In the process of making sencha, the very first step is to steam the picked tea leaves at a high temperature. This process of steaming stops the oxidation of the tea leaves and drives off the not so pleasant aroma of the fresh tea leaves. The tea leaves that have been softened through steaming are then rolled and dried in several stages to create the sencha that we then drink. Whereas a regular sencha requires 30 ~ 40 seconds of steaming, fukamushi sencha refers to tea that was steamed for about a minute (of course, the time will vary depending on the producer and may exceed one minute).
In comparison to lightly steamed sencha, deep steamed tea has been noted to have the following characteristics:
These characteristics are owing to the fact that by steaming for a longer period of time, the bitterness and aroma of the tea leaves is somewhat suppressed. On the other hand, the outcome is a flavor rich tea (Japanese: 濃くのある茶; koku no aru cha). Additionally, because the cells of the tea leaves are destroyed from the longer steaming period, the tea leaves more readily break apart in the drying and rolling process. If you are familiar with the dry leaves of a fukamushi sencha, you have probably noticed that while slender tea leaves are present, it often appears powdery and broken. When steeped, the water becomes a deep, opaque green with the suspended leaf particles. Some may even note that it is a cloudier green color (but don’t be surprised, this is what fukamushi sencha looks like when steeped!). That being said, with deep steamed tea, one is actually drinking much more of the leaf and its components - catechin, cholorophyll, theanine, vitamins, minerals (see: Nutrition Chart for further details).
As a side note, asamushicha or light-steamed tea refers to a typical sencha. Generally, the highest quality teas are light-steamed for a duration of about 30 seconds. In contrast to deep steaming, light steaming will preserves the shape of the leaf. One may also come across a description of “chumushi”, which refers to mid-steamed tea. With mid-steaming, the tea leaves are again broken down making it easier to draw out more flavor but not to the point of deep steaming. Below, I provide a table highlighting some of the key characteristics of an asamushicha, chumushicha, and fukamushicha. The table may make it easier for you to note the differences.
Side-to-side images of the leaf shapes of light steamed tea from Obubu Farms (Sencha of the Spring Sun 2023; Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture) on the left and Murata Tea Garden’s Tsuyuhikari cultivar fukamushicha 2023; Kikugawa, Shizuoka Prefecture). For chumushicha (mid-steamed tea), one would see leaf shapes of somewhere in between.
Typical Color of asamushicha (left) and fukamushicha (right).
If you are up to date with Japanese tea history, you may recall that sencha was invented 255 years ago in the year 1768 by Nagatani Soen in the Ujitahara region of Kyoto Prefecture. Soen, known as the father of Japanese tea, invented the method of steaming tea leaves instead of pan-firing them. Deep steaming tea leaves however, is likely to have begun in the Makinohara Plateau of Shizuoka Prefecture in the 1950’s.
This story is picked up on the fukamushicha page on the Yunomi site but we'll repeat it here, too. During the feudal period in Japan (or the Edo Period ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate from 1600-1868), travel in this area required employing ferrymen to cross the Oigawa River. When a bridge was built over the river by the Meiji government that took power from the Tokugawa Shogunate, the entire ferrying industry turned towards farming. And, at the start of the new Meiji era in 1872, a 500 hectare site was set aside for farming tea. There are various theories about the establishment of the process for making deep-steamed tea and it cannot be pin-pointed to any particular town due to the lack of historical documents. Still, it is said that the process was established in the Makinohara Plateau area from the 1950s through continuous trial and error. Currently, four neighboring cities in Western Shizuoka Prefecture - Kikugawa, Makinohara, Kakegawa, and Shimada -claim to be the birthplace of deep steaming.
Although today, Makinohara is very highly regarded as one of the top tea producing regions in Japan, it was not always so. This is because the area itself had soil that was quite poor for farming rice and other food crops. It has long been thought that tea grown along mountain rivers with early morning mist and large day-night temperature differences produce the best quality tea. Conversely, tea grown around the Makinohara area, a relatively warm, flat area, tended to produce a strong, bitter and astringent flavored tea and was not popular amongst the general public. This has something to do with the length of daylight hours and temperature regime. Compared to mountains with morning mist, the tea growing environment in Makinohara has longer sunshine hours. Consequently, the tea leaves in the plain of Makinohara grew faster in the flat plain of Makinohara, became too thick, stiff and have a different chemical profile.
Deep steaming was therefore employed to soften the leaves, creating what we know today as fukamushicha. The initial site is now the famous Makinohara tea fields, some 6,000 hectares farmed by hundreds of families. The method of deep steaming gained its popularity in the 60s and is now utilized all over Japan. More recently, it also gained national attention when a television program spotlighted the longevity of the people of Makinohara city in the year 2011. The program indicated that the people of Makinohara city, from children to the elderly drank many cups of fukamushi sencha on a daily basis. Later on, there was again increased interest in the health benefits of the added nutrients of fukamushi sencha. Nowadays, deep-steamed sencha is produced all over Japan, and it is said that its production volume exceeds that of young steamed sencha (aka asamushi sencha).
As noted above, fukamushi sencha is grown all over Japan but there are several areas that stand out. Besides the four main cities mentioned above in Shizuoka prefecture, one will find that fukamushi-sencha is more common in certain areas of Japan, such as Kagoshima prefecture.
This is because in general, there are two types of tea farms in Japan. One is the tea farms situated on the slopes of hills and in the mountains. Famous tea producing areas for this first type of tea fields can be found in Kyoto (Ujicha area), Honyamacho in Shizuoka Prefecture, Yabe village in Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture and more. The size of these tea gardens/farms are smaller and harvesting tea with self propelled, tractor like machines is not possible, and the quantity of tea from harvesting will naturally be less. The other type of tea fields are situated on open flat farmlands (Kagoshima is a very good example), more suited for mass production. These will produce greater quantities of tea using large and efficient machinery.
Tea fields of Sueyoshi Tea Atelier in Soo, Kagoshima Prefecture. Tea farmer Mataki Tatefumi makes excellent deep steamed kabusecha, one being the multiple award-winning "Furusato no Hana" saemidori cultivar.
Fukamushi-sencha is better suited for the vast flat tea fields that do not have too many obstacles blocking the sunlight from the tea leaves. Thus, the tea leaves of these tea farms will naturally become thick. If these leaves are taken to make a normal sencha, the taste may not be as pleasant. The fukamushi sencha methodology allows these thickened leaves to become more delicate and more suitable for infusion. This is why in large production areas such as Shizuoka and Kagoshima Prefectures, the fukamushi sencha is indeed an important product.
While the origins of fukamushi sencha may have been rooted in improving less desirable tea, deep steaming has its own merits. Today, the methodology of making deep steamed tea is a very respected one. There are many producers who employ deep steaming techniques and they do an excellent job in making high quality, noteworthy tea. Further, regardless of the terroir of the tea, there are some producers that make both types of tea (light steamed and deep steamed) as the differing processing methods allows one to enrich one's tea offerings.
To wrap up today’s post, here are just a couple of tips to fully enjoy your fukamushi sencha. Because the tea leaves you encounter with this type of sencha are finer, it's important to keep in mind that the flavors are easier to extract. That being said, with fukamushi sencha, the steeping time does not need to be very long. Often, one will find steeping times around 30 seconds ~ one minute. In fact, oversteeping the tea will extract unnecessary/excess ingredients from the tea. Personally, for me, it is very easy to let my tea steep for longer rather than being too short. However, when preparing a fukamushi sencha, I try to be extra careful about oversteeping. Well, the most important aspect is to enjoy the tea drinking experience (so, no pressure!).
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Bamboo quality
As you may have guessed, the quality of the material impacts the durability of the chasen. The wide range of chasen prices that you see on the market reflects craftsmanship and also the quality and type of the bamboo that was utilized to make it. For instance, on Yunomi, the cheaper chasen are around 1700 yen, and on the high end there are chasens that cost as much as 30,000 yen ( roughly $11.00 ~ $200.00 US dollars or 10.70 ~ 190 euro).
In Japan, Takayama in Nara Prefecture has been well-known for hundreds of years for their high quality chasen. Just as there are optimal environments suited for making Japanese tea, the gentle sunshine and cool breeze of Takayama offers an optimal environment for growing firm bamboo with a nice shiny glaze. What is more, the chasen makers of Takayama will select high-quality bamboo that have been grown without the use of any chemicals or fungicides. The bamboo is then sun-dried in the winter time, then further dried in the warehouse for an additional two years! Bamboos that have been broken or bent during this time period are removed, so the bamboo that is used for making chasen are those that have been carefully selected. In fact, in the process of learning the art of chasen making, one of the first essential skills for the chasen craftsperson is to be able to select these bamboos that will end up becoming chasen.
Since I elaborated quite extensively on bamboo and the art of chasen making in a previous article, I’ll just mention one more thing. There are many different types of bamboo (e.g., white bamboo, purple/black, soot bamboo), so it is recommended that you choose one that suits your preference. If you do belong to a certain school of tea, you may be aware there are preferences like the Urasenke school using white bamboo, the Mushakojisenke using black/purple bamboo, and the Omotesenke using soot bamboo.
There are hundreds of bamboo species in Japan, but a chasen is generally made by harvesting 3-year old bamboos in the late fall, then sun-drying them for a period of 2 months. In Takayama, Nara Prefecture, the traditional home of chasen crafting, cold curing has been a scenic winter tradition for the past 500 years. Photo by Suikaen.
One thing I do want to note is that you can also find chasen made from hygienic polypropylene resin. This is perhaps due to the fact that chasen are being utilized more outside the home, or it gives these tea ceremony tools more of a modern/casual look. The material makes these types of chasen safe, clean, and odor-free. In fact, one can even put this type of chasen in the dishwasher!
Number of tines
Tines are the “teeth,” the prongs of the chasen. While you may be more familiar with seeing chasen that have numerous tines (80~120), tine count can vary quite extensively with the minimum being about 16 tines! More tines means a chasen is more fine and delicate, contributing to a smoother matcha. It also means it’s easier to make foam, which we will elaborate on below.
Foam (This is closely related to tine count!)
Perhaps the most popular way in which people whisk their matcha is by creating foam. This is the preparation of usucha, which is the thin type of matcha (please see article referring to thin vs thick matcha). For making usucha, an ideal number of tines would be approximately 70 ~100 tines and you will find that whisks with this tine count are the most widely available on the market. In general, the curled tips of these chasen allow for the tea to be efficiently stirred to create foam. For those who are relatively new to matcha, looking for a chasen that has 80~100 tines would be a good starting point. In Japan and even overseas, one sees the kanji “百本立”, which indicates roughly 100 tines (see chasen image below).
It may be important to note that while it appears that people are always wanting to create lots of foam and believe this is the appropriate way to prepare usucha, this is the preferred style for the Urasenke tea school. Two other schools of tea, Omotesenke and Mushakojisenke schools prepare their matcha with less foam. In fact, these schools use whisks that have tines that are rather straight instead of curved, which serves the purpose to create less foam. If you are like me and personally enjoy seeing foam in your matcha bowl, it may be fun just to mix it up occasionally to try a matcha without much foam. Some people think that without the foam, one is able to better access the umami and shibumi (bitterness) of the matcha.
Chasen for Thick Tea
We mentioned usucha (thin tea) earlier which means that there is an opposite, koicha, thick tea. Koicha has a thickness that is almost like a thick soup or a gravy sauce. The thickness is due to having 2-3 times the amount of matcha and less water in comparison to usucha. If you are someone who regularly prepares thick tea, you may want to invest in a matcha whisk that is specifically suited for making koicha. These whisks have tines that are rather rough and more durable, appropriate for when whisking (sometimes called kneading) the koicha. In addition, due to the fact that koicha has a thicker consistency, an ideal whisk for thick tea would be one with less tines, perhaps 16 ~ 48. With respect to durability, a whisk with purple/black bamboo could be beneficial for those who enjoy making thick tea. Purple/black bamboo is the most heavy-duty and high density material for making a matcha whisk. These types of whisks can last 3 times longer than a regular white bamboo chasen.
Made in Japan or elsewhere?
Chasen made in Japan are more supple and durable even though they tend to be more expensive in comparison to foreign-made chasen. For someone who is new to matcha, it may actually be difficult to tell the difference between domestic and foreign chasen. Yet, for those who have gained some experience and can feel the sensation of the tips of the chasen, those made in Japan are recommended. As mentioned earlier, “Takayama Chasen” made in Takayama, Nara Prefecture (where Suikaen is located) is a famous place when it comes to chasen. In fact, 90% of Japanese chasen are still produced in Takayama today. The beautiful craftsmanship that goes into one chasen is quite stunning! That being said, it is also completely okay to use a chasen that is not made in Japan. Many chasen from overseas in Japan are made in China and they can be purchased at relatively reasonable prices. These chasen are easy to use, very accessible for those who are relatively new to the way of tea.
Some final words about selecting a good chasen. Remember that if you are a regular matcha drinker, you will be using your chasen quite frequently so it’s important that you like it and it suits your preference! Suikaen’s chasen may be a bit more pricey than what you are used to, but it reflects all of the beautiful craftsmanship that goes into one chasen. Furthermore, some of their chasen have a personal touch - such as rainbow string or a more mellower - green/blue color to invite peace and calm. It can be fun to imagine what matcha bowl you will pair it with, what season it may be appropriate for, or simply what your personal style is. Oh, and of course, it could be a very nice gift for a special someone!
