Steamed or Pan-Fired: Choosing Between Vietnamese Sencha and Traditional Green Tea

Every green tea goes through one decisive step: the fresh leaf is heated to stop the enzymes that would otherwise oxidize it into something closer to oolong or black tea. Tea makers call this step “kill-green” (see tea processing for the general sequence). How it is done, with steam or with dry heat in a pan or drum, sets most of what a buyer will later taste, see in the cup and measure in the lab.

Vietnam produces both. The traditional northern style is pan-fired, and the Vietnamese trade term for it, sao, literally means roasting or firing. The steamed style arrived later and is usually sold as “sencha” or “sencha-style”, mainly from the Lam Dong highlands. For an importer or RTD formulator the choice is not about which is better. It is about which fits the product, the market and the shelf life you need.

How the two processes differ

Steamed (sencha-style)

Freshly plucked leaf goes into a steaming machine for a short time, usually well under two minutes. Short steaming gives a lighter, more leafy tea; longer steaming (the Japanese call it fukamushi, deep steamed) breaks the leaf more, gives a darker green and cloudier liquor and extracts faster. After steaming, the leaf is cooled, rolled in several stages to remove moisture and twisted into the thin needle shape associated with sencha, then dried.

In Vietnam, most steamed production runs on Japanese-style lines, and part of the output is made to Japanese buyer specifications. Some buyers take it as a crude tea (the Japanese aracha stage) and refine, sort and blend it at home.

Pan-fired (traditional Vietnamese)

The leaf may be spread and wilted briefly, then fired in heated rotating drums or, at small scale, in hand-worked pans. It is rolled while still warm to break the cell walls and release juices, then fired and dried again, sometimes several times. In Thai Nguyen this repeated firing and rolling produces the tightly curled, hook-shaped leaf that local buyers recognize at a glance. The final drying step often adds a light toasty note, and many producers do a last “finishing fire” just before packing to bring up aroma.

Larger factories use continuous drum lines, which give more uniform output than household processing.

Side-by-side comparison

The grade names you will see in quotes (OP, BOP, fannings, dust) describe particle size after sorting, and they apply to both styles. Our green tea grades overview explains how grade and style combine.

Where each style comes from

Lam Dong, centered on Bao Loc, is Vietnam’s largest volume tea area, with roughly 164,100 metric tons a year of tea overall from more than 25,000 hectares according to figures cited by Vietnamplus. The plateau sits at about 800 to 1,500 m with a cool, even climate, and harvesting runs for most of the year. These conditions suit mechanized plucking and steaming lines, which is why most Vietnamese sencha comes from here. The same province also produces oolong and a good deal of pan-fired tea.

Thai Nguyen, at about 200 to 600 m, is the home of the traditional pan-fired style. Tan Cuong commune is its best known sub-area and sells at a premium as single-origin tea. The northern mountains (Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Son La, Ha Giang) at about 1,200 to 2,000 m supply Shan Tuyet leaf from old, tall trees, almost always pan-fired or sun-dried. Our article on Vietnam’s green tea origins covers these areas in more detail, and the regions page gives the short version.

A note on names: Vietnam merged several provinces in mid 2025. Yen Bai became part of Lao Cai; Ha Giang part of Tuyen Quang; Bac Kan part of Thai Nguyen; Dak Nong and Binh Thuan part of Lam Dong. Contracts and business licenses will show the new provinces, but the tea trade still uses the traditional region names, and you will see both in supplier documents.

Choosing by end use

Bottled tea and RTD beverages

RTD makers usually want a green liquor that survives processing, predictable extraction and low bitterness at the target concentration. Steamed tea is the default starting point. Ask the supplier for the steaming level (light or deep), the particle size distribution and the ratio of fines, because fines extract fast and change the color curve. If your line uses heat treatment or retort, trial the tea in your own process: a tea that looks bright in a cupping bowl can turn brown after heating.

