarily. Some san-nen bancha is aged for around three years after harvest. Other versions are made from tea plants left to grow for three years or longer before harvest. Some producers combine both approaches. In other words, even the "three years" in san-nen bancha does not always refer to the same three years. And once the production method changes, the raw material, ...