Below, I provide just a few suggestions for matching chasen with a matcha bowl for inspiration:
Perhaps this calming combination is more appropriate for the summer months. Chasen from Suikaen, Refreshing (Ryo, 涼) and matcha bowl by Yamaki Ikai, Deep sea blue-green matcha tea bowl.
Kizoku Club’s black tenmoku nagashi matcha bowl paired with Suikaen’s Shichiku Purple Bamboo Shin Chasen Matcha Whisk.
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Featured image: Suikaen’s chasens depicting the different types of bamboo that are utilized. From left to right: white, susudake, and kurotake/purple chasen.
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Just last month, from the 22nd to the 25th of August, the 77th National Tea Festival represented by the Fukuoka Executive Committee announced the results of the National Tea Competition. The National Tea Competition, which has been going on since the year 1946, aims to improve tea production techniques and expand tea consumption by bringing together collective efforts of those involved in the tea industry across the country. It also aims to further develop Japanese tea business management.
This year’s festival was held in Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture, one of the major tea producing regions in Southern Japan. It was a special gathering for the city of Yame as this year marks the 600th anniversary of the birth of Yame tea. The last time this event was held in Yame was 18 years ago in 2005. What is more, tea farmer Tsutomu Kurazumi from Yame won the prestigious Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award (in Japanese: 農林水産大臣賞) in the Gyokuro category and the city swept the Production Area Award (this is no surprise!) in the same category.
The top prize, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award, and the production area award, which is given to municipalities with outstanding results for a specific category of tea, were selected in eight categories. The eight categories for the competition are: regular sencha (10 kg), regular sencha (4 kg), fukamushi sencha, kabusecha, gyokuro, tencha, steamed tamaryokucha, and kamairicha. The fair was the main event of the competition held in Fukuoka Prefecture. This year, in total 832 entries were exhibited from 17 prefectures (Note that there are a total of 47 Prefectures in Japan).
With respect to the categories of tea, you may be wondering why there are two different sencha categories of different weight. This is because the 10 kg sencha category is only for teas that were machine harvested (* with that in mind, senchas from Kagoshima Prefecture do well in this sencha category vs. senchas from Shizuoka Prefecture in the smaller 4 kg category).
How does the competition work? Founder of Yunomi, Ian Chun has previously written about how teas are evaluated in these National competitions so I will just outline some of the basic steps.
Batches of tea are submitted in 10 kg quantities, except for the 4 kg sencha category. This is competition quality tea! That means that tea farmers will take extra effort and care in cultivating and harvesting this particular batch of tea with the vision to submit for competition(s). All of the submitted teas are then judged based on four criteria: (1) the tea’s external appearance, (2) aroma, (3) liquid color (i.e., the color of the tea after it is steeped), and (4) taste, all adding up to a total score of 200 points. A perfect score is 200 points, and the point distribution will slightly vary depending on the tea type.
Above: table and radar chart depicting the point distribution of 200 points depending on the type of tea. The radar chart was more for visual fun. Because sencha, tamaryokucha and kamairicha all have the same point distributions they are all represented by the same color. In the evaluation, tencha has an additional brewed leaf color aspect.
To judge the tea’s external appearance, the tea is put on a black viewing tray. The shape of the tea leaves are examined. In general, to obtain a high external appearance score, a tea must have superb uniform shape, be clean, and have a glossy finish. The competing teas are displayed next to one another.
Next, the judges will go on to evaluate the three remaining internal characteristics of the tea. To judge the aroma of the tea, the tea (3g will be measured and utilized) will be steeped in a white tea cup so that the color of the steeped tea can be clearly seen. The liquid color of the tea will be judged next. Similar to how the aroma of the tea was judged, tea leaves will be measured and put into a white tea cup. After it has been steeped for 3 minutes (steeping time may vary depending on the tea category), the color of the tea will be evaluated. A clear green color that is not cloudy is considered high quality. Finally, the judges will move onto the final criteria which is the taste (literally translated as, nutriment) of tea. Overall, the taste of the tea receives great emphasis. Again, the tea is steeped in a white cup. This time however, the tea is tasted for evaluation. Judges will have their own personal preferences but in general, a tea is considered to be good if it has abundant umami.
Now that you have a grasp about how the teas are evaluated, I will report some of the results as most of the detailed information is only available in Japanese.
Gyokuro Category
Perhaps, we will begin with the gyokuro category because this year’s competition was held in Yame. Just to recap, gyokuro refers to premium shade-grown Japanese green tea. The key characteristic of gyokuro is the abundance of rich umami flavor. While sencha is usually grown under the full sun without any shading, gyokuro is shielded from the sun on purpose. On average, the shading period lasts approximately 20 days, but length will vary depending on factors such as region, terroir, and the tea farmer’s style/preference.
Within the gyokuro competition this year, there were 117 entries from 7 Prefectures: Fukuoka, Kyoto, Kagoshima, Shizuoka, Saitama, and Nara. Earlier, I remarked it is no surprise that Yame won the gyokuro category of tea. This is because Yame produces over 50% of all gyokuro on the Japanese tea market. Moreover, their dominance and presence have been reflected in their recent tea competition record. Yame Gyokuro has continuously received the Best Region recognition in the Japanese National Tea Competition. Individually, Yame farmers also seem to have a winning streak in the gyokuro category; yet, every now and then a tea farmer from the Kyoto area will steal away first place.
How were the results this year? When one examines the most highly ranked gyokuro teas (i.e.,35 gyokuro teas with top notch scores), one will see that all but one of the 35 teas are from Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture! The 18th ranked gyokuro went to a tea farmer from Soo City, Kagoshima Prefecture which is the city where Sueyoshi Tea Atelier is located. The dominance of highly rated gyokuros from Yame city re-emphasizes this region’s strengths in gyokuro. I have tried several excellent teas from Yame that are not gyokuros but the tea farmers really do put their effort into making their gyokuro teas the very best.
This year, the highest scoring gyokuro from tea farmer Tsutomu Kurazumi received a perfect score of 200 points. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that within the best gyokuros was the presence of Kurihara Tea’s entry which ranked 17th. Our sincere congratulations go to Kurihara-san! With respect to the dominant cultivar for gyokuro, the majority of the 35 top gyokuros were all Saemidori cultivar, with just three Kirari 31 cultivars (this is a rising star amongst the tea cultivars) and one Saeakari cultivar.
Akihiro Kurihara’s competition grade gyokuro from this year’s (2023) competition is available at Yunomi.
Sencha Category (10 kg & 4 kg)
In the 10 kg sencha category, there were 104 entries from 7 Prefectures whereas the 4 kg sencha category had 110 entries from 14 Prefectures. At a first glance at the results, it was interesting for me to note that both for the 10 kg and 4 kg categories, the Yabukita cultivar was dominant. This is perhaps no surprise given Yabukita has been the long standard cultivar in Japan.
In the 10 kg sencha category, Minami Kyushu City (represented by the Chiran region), Kagoshima Prefecture won the production area award. In the 4 kg category, Kawanehoncho in Shizuoka Prefecture won the regional recognition. In this category, I would also like to point out that ranked 3rd in the 10 kg category this year was Ken Miyahara from Miyahara Hikari Seicha. Miyahara-san has continuously demonstrated highly ranked teas with a 2nd place sencha last year.
Ken Miyahara’s National Tea Competition 2022 - 2nd Place Award Winning Yabukita Sencha Micro Batch. Even from the photo, one can clearly see the fine and elegant appearance of the rolled tea leaves.
Fukamushi Sencha
Fukamushi means deep steamed in Japanese and this is exactly how fukamushi sencha differs from sencha. The leaves are steamed for 60 seconds or longer (30 ~ 40 seconds for regular sencha), making the tea leaves very soft and more likely to break apart during the rolling process.
There were 102 entries from five prefectures, including Shizuoka and Kagoshima. In this category, all of the 35 highly ranked fukamushi sencha were from Shizuoka Prefecture. The dominance of Shizuoka Prefecture and specifically, the Makinohara and Kikugawa cities can be better understood through history. The method of steaming tea leaves was invented about 250 years ago (1768) by Nagatani Soen in Kyoto. Yet, deep-steaming tea leaves actually has roots in Shizuoka Prefecture, specifically in the Makinohara Plateau area. I will not go into the details of the history but it is an interesting one for those who are curious. Similar to the regular sencha category, all of the top scoring fukamushi sencha were from the Yabukita cultivar.
Kabusecha
Kabusecha refers to lightly shaded tea. You can think of this tea as the in-between tea of sencha (no shading) and gyokuro (heavily shaded). In this category, 105 entries were submitted from seven prefectures: Fukuoka, Kyoto, Mie, Aichi, Nara, Shizuoka, and Kagoshima. Taking a closer look at the results, the kabusecha category may have been the most diverse category with respect to the highly ranked 32 kabusechas. While many of the top quality kabusechas were from Kyoto Prefecture (especially Maizuru and Ayabe cities), the other kabusechas were from Fukuoka Prefecture (Yame and Chikugo), Kagoshima (Kirishima, Soo City), and Aichi (Toyoda). Additionally, even though there was again a dominance of the Yabukita cultivar, there was more diversity with the presence of other cultivars such as Saemidori and Kirari 31.
Tencha
The Asahi cultivar was highest ranked in the tencha category . It is characterized by its rich aroma and elegant taste. Scenery from Tsukiji Tea Garden’s shaded tea field, tencha, and matcha.
In the National Tea Competition, there is no matcha category. However, tencha, the origin of matcha, is evaluated. Tencha are green tea leaf flakes (depicted in the upper right most panel above). In general, tencha leaves will be shaded for approximately four weeks, steamed, then dried without rolling. The leaves are then even more refined by the removal of leaf stems and veins. Subsequently, the leaves will be chopped into smaller pieces to make the grinding process into powder more consistent.
In the tencha category, there were 111 entries from 7 Prefectures with Kyoto and Aichi Prefectures being the well-known areas for tencha/matcha. Out of the 33 top ranked tenchas, the majority were from Kyoto Prefecture (most of them from Uji) with just a handful from Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture. So Kyoto seems to stand out as the King of tencha! Many of the cultivars used to make the tencha were from the Asahi and Uji Hikari cultivar. There were also some tenchas from the Saemidori, Kirari 31 and Narino cultivars. The 3rd ranked tencha went to world renowned tea farmer Kiyoharu Tsuji from Tsukiji Tea Garden who has won numerous awards across various levels: within Kyoto, West Japan (Kansai) and at the National level.
Steamed Tamaryokucha and Kamairicha
Last but not least, the steamed tamaryokucha and kamairicha categories. Overseas, these tea categories may be less known and may just be lumped with the other Japanese green teas. Yet, for the tea connoisseurs, there is clearly a distinction. Tamaryokucha (a.k.a. guricha or curly tea) tea leaves have a unique and rounded shape owing to the skipping of the last rolling process. This results in the curly appearance of tea leaves rather than straight like a regular sencha. Tamaryokucha is generally steamed (although it can be pan-fried) whereas kamairicha refers solely to pan-fried tea.
Back to the results from the tea fair! The Yabukita cultivar again demonstrated its robustness as it was used for many of the top performing teas. What differs in these categories is that the historically strong production areas are in Kyushu, the Southernmost island of Japan.
In the steamed tamaryokucha category, there were 101 entries simply from four southern prefectures: Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, and Miyazaki. In the kamairicha category there were 82 entries from 3 prefectures: Saga, Kumamoto and MIyazaki. The top production award for both of these teas went to Ureshino, Saga Prefecture, a major tea producing region we have previously touched on. Receiving double recognition across the two tea types was very exciting news for Ureshino city. Moreover, the tea farmers receiving the highest recognition of these teas - i.e., receiving the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award also went to tea farmers from Ureshino City. Woo hoo!
Today’s blogpost highlights strengths of specific tea production areas. It also gives perspective with respect to the overall dominance of certain tea cultivars in Japan, particularly within a category of tea. I hope that this blogpost may have helped you to better understand all of the different types of Japanese teas.
I am a tea drinker who finds comfort and grounding in having a regular sencha or kamairicha as an everyday tea so I do not mingle much with gyokuros or kabusechas. Writing up this report however, did make me want to drink a gyokuro, with plentiful umami, especially from Yame! There is always good tea to look forward to… Speaking of future events, an award ceremony for the 77th National Tea Competition will be held in Yame City on October 28th. More recently, a bidding and sales event for the exhibited teas was just held in Chikugo City, Yame Prefecture on September 21st.
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It is called Mikko-kocha (蜜香紅茶), literally means honey fragrance black tea. This special fragrance is created by tea leaves which have been chewed by an insect called unka (ウンカ) Jacobiasca formosana, a type of a leafhopper.
unka on the stem of the tea plant
When the leaves get eaten by leafhoppers, tea plants produce the compound called phytoalexin to protect themselves. The compound turns into a special honey-like-flavor when tea is processed.Taiwanese oolong tea called "oriental beauty" is famous for using these tea leaves.
This June, I participated in a 2 day workshop planned by Ogura Tea Garden,(TEA FACTROY joshun-en ) where we would make honey fragrance black tea from the harvest.
Mr. Ogura from Ogura tea garden
The participants came together on the top of the hill in Odawara, Kanagawa, where their tea farm is located.
Ogura-san told us that the leafhoppers fly to the tea farm in June, and eat buds and young leaves of the tea plants just after the first flush tea leaves have been picking. It causes a lot of damage to the tea leaves and they can't grow anymore.They can't treat the insects as they grow their tea without pesticide.