Loose leaf and specialty retail

Buyers selling to consumers who brew the tea themselves often prefer pan-fired tea. It keeps its character over several infusions and the curled leaf looks good in a clear package. The toasty sweetness is also familiar to drinkers used to Chinese green teas. Vietnamese pan-fired tea is often priced below equivalent Chinese grades, which makes it a practical alternative for blenders who need a stable base.

Tea bags and blends

For bagged tea both styles are cut into BOP or fannings. Pan-fired bases are more common for Western blends and flavored teas, including jasmine green. Steamed bases are used when a blend needs a strong green color in the cup or a savory note. In both cases, specify particle size range, dust content and bulk density for your bagging machine.

Powder and matcha-style products

Some Vietnamese factories mill steamed leaf into green tea powder. Treat this as powdered sencha unless the supplier can document shading before harvest and a tencha-style process. Japanese-style shade-grown capacity in Vietnam is limited, so ask for a process description and photos of the line before assuming a matcha grade.

What to specify in the RFQ

Style names are used loosely in the market. “Sencha” on a price list can mean anything from a well-made Japanese-style needle tea to a steamed, broken leaf with a lot of stalk. Put the details in writing.

A few points that often decide whether a shipment matches the sample:

• Ask for the season. Early season leaf in both styles gives a sweeter, more aromatic cup. Mid and late season leaf is cheaper and more astringent. A supplier who quotes one price for “all season” is usually blending.
• Define fines. Steamed tea breaks more during processing, so a sencha with a high share of broken particles is normal. Put a number in the spec rather than accepting “standard”.
• Set a moisture limit and a test method. Moisture drives shelf life, especially for steamed tea. Name the method (ISO 1573) so the supplier’s lab and your inspector measure the same way. ISO 11287 sets out the general requirements for green tea and is a useful reference for chemical specs such as water extract and total ash.
• Seal a retention sample. The most common problem buyers report is a shipment that does not match the approved sample, usually because a trader blended leaf from several farms or factories. Ask that a retention sample be sealed at the factory, and have your own inspector compare it with the lot before the container is sealed.

If you want this written into a structured request, the spec-based RFQ form walks through each of these fields.

Packing and transit

Bulk green tea normally ships in 25 to 50 kg foil-lined paper sacks, with a usual minimum of about 1 metric ton per grade. A 20 ft container holds roughly 18 metric tons of bulk tea, depending on leaf density; fluffy long leaf fills the space long before the weight limit. Transit from Ho Chi Minh City to US West Coast and main EU ports is about 25 to 35 days, much of it through warm, humid routes.

Steamed tea is the more sensitive of the two. To protect color, ask for a heat-sealed inner bag (nitrogen flushed for high grades if the factory can do it), use desiccant and move the tea into cool, dry storage on arrival. Pan-fired tea tolerates transit better, but a humid container can still flatten its aroma.

Lead time, samples and inspection

Production lead time is typically 3 to 5 weeks after the proforma invoice, longer if the grade must wait for a new flush. Samples of 100 to 250 g per grade are standard. Note that steamed tea is normally brewed cooler and shorter than pan-fired tea, so cupping both with one method will under-sell one of them.

Buyers who want independent checks arrange third-party inspection with firms such as SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek. At container level this typically costs about 350 to 600 USD, and it usually covers sampling from the sealed lot, weight and packing checks and a comparison against the retention sample. Lab tests such as moisture and pesticide residue are ordered on top. We do not inspect or test tea ourselves, but we can tell you which checks to request for the style you are buying.

See also: the reference page on pan-fired green tea, with each step of the Vietnamese line and the spec lines it needs.

Send a green tea spec

Tell us whether you need steamed sencha-style or pan-fired tea, the grade, the volume, the destination market and any residue or certification requirements. Use the RFQ form to send it. greenteavietnam.com is an independent matching service: we do a preliminary check and reply within 24 business hours with up to 3 matched Vietnamese factories, cooperatives or processors, free for buyers. You then deal with the supplier directly on samples, contract, payment and shipment. An NDA can be signed before you share detailed specs. To place the style choice among cut, grade and spec lines, read our guide to bulk green tea.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Wikipedia: Sencha
• Wikipedia: Tea processing