Bancha (番茶) is a type of Japanese green tea.

It can be found in a number of forms such as roasted, unroasted, smoked, matured or fermented for three years and even post-fermented.

Bancha is harvested from the same tea tree as sencha grade, but it is plucked later than sencha is, giving it a lower market grade.

It is considered to be one of the lowest grades of Japanese green teas.

Flavours range from smoke, roasted nuts, green grass, earth, soil, wet leaves, some of the types of bancha have a stronger straw smell.