Buds become yellow-green, curl and tough after being eaten
They had to give up making a second flush tea. Instead of this, they thought, they wanted to share some interesting experiences with people who love tea, so they decided to run tea making workshops.
We started to pick the leaves, one by one, by hand.
We sometimes chatted, but mostly we concentrated on picking, while seeing leafhoppers and other insects flying around the tea plants, and the 1.5 hours passed very quickly. 13 people of us picked the leaves, however we could only collect about 1.2kg. It's a hard work to pick leaves by hand, when you need to select the right leaves.
The leaves we picked
The leaves were transferred to their factory.
The tea leaves were spread out on the a mesh metal plate in the place for withering(drying), and fans were used to pull and push air across the leaves. The tea was left to wither over night , which is expected to reduce moisture content by 40%.
[ The tea leaves before withering ]
[ The tea leaves after 15 hours withering ]
Rolling is the next process. The cell walls of the tea leaves need to be broken open to promote the oxidation process.By rolling tea leaves, their enzymes and essential oils are exposed to the air, and then the oxidation proceeds. The rolling is usually undertaken by machine, but we rolled it by hand. Holding tea between hands, moved the tea gently in a circular motion on tatami mat.
Everyone was earnest about rolling, which was done for 30 minutes.
One of interesting things we found out that each person's rolled leaves had a different aroma, such as fresh, mature and gentle aroma, etc. It is no wonder as each person rolls with a different pressure and a different hand temperature.
[ The tea leaves after 30-minute rolling ]
The leaves were left at room temperature for 1-2 hours to promote the oxidization.
[ The tea leaves after leaving for 1 hour ]
You can see the color of the tea leaves changes to a reddish green.The leaves emit a sweet and mellow fragrance.
The tea leaves were placed in a dryer for finishing. The heat prevents further oxidation.
It's done!
1.2kg of picked tea leaves finally became 300g of honey fragrance black tea.
How beautiful it is! It has sweet and elegant aroma.
Ogura-san told us that the taste was still "sharp" as it's just after making, and will be milder in a month's time. I will wait before enjoying a cup of this tea.
It was a fun experience that people get together and make a special black tea.I'd never thought of making black tea myself, but I knew that I could make it ! It was one of my dream to make homemade black tea.
I hope you can have such a special tea experience when you visit Japan!
Ogura family's factory and cafe
They look after their tea plants without pesticide and chemicals, respecting the natural flavor of the plants, and make their tea from what they harvest, which they process themselves in their own small factory.
You can buy their black tea from us.
Ogura Tea Garden KN003: Yabukita Wakocha First Flush Black Tea from Ashigara, Kanagawa 足柄産のやぶきた紅茶
Made from Yabukita cultivar tea plants, and is grown without the use of pesticides. From the first flush in late spring, farmer Yuki Ogura produces this black tea in the style of first flush Darjeeling tea, withered, rolled, then lightly oxidized.
The black tea (above) was finally roasted. It tastes milder, and roast flavor is added, it's a "relaxing" taste. Popular for children and woman who are not good at caffeine.
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When steeping tea at home, it is typical for the majority of people to use hot boiling water. In fact, the very basic saying of the Japanese tea ceremony is; “boil water, make tea, drink”. The simple guidelines we generally provide on Yunomi labels is also for making tea with hot water: Take 5 grams of tea, steep in 200ml of hot water (70C/160F degrees) for about 60 seconds.
If you have experimented with adjusting the temperature of steeping tea however, you are probably aware that water at hotter temperature extracts stronger flavors. Specifically, the caffeine and catechins can overwhelm the umami and sweetness of the L-theanine (the amino acid primarily responsible for the umami flavor) in tea. This is why for gyokuro, kabusecha, and even high grade sencha, cooler temperature water is recommended in order to maximize the sweet umami flavors without putting too much emphasis on extracting the shibumi/bitter flavor of the tea leaves. All in all, obtaining the right balance of the different taste components is important but it also depends on one’s preference! (For an in-depth article on the flavor in tea, check out: The chemistry behind tea flavor).
Recently, since it is getting to be more humid, I have found myself more drawn to cold (a Japanese summer favorite is barley tea, mugicha!) and iced drinks, especially during the day. In fact, I recently encountered a very decent iced-matcha latte, which I then tried to replicate at home…
It’s the season for iced drinks! What’s your favorite way to make a matcha latte? Left is an iced matcha latte and iced hojicha latte from a coffee shop called butter in Nakano, Tokyo Prefecture. Photo on the right is a snapshot (and here’s the video on Yunomi’s instagram) of the process of making a homemade matcha latte.
Well, before I start to get carried away with iced-matcha latte, today, I thought I would touch on a refreshing way of making tea, ice-steeped Japanese green tea! Called Kōridashi (氷出し), in Japanese, this steeping method refers to the process of very slowly extracting tea leaves with ice at 0 degrees. Perhaps, it is the best extraction method in which one may bring out the full umami flavors while suppressing the astringency of the tea.
A recommended way to experiment with ice steeping green tea is by utilizing green tea leaves from gyokuro or kabusecha to maximize the already umami-full tea. Alternatively, if you have a tea that you feel is too bitter or old (or you simply don’t like it!), an option could be to try ice steeping. The outcome could be a milder and less bitter tea. Further, although this may only be relevant for those who are mindful about caffeine intake, reports indicate ice steeping tea can reduce the caffeine content of tea by approximately 75%. On average, one cup of sencha (120ml) has about 24mg of caffeine, when it is cold water steeped this reduces to 12mg, and ice steeping it will bring it even lower to 6mg.
The good news is, ice steeping tea is pretty straightforward! All you need is a kyusu (Japanese tea pot) or container, tea leaves, and a handful of ice cubes. I personally recommend using a larger quantity of tea leaves than usual in your teapot and then placing some ice cubes on top.
Looks more like a high school chemistry experiment! I decided to try ice steeping with a shincha from Iba Yu Tea Garden, located in Tanegashima, Kagoshima Prefecture.
Snapshots capturing the ice steeping process. I started at about 14:00PM, and the ice steeped cup of tea was ready to taste after three full hours.
While this method is easy, do keep in mind that ice steeping will take some time. It took three full hours for the ice to completely melt at room temperature of about 24 degrees Celsius. It was well worth the wait because the chilled umami-full cup of tea was tasty and refreshing! Another unique method of ice steeping tea involves actually freezing tea leaves into the ice cubes you will be making. In this way, one is steeping the leaf in cold water as it freezes and again as it thaws. At a recent tea event I attended (Tokyo Tea Tour 2023), one of the teas that you could try from Kuma Tea Gardens (Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture) was an ice steeped Saemidori cultivar first flush sencha prepared in this interesting way. In fact, it was actually from this discovery that sparked interest in me to explore a bit with ice steeping!
From the event, Tokyo Tea Tour 2023. This was the ice steeped saemidori sencha participants could try from Kuma Tea Gardens.
I actually tried to make ice steeped tea this way, too, by putting some tea leaves into the ice cube tray beforehand. However, I was not very successful with ice steeping tea this way because the end product was a very shibumi-full (i.e., bitter) cup of iced tea! Perhaps, I put in too many tea leaves or let the ice steep go for too long… Stumped, I thought it would be best to reach out to the experts! I asked Kazumi Nakatani from Kuma Tea Gardens for her assistance. She kindly got back to me, answering my questions.
[Q] When you ice steep your tea by putting tea leaves into the ice tray beforehand, how much tea leaves do you use?
Approximately 2-3 grams (I use roughly a teaspoon measure) per ice cube square. Of course, it varies depending on the shape and size of the ice tray.
[Q] After the tea leaves ice cubes are done, do you just wait for it to melt at room temperature? Or do you add cold water?
You can add water or lukewarm water and the ice steeped tea will be ready in 3-6 minutes (depending on temperature). For starters, I recommend enjoying the tea while it is nice and chilled.
Although ice steeping tea may be new to you, many people are already familiar with cold water steeping. And one can probably guess the difference between these two methods, but I will just provide a brief summary below:
Happy summer, happy chilled tea tasting!
Featured image: Ice steeped tea through the unique method of freezing the tea leaves beforehand. Photo courtesy of Kuma Tea Gardens, Kazumi Nakatani.
Have additional insights? Please don't hesitate to post comments and/or questions below. Or directly contact me (Moé Kishida): moe@yunomi.life. Thank you!
]]>This blogpost was written by guest writer Jimmy Burridge, PhD in Plant Science and tea aficionado. Photos are also from Jimmy. Enjoy!
The color of a tea infusion strongly influences our impression of the quality of the tea and is closely judged in competitions. The subtle differences can actually be attributed to quite complex chemistry. The color of a tea infusion is primarily determined by the relative quantities of particular components that the plants make, called secondary metabolites, and then how these secondary metabolites change during subsequent processing, storage and finally steeping. We will explore a few elements within each of these categories.
The pleasant light green of this sencha suggest a higher percentage of chlorophyll b and/or flavanol glycoside.
As discussed in a previous post, the chemistry behind tea flavor as well as color is a subject of intense scientific research and a lot of progress has been made in previous two decades thanks to new instruments and techniques (Shi et al., 2021). Polyphenols, the most common type of secondary metabolite in tea, have a big role in determining infusion color (Li et al., 2021). Flavonoids and catechins are categories of polyphenols and there are in turn many classes of both flavonoids and catechins (Wang et al., 2004).
Basically, different types of secondary metabolites have different solubilities and different degrees of astringency, so their relative concentration in the leaf and interaction with water temperature and steeping time can influence infusion color (Liu and Tzen, 2022). Among the many types of flavonoids are flavones, flavonols, flavanones, flavanols and anthocyanins (Shi et al., 2021). Among these is a version called flavanol glycosides, which have a glucose attached and contribute a yellowish color and a smooth or velvety mouthfeel (Liu and Tzen, 2022). Another phenolic compound, called quercetin, is major contributor of greenness to the final tea infusion (Wang et al., 2004).
The chemical structure of a typical flavanol glycoside. What is attached at R1 and R2 determines flavanol glycoside identity. For example, with an OH at R1 and a H at R2 the molecule becomes quercetin.
Leaf color, size and thickness, as well as the relative quantity of the many types of plant secondary metabolites are influenced by abiotic (temperature, sunlight, soil water availability, soil fertility) and biotic (insect feeding, soil microbiome) factors. Healthy plants tend to have a darker shade of leaf. Shading and fertilization contribute to higher chlorophyll and amino acid content in the leaf. The quantity of chlorophyll, a pigment that makes plants green, obviously contributes to tea leaf color, as does the relative quantity of chlorophyll-a and b, with the b variety being slightly yellower. However, while bits of leaf and chlorophyll containing chloroplast do get into the infusion, chlorophyll itself is not actually water soluble and the color of the made tea is influenced by many more things than the color of the tea leaves!
Withering
In general, the color differences between broad tea types (black, oolong, green) is due to different enzymatic activity. Enzymatic reactions involving the many types of compounds in tea leaves transform one compound to another. Some green tea producers, particularly kamarichas allow a short withering stage, which can add some interesting depth. However, in typical green tea production enzymatic activity is stopped as early as possible, preserving the vibrant green color and expressing the essence of the living tea leaf.
Temperature
The temperature at which leaves are steamed or roasted, as well as the temperature and duration of the final drying phase can influence the chemical composition in the final product. Catechins are perhaps the most important class of chemicals that are influenced by high temperature and it is reported that epimerization and thermal degradation are the main influences on catechin transformation (Donlao and Ogawa, 2019).
Roasting sannen bancha over wood charcoal gives a particular aroma to the tea but the brown color is probably indistinguishable from other roasting methods. On the left is a hojicha latte and hojicha ice cream at a cafe in Uji. On the right is an old-school wood fired sannen bancha roaster in Isa, Kagoshima.
Mechanical forces; kneading, rolling
Even after the first step of steaming or pan-frying stops enzymatic activity, some chemical changes can take place. For example, the degree of bruising, breaking and cutting of leaves and/or their vacuoles can affect how chemicals in different parts of the leaf interact with each other and with oxygen from the air. The underlying reason for the burning eye sensation when chopping onions, as well as the difference in quality between chopping vs smashing garlic is due to the release of chemicals from ruptured vacuoles.
While mechanical kneading and rolling machines are designed to approximate the many hours of human labor required to hand process each kilogram of fresh tea, there is no denying that the visual appearance of hand rolled and harvested tea is very different from machine harvested and processed. Hand-picked and rolled leaves have a more uniform, almost needle like shape. Research shows impressive differences in morphology and microstructure of leaves as the tea goes through the different stages of mechanical processing (Qin et al., 2022). While the morphological and microstructure of hand processed versus machine processed leaves does not appear to have been much studied, one could imagine there are significant differences.
Left, a rolling machine that (relatively) lightly compresses the tea as it rotates around the table. Right, a rake-like rotating machine that mimics a human picking up and dropping the tea. See also this post on hand rolling and a this video from award winning hand roller Akane Kawaguchi of Koukien Tea Garden.
Chopping, sifting
Leaf thickness, how finely the leaves have been chopped and the degree to which the final product has been sifted to a uniform size influence how quickly and completely particular compounds can be released into the infusion. The amount of fine particles in the tea can contribute color and/or continue to steep in the cup. The relative amount of veins and stems in the final product can also influence the sensory attributes and color of the infusion. However, a perfectly uniform product is not necessarily the best product. It is more the appropriate balance of components, preparation and processing that is important, and all of this comprise the skill of the tea master. Furthermore, there are genera of tea that quite deliberately include stems to contribute desired woodiness or to make the final infusion milder.
This Kuki hojicha from Zenkouen Tea Garden is 100% stem and has a marvelous roasted flavor, almost like a chicory coffee. We sometimes drink it after matcha or with rich desserts.
Side note: oxidized teas
Oxidized, sometimes known as fermented teas, such as black and oolong teas, have much more complex chemistry than green teas, in which steaming or pan frying stops enzymatic activity. It is thanks to this plethora of chemical reactions that fermented teas can offer a great variety of subtle taste and color differences. In case you haven’t heard, Japanese Black Tea, known as wakocha is one of the newest and most exciting genera of tea. Modern wakocha production emerged a little over 10 years ago and by now there are more than a handful of producers who have found excellent combinations of cultivar, fermentation and processing. The Meiji era history of Japanese black tea may be the subject of a subsequent post but it has to do with international competition (this previous post alludes to that competition).
After cultivar and growth conditions, withering and fermentation is the next stage of black tea production where a tea producer can interact with their tea. Fermentation is a passive process that usually takes place in large baskets or bins. Following fermentation leaves are typically chopped or bruised to allow chemicals in vacuoles to interact and to accelerate oxidation. While large scale producers of black tea in mainland Asia make use of sophisticated equipment to standardize the process, Wakocha remains an artisanal product, largely dependent on the experience and skill of the producer. The time and temperature of the fermentation step play a large role in the chemical reactions that convert catechins to a variety of other color and flavor influencing compounds.
Enjoying some wakocha with award winning tea producer Kajihara-san at his home in Ashikita, Kumamoto Prefecture.
Catechins are a very broad category of plant polyphenols and constitute a large percentage of the tea’s dry weight. Fermentation reduces catechin content, with some of them being broken down into smaller forms. Another portion is converted into larger and more complex forms, a process called polymerization. Two of the most important color influencing classes of chemicals in black tea are the result of polymerization of catechins, called theaflavins and thearubigins. They have red-orange and red-brown colors, respectively. These chemicals both increase in quantity as the tea ferments, but at a certain point theaflavins reach a maximum and then begin to decline. The ratio of theaflavins to thearubigins contributes to the color, mouthfeel and quality of the finished tea (Preedy, 2013). There are several types of both theaflavins and thearubigins as well as their derivatives, stereoisomers and a number of additional polyphenols that can contribute to flavor and color in black tea.
The chemical structure two types of theaflavin and a thearubigin.
Storage
Chemical changes over time are sensitive to temperature, exposure to oxygen and humidity. Studies have shown that storage temperature and duration influence sensory qualities and color of tea. Tea stored at -80°C and -20°C, temperatures that few non-researchers have access to, were able keep tea stored for 100 days chemically indistinguishable, as well as indistinguishable by human testers, from fresh tea (Dai et al., 2019). At a minimum, it is advisable to keep your tea in a cool dark place. However, not all changes are bad. In fact, several types of tea are defined by their aging process, such as three-year aged sannen bancha and some types of black tea. Optimizing this process is akin to an art, as so many variables, processes and their interactions are involved.
Steeping
The many different compounds in a tea leaf have different water solubilities, meaning they are released into the infusion at different rates and quantities, depending on water temperature and steep time. The second steep of a tea tends to have a different color, flavor and aroma precisely because many of the sensory compounds are highly water soluble and are thus released in the first steep. As you may have noticed, steeping some teas at a high temperature brings out bitterness. The bitter taste is primarily due to catechins, which come out much more readily at high temperature. Also, as you may have experienced, cold brewing tea results in a smooth, mellow, tea with more umami, in part because amino acids are more soluble than catechins. For this same reason cold brewing results in a lighter colored infusion (Lin et al., 2014).
Water chemistry, particularly pH and the amount of dissolved minerals in the water influence the chemical reactions happening as the tea steeps. Higher pH and greater amount of dissolved minerals contributes to faster oxidation and polymerization of catechins and a darker color (Cao et al., 2021). The importance of water has been recognized since the very early days of Japanese tea. Water was so important for the tea ceremonies of famed Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi (mentioned in a previous post) that he employed a specific family of tea masters to draw water from the middle of the Ujibashi bridge over the Uji river in Uji city,
There are reports that the material of the tea pot influences the chemical composition of the resultant tea infusion, oolong tea in the case of this study (Liao et al., 2018), although a direct connection to color was not reported. Incidentally, there is a lot of research on tea color in bottled tea production, as they want to stabilize the color. You may have even seen a cup of prepared tea that you let sit out change color after several hours. This change in color is due to oxidation. While the rapid steeping time of most green teas limits exposure to oxygen and thus reaction with oxygen, limiting oxidation reactions could be part of the reason teas with a longer steep time are frequently recommended with specific types and shapes of tea pots.
Flavonoids and catechins, such as quercetin and flavanol glycosides are the primary compounds contributing color in green tea. For black tea, catechin transformation to thearubigins and theaflavins is particularly important. Science has identified many specific plant secondary metabolites contributing to color but we don’t really understand how exactly environment and processing contributes to a ‘good’ color. Part of the reason is that we have different expectations of what a ‘good’ color is for different types of tea.
Beyond the chemistry of the tea leaves, as determined by cultivar, growth and processing, using fresh tea leaves that have been properly stored is probably the biggest factor in tea color. Finally, steep time and temperature can strongly influence color. To detect the influence of water chemistry and tea pot style you’d probably have to have side by side comparisons, which could be fun!
References
Cao, Q. Q., Wang, F., Wang, J. Q., Chen, J. X., Yin, J. F., Li, L., et al. (2021). Effects of brewing water on the sensory attributes and physicochemical properties of tea infusions. Food Chem. 364, 130235. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.130235.
Dai, Q., Liu, S., Jiang, Y., Gao, J., Jin, H., Zhang, Y., et al. (2019). Recommended storage temperature for green tea based on sensory quality. J. Food Sci. Technol. 56, 4333–4348. doi:10.1007/s13197-019-03902-7.
Donlao, N., and Ogawa, Y. (2019). The influence of processing conditions on catechin, caffeine and chlorophyll contents of green tea (Camelia sinensis) leaves and infusions. LWT - Food Sci. Technol. 116, 108567. doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2019.108567.
Li, J., Ma, J., Li, Q., Fan, S., Fan, L., Ma, H., et al. (2021). Determination of 35 Free Amino Acids in Tea Using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled With Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry. Front. Nutr. 8. doi:10.3389/fnut.2021.767801.
Liao, Z. H., Chen, Y. J., Tzen, J. T. C., Kuo, P. C., Lee, M. R., Mai, F. Der, et al. (2018). Effect of teapot materials on the chemical composition of oolong tea infusions. J. Sci. Food Agric. 98, 751–757. doi:10.1002/jsfa.8522.
Lin, S. D., Yang, J. H., Hsieh, Y. J., Liu, E. H., and Mau, J. L. (2014). Effect of different brewing methods on quality of green tea. J. Food Process. Preserv. 38, 1234–1243. doi:10.1111/jfpp.12084.
Liu, C. T., and Tzen, J. T. C. (2022). Exploring The Relative Astringency of Tea Catechins and Distinct Astringent Sensation of Catechins and Flavonol Glycosides via an In Vitro Assay Composed of Artificial Oil Bodies. Molecules 27. doi:10.3390/molecules27175679.
Preedy, V. R. (2013). Tea in Health and Disease Prevention. Elsevier doi:10.1016/C2010-0-64948-0.
Qin, W., Yamada, R., Araki, T., and Ogawa, Y. (2022). Changes in Morphological and Functional Characteristics of Tea Leaves During Japanese Green Tea (Sencha) Manufacturing Process. Food Bioprocess Technol. 15, 82–91. doi:10.1007/s11947-021-02735-7.
Shi, J., Yang, G., You, Q., Sun, S., Chen, R., Lin, Z., et al. (2021). Updates on the chemistry, processing characteristics, and utilization of tea flavonoids in last two decades (2001-2021). Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 0, 1–28. doi:10.1080/10408398.2021.2007353.
Wang, L.-F., Park, S.-C., Chung, J.-O., Baik, J.-H., and Park, S.-K. (2004). The Compounds Contributing to the Greenness of Green Tea. J. Food Sci. 69, 301–305. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2004.tb09894.x.
]]>The most traditional way tea is harvested is by hand. Before machine harvesting became the norm, tea farmers picked tea buds, one by one. Today, hand-picking tea is done mainly to make very high quality teas such as gyokuro and top quality sencha. While I myself have never experienced hand-picking tea, it is said that if one gently pulls on the bud of the new tea leaf, there is a sweet spot where the young tea leaf will naturally detach. This is where the skill and experience of tea picking is critical and of course this makes delicious tea! The advantage of hand-picking tea is that one can focus on harvesting selecting only the first leaf, or two and bud (depending on the picking standard of the particular tea), whereas tea harvest machines do not have the ability to carefully select; hence, hand-picked tea can lead to the finest tea.
In Japan, we refer to people who hand harvest tea as “Ocha-tsumi-san” (literally, tea pickers). Although it may seem like an easy task, it takes years of experience to pluck the optimal buds both quickly and thoroughly from the tea plant. During my tea farmer interview with Ayumi Kinezuka (Cyittorattu) from Fujieda-city, Shizuoka Prefecture, she touched on this incredible skill of the grandma generation:
“One aspect of tea farming that I have been trying to continue transmitting is the process of hand-picking tea leaves. My grandma’s generation (she has passed away), they started hand-picking tea leaves from a very young age, as young as 4 or 5 years old! You can see this today in tea farmers who are in their 70’s or 80’s. They are very good but also very fast in hand-picking tea leaves, it will really surprise you. In hand-picking tea leaves, the important thing is not just to pick the early buds but also to pick it nicely and it’s also about the amount you can pick. It’s really laborious work! So this depends on practice and repetition.”
Some of the experienced and skilful tea pickers. Photo by Ryuji Ogata.
In some of the major tea growing regions where top quality tea is made, one may see dozens of tea pickers attach "biku" (basket to collect the tea leaves) to their waists from early in the morning. An experienced grandma can pick 10-15kg of tea all by herself. Sadly, similar to many of the incredible traditional craftsmanship in Japan, hand-picking tea leaves is on the brink of disappearing. There are, however, tea farmers such as Ayumi-san who have been trying to share this art with the younger generations by inviting friends and people to experience hand-picking tea leaves for the very first flush. Tea farmer Kajihara-san also organizes an event every year to hand-pick tea leaves at his tea farm located in the beautiful mountains of Ashikita Village, Kumamoto Prefecture.
Tea Farmer Toshihiro Kajihara and their hand-picking crew from this year! Photo by Ryuji Ogata.
Tea harvest scissors can be thought of as the in-between phase that was present before tea harvest machines became the norm. These are very large scissors that are used to harvest and cut tea leaves, similar to the type professional gardeners use. There is a bag which attaches to the blade of the scissors where the leaves collect (If you are curious about seeing these scissors in action, here is a youtube video of tea harvest scissors being used). These unique scissors were invented in 1915 by Sanpei Uchida, a blacksmith in Nishikata Village (which is now Kikugawa Town), Shizuoka Prefecture. This was a time period when a large amount of tea was produced for overseas export. A neat fact is that tea harvest scissors were actually sung about in Japanese folk song in 1927. While the date is rather recent, this is probably one of the few examples where an agricultural tool was featured in Japanese folklore.
To provide a bit more history, tea harvest scissors were invented 17 years after Kenzo Takabayashi invented the machine for rolling tea (note that prior to this, tea was exclusively hand-rolled). The mechanization of the tea-making process matched increasing global demand. The invention of tea picking scissors was therefore born from this situation. Even towards the end of the Meiji Era (around 1910), it is said that farmers began experimenting harvesting with scissors but this method did not spread quickly. The scissors Uchida-san made however, were favorable as he designed the scissors in such a way as to have a splint on one blade and a mouthpiece on the other to hold a bag. He even grew tea near his workshop so he could easily test new models. Moreover, it is said that Uchida-san’s held pride in the blades’ sharpness. His meticulous work paid off. For example, it is believed that he checked each pair of scissors himself before shipment and that he did the process of quenching (i.e., involving the rapid cooling of metal in order to adjust the mechanical properties) at night when the color of the fire could clearly be seen.
In 1951, research on the automation of the tea harvest scissors began. Subsequently, a prototype of the first man-held automated tea harvester was introduced and patented in 1956. Tea harvest scissors are rarely used now, as there are more efficient tea harvest machines, which we will touch on below.
If you have ever visited tea farms or witnessed tea harvesting, the hand held, 2-person tea harvest machine may be familiar to you. To harvest the tea leaves, the blades will slide and the harvested tea leaves will be collected, thanks to air being blown into a bag that is attached to the back of the machine. As one can imagine, this harvest machine can harvest tea leaves at a rate that is well over 10 times faster than hand-picking. Moreover, another benefit of this type of harvester is that it has the advantage of being used on steep and sloped tea fields and curved ridges. They can also be turned around in a small radius, which makes them quite versatile. One downside is that their smooth operation sometimes requires a 3-4 person crew, one person to keep the bag of tea from getting caught in the aisle and another to carry the bags to the collection point.
Summer harvesting in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture. The observer is actually a volunteer who is helping pull out the weeds. The summer time is especially a time for weeding!
Autumn harvesting; Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture.
While tea harvest machines have drastically facilitated hand picking, machine harvesting must also be done with care and coordination between the operators is key. For instance, if the machine is passed too deep into the tea bushes, the harvest will include older tea leaves, thick stems, and can damage the tea plant. Family operated tea farms that use 2-person harvest machines even talk about the importance of not getting into fights during tea harvest time! During the busy harvest period(s), many tea farms will obtain help in harvesting from part-time workers and these part timers may not have the experience to smoothly pass the harvester over the bushes.
Lastly, there are the person-driven large harvest machines. These are similar to combine harvesters utilized to harvest rice and is currently the most efficient type of harvest machine for tea. On these machines, the height of the blades can be dynamically adjusted by sensors and computer systems. While extremely efficient in the sense that only 1 person can harvest a large area, it is perhaps important to keep in mind that these specific harvest machines are only well-suited to use on flatter tea fields and require more turn around space (e.g., not the steep tea farms located in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture). These types of machines are typically used in larger scale tea fields such as in Kagoshima Prefecture around the Makinohara region. Tea farmer Mataki Tatefumi (from Sueyoshi Tea Atelier) and Koukien Tea Garden whom I was able to visit with in March use these types of machines to produce high quality tea since they are both located in relatively flat areas in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Now that we have provided a general overview of the different types of harvesting methods, it may be interesting to note how the scenery of tea fields (i.e., the look of the tea fields) is determined by the harvest method. To elaborate a bit, the tea fields one sees today in Japan actually have a recent origin, beginning in the 1960’s, around the time when the Tokyo Olympic games were hosted. Our traditional tea fields, which date back to the Edo-period (1603 – 1868) were not planted in such an linear fashion. Rather, traditional Japanese tea fields were characterized by a sort of “bumpy” look due to the arrangement of individual bushes, perhaps not as aesthetically pleasing as the symmetrical tea fields of today. However, this form maximized production from each individually hand harvested bush that works would pluck from all sides.
Today, due to modern machine harvesting techniques and lack of labor, tea is harvested only from the upper surface of the tea bush. Which means, the upward growth of the tea bush is controlled by regular trimming while the sides of the tea bushes continue to grow, forming rows of tea bushes that seem to be connected side-by-side. Voilà! This type of harvesting and care of tea bushes leads to the beautiful symmetrical tea fields one generally sees in the major tea producing regions of Japan.
Related reads: An article on tea history which mentions tea harvest scissors; Tea History Shines into the Future.
Featured image: Tea farmer Toshihiro Kajihara from Kajihara Tea Garden hand-picking tea in Ashikita, Kumamoto Prefecture. Photo by Ryuji Ogata.
Have additional questions about Japanese tea harvesting? Please don't hesitate to post comments and/or questions below. Or directly contact me (Moé Kishida): moe@yunomi.life.
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Yurie and Akane Kawaguchi showing us their family tea factory. They shared that in about one month, they will be very busy with tea harvest and processing, with no time to pause!
One of the sisters, Akane, knows how to hand roll tea as it is a skill she acquired during her studies in Shizuoka Prefecture. This made me more intrigued with the process as she touched on her experiences but also pointed out how the standard machines used for sencha processing mimic the hand rolling process as we walked through different machines in their tea factory. So today, I would like to share with you a bit about the hand rolling process (Japanese: temomi) of sencha as shincha season is just around the corner!
Koukien Tea Garden's Akane Kawaguchi describing how the tea factory machines mimic the hand-rolling process.
As many of you may already be aware, today, all but the rarest competition grade sencha is processed through the machine rolling process. Hand-rolled tea that has been stretched beautifully and slender like a needle, is truly a work of art! In addition to the artistic appearance, and thanksto the fact that hand-rolled tea is not handled by the excessive force of machines, it can retain the original shape of the tea leaves. This means that when the hand-rolled tea leaves are steeped in hot water, one will be able to clearly identify the shape of the tea leaves when they were first picked. The hand-rolling process for tea however takes approximately 6-7 hours of continuous kneading to make 300g of finished and dried tea (varies due to numerous factors). Even the most crafted experts can only produce 300g of tea as 1.5kg of fresh tea leaves is the limit to how much tea can be hand-rolled. Automating this arduous task is why the machine rolling process was initiated.
To shed light on the history of hand rolling tea a bit, the start of hand rolling dates back to the year 1738 with Soen Nagatani (1681 - 1778), a tea farmer from the Ujitawara region in Kyoto Prefecture. Soen Nagatani is thought to be the father of Japanese sencha as he developed and/or standardized the tea manufacturing method unique to Japanese tea (i.e., sencha). To elaborate, after spending approximately 15 years experimenting with tea manufacturing methods, he is the one who initiated steaming freshly picked tea leaves and then skillfully hand-kneading them on a hoiro table with a low temperature charcoal fire underneath (Note: *A hoiro is a sturdy table covered with traditional Japanese paper called washi).
Prior to Soen Nagatani’s discovery, tea was processed by steaming or boiling the leaves, then drying them by roasting or sun-drying (such as is done to many of the traditional banchas like Mimasaka bancha and kancha), which turns the tea leaves into a brownish color. In contrast, Nagatani’s new way of making tea was considered revolutionary as it resulted in a sencha with a refreshing green color, aroma and flavor. The hand-kneading process involves a combination of the work of loosening, rolling, kneading, and rubbing the tea leaves. Although perhaps, the steps involved in this craftsmanship is best seen and understood by video, below we outline some of the major steps as well as the time required per each step involved in the hand-rolling process. Please note that the steps are simplified and that there are meticulous details when it comes to the art of hand rolling tea leaves in actuality! *After each step, we also have in parenthesis the Japanese name for each step.
The final step to complete the art of hand rolling tea!
Hand-rolled tea is a rare treasure nowadays, and the National Hand Rolling Tea Competition is held every year in Japan with the intention to preserve this art and tradition. Oh, and because it is a competition the event determines who can make the highest quality hand-rolled tea! Due to the global pandemic, this event was canceled for two consecutive years in 2020 and 2021. However, after a two year pause, the event was re-initiated again last November in Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture. In fact, last year, Koukien Tea Garden’s Akane Kawaguchi’s team was fourth in the competition out of the 26 teams that participated. You may be wondering how long the competition takes. In this case, it took approximately 5 hours for the competitors to hand-roll the fresh tea leaves into thin needle-like tea. And of course, there is the judging process where the judges examine the appearance of the tea leaves as well as the dry appearance, aroma and even the taste of the hand-rolled tea. If hand-rolling tea sparks your interest, this may be a worthwhile event to keep on your radar! Lastly, if you are interested in trying hand-rolled tea, there are several options on Yunomi. For instance, one is from the legendary tea hand rolling master Sumida Yoshiro.
At the National Hand Rolling Tea Competition held November 2022, Akane Kawaguchi (Koukien Tea Garden) in the middle. Akane let us know that she tries to share the hand rolling experience with others and showed us the back of her hoiro table with signatures of previous participants. Her vision is to have the back of her hoiro table full one day!
All photos depicting the hand rolling process for tea were provided by Koukien Tea Garden. Please look forward to reading more about them in the near future and of course, their teas in the Yunomi collection. Matane (See you)!
Koukien Tea Garden's tea fields beginning to sprout for the upcoming shincha season!
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For today’s tea farmer interview at Yunomi, we are with 3rd generation tea farmer and CEO of Sueyoshi Tea Atelier in Soo City, Kagoshima Prefecture, Mataki Tatefumi. Mataki-san strongly believes that tea is more than just a drink that may satisfy your thirst. Tea helps people to loosen up, bringing people closer together. With this philosophy in mind the tea farmers at Sueyoshi Tea Atelier strive to deliver their delicately and finely grown teas to as many people as possible. They also strive to promote a resourceful way of living that will extend beyond one’s cup of tea!
I stumbled upon Mataki-san’s tea fortuitously on Yunomi as I was asked to help write up the tea descriptions on Yunomi for their teas back in the year 2020. Since then, I have been savoring his delicate and delicious kabusecha and their teas have received numerous recognitions, which Mataki-san did not mention at all during our interview! While some time has passed since I was first introduced to his teas, I was finally able to interview Mataki-san in the beginning of February (2023). Just like he mentioned a cup of tea helps one to loosen up, I was very touched by his kindness and generosity, which allowed me to relax during our time chatting. I hope that you will enjoy getting to know more about Mataki-san as well as Sueyoshi Tea Atelier!
Moé: To get us started, I would like to ask you about your journey in becoming a tea farmer. How did you, and your family enter the tea world?
Mataki-san: My grandpa was the one who started making tea in my family. An acquaintance of his was making tea in Soo City. And they were going to quit making tea. But my grandpa suggested that he himself would take over and continue, and he bought their tea fields and that was the very beginning of tea making for our family. My father who is the 2nd generation tea farmer then expanded onto our tea fields and renewed the machinery in our tea factory in order to make better tea and more tea. And so while my family has been making tea since the times of my grandfather, I officially started as a tea farmer rather recently, in the year 2017. I’ve been making tea alongside my father. Soon, it will be my 6th year in making tea. As for me, watching my father make tea I knew from when I was little that I also wanted to be a tea farmer. However, I didn’t know exactly when I wanted to start. First, I had an ambition to see the world outside of tea and agriculture. I started as an accountant, I am a certified public accountant (CPA). But when I turned 30 years old, it was a time when I reflected on my life and my future. That was when I remembered my father saying that tea making only happens once a year. And I thought that a person cannot make 100 teas in one’s lifetime… And so when I turned 30, it felt like the right time. I returned to Soo City to get started with tea farming, that's the way I started.
Moé: How would you describe your transition in becoming a tea farmer? Was it a natural process for you?
Mataki-san: Well, I would say emotionally, it was quite natural because even from a young age, I was set on becoming a tea farmer. So the transition from being an accountant to a tea farmer was smooth. One of the challenges however was in the physical realm because I went from doing hours of desk work (i.e., leading a sedentary lifestyle) to being out in the tea fields. The physical labor clearly took time to get used to! Also, financially, as an accountant, no matter what, one obtains a regular pay at a certain time (i.e., a typical salaryman). As a tea farmer, that’s not the case. I very much felt the financial strains as well as differences.
Moé: Recently, it is often touched on how the younger generations do not drink tea from a kyusu (teapot) but that we are a “pet-bottle” (plastic bottle) generation. Coming from a tea farmer family, how has this phenomenon impacted, or not impacted your family? Or the tea farming communities in general? This could be financially, or in other aspects.
Mataki-san: To clarify, you are asking whether tea farmers are struggling nowadays since the majority of people now drink tea from plastic bottles?
Moé: Yes, that’s it. I apologize for my question being so long-winded!
Mataki-san: Yes. I very much sense that. We experience it ourselves at Sueyoshi Tea Atelier. It has become more difficult since the times of my grandfather. And when I look around, I see many tea farmers that have quit. In the 6 years that I have been a tea farmer, I have seen tea farmers who make exceptionally good tea abandon their profession due to economic and financial strains. And I will share that they were tea farmers who made very delicious tea. Still, the fact that these tea farmers no longer want to continue making tea is influenced by the stark reality of people not drinking tea from a teapot.
Moé: I would like to know a bit more about your hometown, Soo City. Personally, I am no expert on Kagoshima Prefecture… Although, I am of course aware that it is one of the major tea growing regions in Japan. Would you say that there are numerous tea farmers in Soo City?
Mataki-san: Actually, there are not many tea farmers in this area and that has always been the case. First of all, Soo City is actually small to begin with. But another reason is due to the fact that when you look at tea production in Kagoshima Prefecture as a whole, the tea in Soo City is the last to be ready. The tea season starts late here. Even though we are located in the South, Soo City has lower average temperatures so it can even be slower than Shizuoka Prefecture! That being said, tea harvesting occurs at a later time. Generally, this is part of Japanese culture but people really value the “firsts”. The first tea, the first X and Y. They associate it with being auspicious. And so the very early teas can often be priced at a higher price. When the harvest season occurs at a later time like in Soo City, often, the people that wanted the very first ichibancha (first flush) are already done buying their teas. In this sense, it is difficult for the tea farmers in Soo City to be competitive with the rest of the tea producing regions in Kagoshima Prefecture. That’s one of the reasons why there aren’t many tea producers in this area.
Moé: I see… But you are continuing to produce tea in this challenging context. I very much respect that!
Mataki-san: Thank you. Well, there is a region here. Which includes Soo City and the surrounding valleys. There is a record that tea was produced here during the Edo Period and sent to the Edo Shogunate. This area is called the Miyakonojyo (Miyako Castle) Basin. It is an area that is embedded with tea history. And so I believe it is a region that is very well-suited for growing tea.
Moé: I see… so it is worth waiting for the tea made from you in Soo city!? Sort of related to what we are talking about, what would you say are the strengths and/or qualities of Sueyoshi Tea Atelier?
Mataki-san: Yes. The environment in Soo City where we are located is suitable for growing tea. The climate is said to be very similar to Kyoto.
Moé: Oh, Kyoto?
Mataki-san: Yes, Kyoto. Like Uji…
Moé: It just took me by surprise as I’m actually in Kyoto right now [laughter].
Mataki-san: [laughter] I see, I see. Well, Kyoto is well known for being very cold in the mornings and nights. And then the temperature rises during the day. So, it’s well set up for fog which is a valuable factor for growing good tea. Miyakonojyo Basin, which includes Soo City, is said to have a similar climate to Kyoto. And that’s why tea making started here because Soo City has terroir well-suited for growing tea. Another strength is, well, I am not certain about how tea farmers do it in Kyoto but at Sueyoshi Tea Atelier, we do everything right here. That is, we grow the tea, we harvest the tea, we make the aracha (unrefined tea), of course, and we process and finish the tea ourselves. This is a quality that I think is rare in recent times. For instance, in the Kanto area, I think many tea farmers utilize the tea factories for processing their tea.
Moé: I see. Yes, I think I’ve observed situations like that even in Wazuka (a famous tea growing region in the Kyoto area) where the tea is harvested by the tea farmers and then they bring the bags of tea leaves to drop off at the shared collective tea processing factory. I heard this type of shared factories are becoming more common these days. So, at Sueyoshi Tea Atelier, you have been doing the entire process from growing to processing tea yourselves, correct?
Mataki-san: That’s right. Since my grandfather’s generation. We process the tea ourselves at our own processing factory. Importantly, we have always taken value in our customers’ voices. Their feedback is what matters the most. I believe that is our key strength.
Moé: As an everyday Japanese tea drinker, I appreciate that you care about the people that drink your tea. Oh! Before I forget, something I have been curious about on your website and social media photos is your kitchen car. Would you be able to tell me more about its presence? How is it used?
Mataki-san: We use the kitchen car when we participate in events. Also, for when we open shop at the local train station or go to the neighboring cities by the general shop, and so on. Originally, we started the kitchen car in hopes to spread awareness and knowledge about making tea in a teapot. Nowadays, people are making tea less and less in teapots. With this background in mind, we wanted to first make people interested in making tea in a teapot. I actually feel that people drinking tea from plastic bottles are not making the choice about whether to drink tea from tea in a teapot or from a plastic bottle. They actually don’t know that such an option exists because I feel that the majority of people grew up with just having a plastic tea bottle as something that is familiar, something that always existed in their lives. So I sensed that they do not know about this other option of drinking tea out of a teapot. However, no matter how much we may promote making tea in a teapot from say, our Instagram account, I don’t think it will actually change the way people consume their Japanese teas. I would like these people to be aware of the other option and so I thought, well, why don’t I just go and interact with people myself and make tea for them in a teapot!? That’s why we have the kitchen car.
Mataki-san's kitchen car makes appearances across the seasons. Their kitchen car has been highlighted by the local newspaper, too. If you ever come across this truck, don't miss your opportunity to enjoy Mataki-san's heartwarming tea!
Moé: I see, so then, the tea you are serving from your kitchen car is made in an actual teapot?
Mataki-san: Yes, that’s right. In most cases, people are surprised when I serve tea from a teapot…
Moé: It’s a neat idea, I think. I’ve interviewed a couple of tea farmers for Yunomi and have also written some tea farm descriptions for our website. However, you are the only tea farmer I know with a kitchen car. That being said, the kitchen car definitely caught my attention [laughter].
Mataki-san: Thank you.
Moé: Changing subject a bit, is it correct that you employ the chagusaba agricultural method on your tea farm? I was hoping you could elaborate on this a bit or share any other cropping system(s) you use?
Mataki-san: Of course. I am not sure if we can actually call it the chagusaba method per se. But yes, we utilize kaya, susuki (Japanese pampas grass), as well as fallen leaves. We grow these grasses and we will harvest them to lay down in-between our tea bushes. We also receive straw from the rice farmers after the rice harvesting season for similar purposes. These resources slowly return to the soil to become organic fertilizers. This process is essential for our tea making process.
Snapshot which captures the Japanese pampas grass and fallen leaves that is put in between the tea bushes. These natural resources will slowly return to the soil, becoming organic fertilizers.
Moé: For the straw that you obtain from the rice farmer, is this person a rice farmer in the local area?
Mataki-san: Yes. Usually we receive these resources from rice farmers within Soo City. Sometimes, from neighboring cities but not anywhere further.
Moé: That’s wonderful to hear that you are utilizing local resources. The way you take care of your tea farm reminds me of Ayumi Kinezuka, a tea farmer I very much respect in Shizuoka Prefecture. Is there anything else that you find is unique with respect to your cropping and or planting method(s)?
Mataki-san: Would hifuku saibai (shade growing cultivation) fall under this topic of conversation? If so, we grow mainly kabusecha by shading methods. We shade a bit longer than what is perhaps considered average, a duration of 12 days to 2 weeks. Generally, the other tea farmers around us shade for about a week so our shading period can last twice as long.
Moé: Hmm, is that perhaps the secret to your delicious teas?
Mataki-san: [laughter] It could be… actually, this relates to the previous strength I touched on about processing our own teas and obtaining customer feedback. So when you shade for about a week like most of the other tea farmers, one obtains a reasonable balance of the amount of tea leaves that are harvested with shaded tea. In a sense, one obtains a win-win situation. In our case, since my grandfather started making tea, we’ve been obtaining feedback from our customers and one of the comments we received was that the duration we shade our tea wasn’t long enough for a kabusecha with just a week. So, we decided to shade for a longer duration of time to emphasize the characteristic of kabusecha (shaded tea) even though that leads to less tea leaves being harvested. Because the tea will grow more in sunlight but we are going the opposite direction with extended shading… So the longer one shades their teas, the less amount of tea leaves for a tea harvest. Still, we wanted to value our customers’ voices. And so we’ve stuck to our long duration of shading.
Moé: You are truly valuing your customers’ feedback, even with the smaller tea harvest!
Mataki-san: Yes. As I touched on earlier, I guess that’s our strength. Having a contact point with our customers. It’s my grandfather’s wisdom. He had the vision to see into the future.
Moé: Before we wrap up, I would like to ask about your future visions. Do you have a specific ideal in your tea world? For instance, in 10 years if you could see a way of tea farming that would be your ideal, what would that look like?
Mataki-san: Let me see. I would say it’s rather an abstract vision but in 10 years or so, I wish to see young children in the local area, well, they don’t necessarily have to be children that are specifically from Soo City… But you know, there are a variety of professions one may aspire to become these days, like a Youtuber [laughter]. Well, I would like kids to want to become tea farmers. It would be nice if children thought becoming a tea farmer was cool and neat. It’s kind of a blurry image but I want to make tea in a way which makes children aspire to become a tea farmer.
Besides that, specifically, if it’s to touch on a vision that I would like to evolve towards, it relates to something I talked about earlier, which is that I obtain straw from the local rice farmers. It is in my best interest for local resources to keep circulating. And so, I am continuously asking myself how do we tea farmers help back? We could potentially help out with physical labor such as their rice farming work or we can offer them our tea, which, will go very well with rice balls for example [laughter]. These sorts of relationships I think do not have to be limited to meals per se, but I believe we can help each other out in the process of making our crops. Right now, it is more likely for tea farmers to just grow their tea and for rice farmers to grow their rice. We are kind of separate from each other. But my hope is, within the local area, the process of growing rice, of growing crops may flow better in interconnectedness.
And I have one additional thing! I’m sorry for taking so long [laughter]. But for me, this is perhaps the most important one. So while tea can be a drink for quenching one’s thirst, tea plays a more valuable role. It helps people to relax, to feel a sense of relief — and I also believe that tea brings people closer together. From these influences of tea, a delightful conversation could spark… In this way, tea really isn’t just something one drinks when one is thirsty. So tea can reduce the distance felt between people and help people to loosen up a bit. I wish for this particular value of tea to be preserved 300 years into the future.
Moé: Oh! 300 years, that’s quite some time into the future. That’s a bold vision. You’re touching on cha-no-ma (茶の間), then? (Note: This concept of cha no ma was also touched on in the interview with tea farmer Uejima-san in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture).
Mataki-san: Yes, although perhaps in Soo City, with global warming we may not even be able to tea any more by then. But that’s my vision to preserve this special quality of tea 300 years into the future. So I continue to make tea with this vision in mind. To continuously be aware that as tea farmers, we’re not just making something to drink.
Moé: Yes. I agree. Personally I feel that I am able to relax when there is a cup of Japanese tea. Maybe it also has to do with the color, often green in the morning (for me) and the aroma of dark-roasted hojicha after a long day, for example.
Mataki-san: Uh huh. Of course, there are people that do not like tea very much [laughter] however, I do not think that many people become violent when drinking tea. In general, I think tea leads to peace. Or creates a peaceful state of being.
Moé: True… On the other hand, I love my occasional cup of coffee but I often find that I feel a rush of adrenaline afterwards. Like I feel myself wanting to get things done. Whereas with a cup of tea, I usually feel more at peace. It gives me a gradual start to my day. Or a nice winding down process to my day, especially when I am fully present with my cup of tea.
Mataki-san: That makes me happy to hear.
Moé: Well, I am probably biased towards tea [laughter]. To bring closure to our interview for Yunomi today however, is there anything that you would like to add, or is there a message you would like to relay to the customers at Yunomi?
Mataki-san: Yes, first of all, thank you for having an interest in Japanese tea and for drinking Japanese tea. That is the biggest thing. Because to try a drink that is foreign I believe, requires a bit of courage you know… [laughter]? So I would simply like to say, thank you for taking that first step to try Japanese tea. I am very grateful. And I will do all that I can for people to continue drinking Japanese tea. Even if it is not the tea we make because there are so many Japanese teas to enjoy. They will differ depending on the tea farmer, the terroir, many factors! In a way, the exploration never ends! But I would like for people to really enjoy this exploration with Japanese tea. That’s all I have to say. Thank you!
Have comments, questions, and/or insights? Please don't hesitate to post below, or directly contact me (Moé Kishida): moe@yunomi.life. We are always happy to hear from you!
To explore teas from Mataki Tatefumi on Yunomi: Sueyoshi Tea Atelier
Check out his Instagram Account: sueyoshiseichakobo
All photos are by Sueyoshi Tea Atelier in Kagoshima, Soo City.
]]>Recently, I was asked why hojicha is low in caffeine when it is made from the same plant (camelius senisis). To be honest, as someone who grew up regularly drinking hojicha, this question had not crossed my mind, but my first thought was that it was due to the roasting process of hojicha, which differs from the process of making other Japanese teas (e.g., sencha), which are typically steamed. Upon further research, I discovered that the low caffeine content of hojicha is attributable to three main factors.
First, I was on the right track with respect to the process of roasting the tea leaves at a higher temperature. Specifically, when making hojicha, tea leaves are roasted between 160 to 220 degrees Celsius (depending on how dark one would like the roast to be), which means it generally goes beyond the sublimation boiling point of caffeine at 178 degrees Celsius. That is, the caffeine basically evaporates, diminishing the caffeine content in the tea leaves. This roasting technique is also what gives hojicha its reddish-brown color as well as its sweet, earthy aromatic flavor. One should note; however, that the flavor across different types of hojicha will vary based on factors such as; the roasting method (e.g., gas-powered fire that heats a rotating metal barrel, as compared to roasted over charcoal), roasting time and level of heat (influenced also by the temperature and humidity of the day!), as well as the base tea leaves that were utilized.
Below: American tea farmer Yancy based in Aruse village, Tokushima Prefecture makes his hojicha over charcoal. His light-roasted hojicha is subtle yet perfect for a soft and mellow evening.
This leads us to the second factor impacting hojicha’s caffeine content — the type of tea leaves that are utilized to make hojicha. While sencha, gyokuro and hojicha all come from the same tea plant, hojicha is often made from large, mature leaves that were harvested later on (e.g., second and third harvest in the summer and autumn time). In general, the early season leaves (i.e., ichibancha harvest in the springtime) are used to make the first flush teas like sencha and gyokuro. Leaves from later harvests that have matured and developed with time have lower caffeine content.
Finally, hojicha often includes stems and twigs, which contain very low caffeine, which in effect dilutes the caffeine content of the final product.
Side-by-side images of two different hojicha: Left: Kiroku Tea Garden's Zairai late spring harvest hojicha. Zairai is not a specific cultivar but now quite rare in Japan. Right: Zenkoen’s kuki hojicha which is made specifically with stems/stalks coming from their final bancha harvest. A kukicha hojicha will be lowest in caffeine!
As you can see from the side-by-side images, hojicha can look quite different from each other based on various factors such as the type of tea leaves or parts used, chopping, sifting and roasting method. The visual differences become even more evident when one takes a look at the extensive hojicha collection offered on Yunomi.
To summarize, the 3 reasons why hojicha has less caffeine:
Additionally, if you like to see actual numbers or data like myself, here it is! A standard serving size of one cup of hojicha (250 ml) contains about 7.7 mg of caffeine. Hojicha’s caffeine content is lower than a cup of coffee, matcha, or sencha, making it a good alternative to those who are sensitive to caffeine and/or looking to cut their caffeine intake, especially in the latter part of the day.
Below, I present data from a Japanese research study that specifically examined the caffeine content of different types of Japanese tea (1). Please note that this is data simply based from one research study (not an aggregate) and every study comes with limitations. Still, I wanted to provide a visual utilizing data from this study in order for you to obtain a sense of the relative caffeine content across different Japanese teas:
Note: These are general numbers and the caffeine content will vary based on some of the factors touched on in the article.
Hojicha is not completely free of caffeine but it is low enough to drink in the afternoons and evenings without disrupting sleep (unless you are super sensitive to caffeine!). As I mentioned earlier however, the flavor and aroma of different hojichas will differ depending on a myriad of factors. That being said, if you find yourself liking hojicha, I hope that you will also enjoy trying out the different types of hojicha out there! I am always discovering flavorful hojichas to add to my tea repertoire. It is a small but meaningful delight that brightens up my afternoons and evenings, it would definitely make it into my Book of Delights (2). Warm cheers!
References:
Featured image: Ogura Tea Garden roasting hojicha. Photo by Sachiko Murata.
Have additional questions about hojicha? Please don't hesitate to post comments and/or questions below. Or directly contact me (Moé Kishida): moe@yunomi.life.
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Batches of tea in the below categories can be submitted in 10kg quantities (also in 4kg for certain teas), and only that specific batch is considered the submission batch even if it comes from a production batch that is larger. Farmers will cultivate and harvest their batch specifically for one or multiple competitions, and may even enlist outside help for processing into dry leaf and refinement into a finished leaf. Because they take extra care in crafting these batches, these batches are what I call "Competition Grade" tea.
Competitions are sanctioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, and if there are a certain number of submissions (or if an entry reaches a perfect 200 point), the top award in each category is the Minister's Award. (Note: This criteria needs to be confirmed.). In addition, other awards are given, and entries are also categorized into 1等 (which I translate to Gold Medal Award to match similar competitions globally), 2等 (Silver Medal), and 3等 (Bronze Medal). Within these, the rankings are then categories by "seat" 席 — so an 1等7席 would basically be 7th place. although 2等3席 is 3rd place in the Silver Medal level, but what the overall ranking might be depends on the number of Gold Medal winners.
These competition batches are then auctioned off to approved wholesalers who have the right to bid on the batches. It is a silent auction, and while the bidders will know what the rankings are, a famous farmer might get a higher bid even if their rank or point score is lower....though a higher bid than the top scoring entry is rare.
Source: http://shizuoka-cha.com/69ocha-fes/gaiyou/pdf/69_zenkoku_cha_hinpyokai_kaisai_youryo.pdf
Tea Type
|
Internal | External | |||||
Extraction time | Aroma | Liquid color | Taste (literally "nutriment") | Brewed leaf color | Appearance | TOTAL POINTS | |
Regular Sencha | 5 min | 75 | 30 | 75 | 20 | 200 | |
Fukamushi Sencha | 4 min | 70 | 30 | 80 | 20 | 200 | |
Kabusecha | 6 min | 70 | 30 | 70 | 30 | 200 | |
Gyokuro | 6 min | 65 | 30 | 65 | 40 | 200 | |
Tencha | 5 min | 65 | 20 | 65 | 10 | 40 | 200 |
Steamed Tamaryokucha | 5 min | 75 | 30 | 75 | 20 | 200 | |
Pan-fired Tamaryokucha | 5 min | 75 | 30 | 75 | 20 | 200 |
Farmer Tsuji Kiyoharu of Tsujiki Tea Garden accepts his Minister's Award for Tencha the 2022 National Tea Competition.
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Different types of tea can have very different flavor profiles. A sencha green tea, for example, may have a sweetness and a thickness on the tongue that you’ll never find in a black tea. A withered green tea may have a simplicity and clarity that are both refreshing and stimulating. Tea cultivars typically used for black tea become more aromatic during oxidisation, but Japanese black teas, typically made from cultivars very different from Indian or African teas, tend to be more delicate, with more floral overtones. Kamaricha and tamaryokucha are green teas produced with different processing methods from sencha and offer different taste and aroma-scapes to explore.
ABOVE: A first flush wakocha (black tea) from Ogura Tea Garden in Ashigara, Kanagawa contrasts with five spring sencha (from Yunomi’s Tea Dojo). BELOW: Tasting 5 different black teas from Kajihara Tea Garden.
Phytochemicals have been a part of human life since time immemorial. Many of these phytochemicals are the basis of traditional and modern medicines, such as aspirin. The active ingredient in this common pain reliever comes from acetylsalicylic acid, a form of which was first derived from willow tree bark by the ancient Egyptians (Desborough and Keeling, 2017).
Other phytochemicals are fundamental aspects of flavors in food, such as the citric acid in citrus fruits. Around 400 volatile chemicals have been identified in tomatoes, with around 12 being particularly important, and then of course there’s lycopene, a type of carotenoid, that gives tomatoes their characteristic color (Petro‐Turza, 1986; Cheng et al., 2020; Tomatosphere, 2022). Carotenoids, present in particularly high quantities in carrots, are accessory pigments of chlorophyll. Both carotenoids and chlorophyll are very important components of tea aroma and taste. Transformation of carotenoids to other chemicals is one of the principal functions of oxidation, which helps to distinguish black teas.
Growth conditions, shading, pest pressure, fertilization, elevation, temperature dynamics, soil type, processing, aging, etc. can all effect phytochemical profiles and thus the taste and cup experience (Ahmed et al., 2013; Zhang et al., 2020; see previous article on climate change). Thousands of chemical compounds can be present in tea, and they can be transformed through the tea making process. When the finished tea is finally steeped, some of the more volatile phytochemicals are released in the aroma, while the non-volatile ones are contained in the tea liquor.
Chemical structures of three important phytochemicals present in tea. L-theanine is the amino acid primarily responsible for the umami flavor in tea. Bitter-tasting caffeine is a stimulant from the methylxanthine class, which actually functions by blocking a specific receptor in the brain, leading to enhanced production of a neurotransmitter. Damscenone is one many aromatic chemicals in black tea and is derived from the transformation of carotenoids. It belongs to the rose ketone chemical family, can exist in a variety of isoforms, contributes flavors ranging from fruity to floral to woody and is also found in bourbon.
Farmers and tea drinkers have known for centuries that certain growing conditions and harvest times produce tea with different flavor. Among the first to make the connection may have been the farmers in the Uji region who learned that shading the leaves produced a tea with more umami (previous article on shading).
Similarly, tea farmers and drinkers have also noticed that the first spring flush of tea often tastes particularly smooth with more umami compared to shibumi (astringency). Both of these phenomena are linked to less bitter-tasting catechin and tannin content and greater amino acid content, and specifically of the unique amino acid L-theanine.
Shaded tea production using traditional reed mats at Kuma Tea Gardens in Yame. Shading for a few days, or up to a few weeks for gyokuro, increases chlorophyll and amino acid content, reduces tannins and gives a sweet, mellow tea with more umami.
Amino acids are the basic building blocks proteins. More than 35 different amino acids have been identified in tea and particular amino acids have been linked to specific flavors, such as umami, as well as floral aromas and wine-like aromas (Li et al., 2022). L-theanine is about 50% of total amino acid content in tea leaves. L-theanine, an amino acid unique to tea and a specific mushroom, is responsible for tea’s calming sensation by increasing alpha brain waves according to some researchers and is suspected to have other health benefits (Juneja et al., 1999; Vuong et al., 2011).
We now know that the mechanism behind shading producing umami rich tea is that shading slows the transformation of amino acids to polyphenols. Slowing the transformation of amino acids results in tea leaves with higher amino acid content and thus more umami. Modern tools have similarly confirmed what the farmers have always known, that the highest concentration of L-theanine is typically in the first bud and leaf of a season (Li et al., 2022).
Oxidation is another example of how controlling natural chemical reactions leads to desirable tea qualities. As plant cell walls break down, either through withering or kneading, chemicals that had previously been protected by the cell wall come into contact with the atmosphere. These molecules then react with oxygen, in a progress called oxidation. Furthermore, living leaves, and even freshly harvested leaves have substantial enzymatic activity, which when left unchecked transforms much of the polyphenols, chlorophylls and carotenoids, darkening the leaves and changing the flavors.
Damascenone, present in many black teas but rarely in green teas is an interesting lesson in chemistry. Leaves with high carotenoid content can be carefully oxidized to transform the carotenoids to damascenone, contributing a sweet taste and smooth mouthfeel. Heating the leaves by steaming or pan-firing (pan-roasting) stops these oxidative and enzymatic processes, preserving the intense green color of the leaves. These different types of chemical reactions contribute to the sometimes dramatic difference in color, taste and mouthfeel among types of tea.
LEFT: A new planting of the less common Koshun cultivar at the Kaneroku Matusmoto Tea Garden, who specializes in black and smoked teas using the chagusaba method (World Heritage recognized agricultural system of traditional grass mulching). RIGHT: Handpicking Zairai cultivars at Kajihara Tea Garden. Zairai cultivars come from cross pollination rather than rooted cuttings and contribute interesting flavors to the finished tea, in this case, a kamaricha (a withered and pan fried green tea. Zairai discussed in this previous blog).
Leaves also have a certain amount of carbohydrates, in a variety of forms. These carbohydrates are used as an energy source by enzymes, another reason why stopping enzymatic activity, usually by steaming, is related to a sweeter finished tea.
Caffeine is a type of methylxanthine. Theobromine and theophylline are similar stimulant compounds also present in tea. They can contribute a bitter taste. The amount of each varies widely with cultivar, age of leaf and environment. A range of minerals are found in tea leaves and environment influences their relative abundance. Processing and drying of the tea can effect mineral bioavailability and influence flavor, aroma and mouthfeel.
Volatile chemicals constitute less than 0.1% of the weight of dried tea leaves, but they are largely responsible for the aroma and flavor. There are thousands of chemicals that interact with each other and change over time to form the complex aroma that we enjoy as tea enthusiasts.
With the aid of state-of-the-art instruments, scientists are increasingly able to quantify specific molecules in tea leaves that give different teas their characteristic flavors. Some of these measuring devices, including liquid and gas chromatography, can quantify the amount of a huge range of non-volatile (taste) and volatile (aroma) chemicals.
Other tools include spectroscopic and hyperspectral reflectance, which identify different chemicals by color differences (Yamashita et al., 2021). Mass spectrometry is another tool that works by measuring tiny differences in weight among the many molecules in a sample and is frequently applied to amino acid detection in tea research. Interestingly, these tools are sometimes employed in authenticating the origin or cultivar of a particular tea product (Engelhardt, 2020).
Soil and climate are major factors that determine which cultivars grow well in a particular area and what flavor the tea will have. LEFT: Kurihara Tea Garden in the mountains of Yame, on Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost island covered in snow during winter. RIGHT: A view of Furuichi Seicha’s lower elevation tea fields on the same island, but farther south in Kagoshima.
Modern scientific tools give a very detailed perspective on what is in the tea leaves and even what comes out in the aroma and tea liquor. However, the tools can’t quantify how particular combinations of myriad taste and aroma elements interact. It is this array of aroma, taste, mouthfeel and aftertaste that give the multi-faceted experience of enjoying a quality cup of tea.
The tongue can detect 5 taste qualities (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami) (Gravina et al., 2013), maybe 8 if you count fatty, spicy and fresh-minty as tastes. And then, of course, there are gradients and combinations. The human nose is far more sensitive, being able to differentiate 1 trillion different scents (Bushdid et al., 2016). Since the nose has a direct connection to the brain, it is particularly well suited to respond to faint scents wafting up from a freshly poured cup of tea.
Perhaps that direct connection is why smells can elicit such rapid, powerful and emotional responses. Just smelling something can take us back to some distant memory or give us a sense of calm and belonging. But maybe the L-theanine we just drank is also helping!
In conclusion, we’ve seen that cultivar, location, altitude, weather and harvest time can influence phytochemical profiles and the resulting taste and aroma. Master tea makers use drying and processing skills to further refine the tea’s flavor and aroma profiles and make more beautiful experiences possible. Enjoy!
in high grade leaves, that need to be handpicked, the apex bud is plucked forcing the plant to put nutrients into lateral buds which grow more evenly and allow the plant to produce more leaves at equally high grade.
]]>For those of you who answered mimasaka bancha, you are right on point! While Okayama Prefecture, located West of Osaka, may be better known for its sunny days and fruit production (also known for their bizen-yaki pottery), there is a traditional bancha that is made in the summertime. Specifically, around mid July once the monsoon season clears and the Obon (festival) season starts. Yes, the hottest time of the year. One of the key features of the mimasaka bancha is its lustful amber color. Similar to many of the regional banchas, the process of making mimasaka bancha is quite particular.
How Mimasaka Bancha is made:
It is said that this traditional bancha originated during the Muromachi (1333-1573) period and was a favorite tea of Miyamoto Musashi, a well known swordsman and philosopher in Japanese history. Interestingly, it is said that in one of the texts in the Muromachi period, the three major teas were from Musashi in Sayama, Yamashiro in Kyoto and Mimasaka in Okayama. Tea cultivation in Okayama Prefecture is known to have initially started in a temple in Magiyama (South of Mimasaka) as the monks were drinking tea. And then tea cultivation spread around this region. So, while Okayama prefecture may not be one of the first prefectures that comes to mind as a major tea producing region, the Mimasaka area is well-known for their bancha.
If you are a hojicha drinker, the mimasaka bancha will certainly please you. When finished, the tea leaves, together with the stems will have a sort of glazy look with an amber glow. It is a humble, gentle and delicious tea with a deep flavor coming from the energy and heat of the summer sun. In fact, while banchas generally tend to be on the refreshing side, the way mimasaka bancha is made gives this bancha a sweet roundedness and mellowness. It is a tea that one may wish to drink to perhaps heal the fatigue from the hot summer days or as an act of being gentle to oneself. With the fall equinox behind us, it is getting to be the time to relish in warm drinks. I consider it to be my recent pepp-in the step elixir and look forward to pairing this delightful bancha with autumnal treats like persimmons, chestnuts and cheese.
A warm cup of Furyu's Mimasaka bancha with persimmons from the marché (farmer's market).
Further Reading on Regional and Unique Japanese Banchas:
Photos from the Mimasaka Bancha making process were provided by Ogura Tea Garden. While based in Odawara, the photos are from when Ogura-san participated in making this bancha in Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture.
]]>This article might give you an answer to you. Although you haven't had such an experience, I'd like to share my interesting experience I had this summer.
I took some of my favorite Japanese green tea with me on my holiday in the UK this summer. One day I made a cup of tea with the tea leaves, then, I was shocked at the taste, which was very different from the taste in Japan. It tasted less astringent and some funny aftertaste."Why did it happen although I steeped it in the same way as I did at home?"
I suddenly remembered the first day drinking the tap water there.The taste of water was very different from my place in Japan.The taste was like water with Nigari, I sometimes make and drink at home in Japan. Nigari is the liquid that is left after salt has been precipitated from seawater, and contains lots of minerals such as magnesium, potassium and calcium.
Read more about Nigari here.
The water there must've contained lots of minerals. In other words, the water hardness must be quite high. That's why I thought the water hardness affected the taste of the tea.
The simple definition of water hardness is the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in the water. General guidelines for classification of waters by WHO (World Health Organization) are: 0 to 60 mg/L (milligrams per liter) as calcium and magnesium is classified as soft; 61 to 120 mg/L as moderately hard; 121 to 180 mg/L as hard; and more than 180 mg/L as very hard.
Water hardness in Japan is lower than other countries, as the tap water is mainly derived from river water ,while most European nation’s tap water comes from groundwater, and river water tends to flow rapidly down because the rivers in Japan are steeper and shorter than other countries.
Let's see the tap water hardness of the area, Odawara, Kanagawa, Kanto district where I live. The hardness is 51mg/L, which is classified as soft water. Most of the places of water hardness in Japan are between 20mg/L and 80mg/L, and the average hardness is 48.9mg/L. Kanto district tends to be higher, comparing to Hokkaido and Tohoku district.
How about the water hardness of the area I stayed in the UK? It's over 201mg, obvious hard water. The UK tends to be a hard water area although north part of the UK is mainly a soft water area. Europe is considered to be a hard water area although there are pockets of soft water areas.
Generally, soft water is said to be good for making tea.
As well as other types of tea, Japanese green tea is also good to make with water hardness between 30mg/L to 80mg/L. Japanese green tea is the balance of sweetness, umami savoriness, bitterness and astringency. Soft water allows the delicate flavors.
On the other hand, hard water flattens the taste, and make the color of the tea pale.
So, what can you do if you live in a hard water area?
First, try boiling your tap water before using it although most of Japanese green tea doesn't need such a high temperature for steeping. Temporary hardness can be removed by boiling, but you can’t be eliminated if your water has permanent hardness contains irons. Then, it might be time to think about buying a water softener. Buying a bottle of water is an easy option. Check the water hardness on the label before buying it. Bottle of water for babies is normally soft water.
Though, I’ve told you how to get soft water, I’m still wondering if hard water is really bad for making Japanese green tea. Some people say they like having Japanese green tea with hard water as it tastes mild and less astringent. There is also a report that people tasted umami savoriness more with the green tea steeped with the water (water hardness 304mg/L), than the green tea steeped with the water (water hardness 38mg/L).
It doesn't seem to be so simple we can say hard water is no good for making tea.
Although it can't be said unconditionally that soft water is good for making Japanese green tea, we see water hardness effects the taste of tea. It would be a good try to make your favorite tea with different water.
Let's experiment with different water to find a taste we enjoy!
References:
1. Mayumi Hori, Katsumi Shozugawa, Kenji Sugimori, Yuichiro Watanabe 2021 “A survey of monitoring tap water hardness in Japan and its distribution patterns” Retrieved from:http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92949-8
2. Aqua Cure Ltd. How hard is my water. Retrieved from https://www.aquacure.co.uk/knowledge-base/uk-hard-water-map/
3. 内山裕美子, 築舘香澄, 加藤みゆき,山口優一, 陳栄剛, 大森正司, 2014.『茶の呈味におよぼす水質(特にCa)の影響と味認識装置による評価』日本調理科学会誌Retrived from:https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/cookeryscience/47/6/47_320/_article/-char/ja/
Japanese Tea Steeping Techniques
More than 15 types of teas are here.
List of Japanese Teas & Terminology
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To touch briefly on the origins and history of the tea whisk, it is said that in Song dynasty China, a type of tea whisk was used to whip up the diancha (點茶; whisking powdered tea) and this tool was subsequently brought to Japan. There is however, ambiguity with respect to what this whisk looked like or how it was used. The first record of the Japanese chasen dates back to the middle of the Muromachi period (1336 - 1573), when Yoshimasa Ashikaga was the 8th Shogun. According to legend, Japanese chasen craft is said to have started when tea master Murata Jukō requested a top quality chasen from his good friend Sosui Irido, who was the second son of the family controlling Takayama Castle.
Murata Jukō was a priest of Shomyoji temple in Takayama. Not only was Murata Jukō a tea master, he was a well-known master of poetry (master of renga and waka) as well as calligraphy. Today, he is generally regarded as the founder of Wabi-cha, and a major influence on the Japanese tea ceremony. It was not until Murata Jukō moved to Kyoto that this particular tea whisk was presented by Sosui Irido to Emperor Gotomimom at the tea ceremony table. It is said that the emperor thoroughly appreciated the hand-crafted and delicate chasen, giving the chasen the name “Takaho” (Later on it became known as Takayama Chasen). Sosui was deeply moved and pleased by these compliments and thereafter dedicated himself yo the art of chasen making and it became the special craft of the Takayama family.
Since then, chasen craftsmen of Takayama have refined their craft, passing on their mastery through many generations. Today, some chasen masters are of the 18th, or even 25th generation. Unfortunately, like many of the treasured craftsmanship skills in Japan, the art of chasen making is on the decline. In fact, most matcha whisks today are mass-produced outside of Japan (with the majority being made in China). However, those of the highest quality are still made in the small village of Takayama, Nara prefecture, from locally grown bamboo, as they have been for over 500 years. There are roughly 18 chasen masters remaining, who are carrying on their families’ traditions. If you have been up to date with the Yunomi newsletters, this past June, we welcomed Suikaen Tanimura Yasuburo, a 25th generation craftsman onto the Yunomi collection. To prevent this traditional craftsmanship from being lost, these families have even begun taking apprentices from outside of their family.
Master bamboo whisk craftsman Tanimura Yasuburo of Suikaen in the Village of Takayama, Nara Prefecture.
First, a few notes about bamboo itself. Bamboo is an evergreen perennial plant in the grass (Poaceae) family. There are about 1,500 bamboo species in the world, and approximately 600 of those can be found in Japan. It can quickly grow tall in warm and humid areas. In fact, in the absence of proper management, as farmers would have traditionally done in rural Japan, many species aggressively spread, and half of the species in Japan are now considered to be invasive.
As bamboo is a grass it does not have a cambium layer like a tree, and the same stem cannot get thicker with each season. A single stem can live for 5-10 years but the whole patch can live for decades, usually until the patch flowers. An interesting fact is that the plants in a bamboo patch bloom in mass, once every 60 - 120 years. When the flowers bloom (a very particular phenomenon), the entire bamboo grove will die, taking about 10 years to recover.
With each season new sprouts, called culms, emerge from the underground rhizome. After the second year, the upward growth of an individual culm slows but the inside of the bamboo (the meat), becomes stronger and harder. Yet, there is a limit to this, and some say it becomes brittle after about 7 years. Thus, most bamboo for craft work is done when the bamboo is between 3 and 7 years. The bamboo used for chasen is typically 3 years old.
Bamboo is known to have unique antibacterial and deodorant properties. In Japan, the skin of dried bamboo shoots was used to carry rice balls and utilized at the butcher shop for wrapping meat. Recently, these antibacterial properties of bamboo have even captured interest from the scientific community, with emerging research investigating the antibacterial properties of bamboo extract. With respect to deodorant properties, it is said that wild bears would eat bamboo leaves to hide their smell from their prey. Indeed, it is well-known that pandas who rely heavily on bamboo for their diet tend to have odorless poops. On another note, the strong and supple properties of bamboo are also attractive. This is reflected in how bamboo is used for a wide-array of traditional household products such as chopsticks, cutting boards, scoops, baskets and colanders. These standout properties of bamboo reflect how bamboo is also very well-suited to make chasen.
While there are hundreds of bamboo species in Japan, certain particularities are required when it comes to bamboo for chasen. Chasen is generally made by harvesting 3-year old bamboos in the late fall, then sun-drying them for a period of 2 months. This cold weather curing is called 寒干し; “Kanboshi” (i.e., literally meaning “cold-dried”). In Takayama, Nara Prefecture, the traditional home of chasen crafting, cold curing has been a scenic winter tradition for the past 500 years.
Scenery of bamboos being cold cured, with the snow enhancing the beauty at Suikaen in the Village of Takayama, Nara Prefecture.
Just as there are optimal environments suited for making Japanese tea, the gentle sunshine and cool breeze of Takayama (located in a mountain area; Takayama literally means high mountains in Japanese) creates a firm bamboo with a nice shiny glaze. The chasen makers of Takayama select high-quality bamboo that have been grown without the use of any chemicals or fungicides. After going through the winter sun-drying process, as seen in the image, the bamboo is then further dried in the warehouse for an additional 2 years. Bamboos that have been broken or bent during this time period are removed, so the bamboo that is used for making chasen are those that have been carefully selected. In fact, in the process of learning the art of chasen making, one of the first essential skills for the chasen craftsperson is to be able to select these bamboos that will end up becoming chasen.
The process of placing the selected bamboo in a large pot and boiling them is called “oil extraction”. It is quite a laborious step because of the heat and the heaviness of the bamboo soaked in water. This step cleans the bamboo, removing naturally occurring particles such as dirt. It also removes excess oil in the bamboo, thereby increasing the durability of bamboo. Cold curing will then follow.
The type of bamboo that is utilized determines the final appearance of the whisk. Chasen are typically made from three varieties of bamboo: white (白竹: shiratake), soot (煤竹: susudake), and black (黒竹: kurotake)/purple bamboo. Some are made from madake (真竹: green, or immature bamboo). In the tea whisk images below, one can observe some differences in shape, color, tine finishing curve, as well as central tine binding style.
A few of Suikaen’s chasens depicting the different types of bamboo that are utilized. From left to right: white, susudake, and kurotake/purple chasen.
The white bamboo is the most common and economic type of bamboo and is well suited for making chasen, due to having smaller but more vascular bundles. The surface is fine, dense, yet easy to break. On the other hand, the black bamboo is the most heavy-duty material for making a matcha whisk. Due to its high density, it is extra difficult to carve. It is more durable though, and can last 3 times longer than a regular white bamboo chasen. The soot bamboo is a unique and rare bamboo because it is bamboo that has been stained by smoke from cooking fires over many decades, even centuries (100-200yrs)! In traditional Japanese houses, these bamboo stalks were used in thatched roofs. The bamboo stalks over and near the hearths (囲炉; irori) of these houses were gradually stained into a unique and natural brownish color, and when these roofs were replaced, the bamboo were sold to tea whisk craftsman to be made into high quality chasen whisks and chashaku scoops. They are now considered to be very rare and precious. As the number of traditional Japanese houses are on the decline, this type may unfortunately disappear with time.
Now that we have touched on the history of the chasen as well as the bamboo used in chasen making, we will finally get into the details of how the chasen takes its beautiful shape and form. After the drying of the bamboo, there are approximately eight steps taken that transform the raw material into a delicate tea ceremony tool. A traditional chasen craftsman makes each chasen by hand with a small knife and a couple special tools, also made of bamboo, of course!
Visual of the steps involved in chasen making by Suikaen. One may also enjoy a video of the process.
1. Haratake (原竹): The very first step is to cut the bamboo into 12cm (4.5 inches) long segments with the node about one third down the length, splitting the bamboo into two sections (see the very first step in the image above). The longer side will be the side with the tines and the shorter side will become the handle.
The first Haratake step: the selected bamboos are being cut for the length of making chasen.
2. Katagi (片木): In the subsequent step called katagi, the tea whisk craftsman will begin to form the tines by shaving the outer layer of skin from the halfway point of the tine side towards the tine tip end. From here, the tine side is split half-way down into 16 segments. Then the craftsman bends each segment back, and using a knife, splits the hard outer skin from the soft inner flesh, which is removed.
3. Kowari (小割): Refers to further splitting of tines. Depending on the style of the chasen, the 16 segments are split even more, anywhere between two to eight times. This results in chasen with between 36 and 120 tines. Note that the art of delicately cutting the bamboo into 80-100 fine tines (each less than 0.1mm at the thinnest point) requires a lot of concentration, skill and hard work. In fact, even a skilled craftsman can only produce around 6 or 7 chasen per day.
4. Aji-kezuri (味削り): After all of the tines are cut, the whisk is then soaked in hot water to soften the bamboo. The craftsman will shave the tines, tapering them from base to the tip, with the final 1-2cm of the tines becoming thin, flexible, and translucent. These flexible tips will then be curled inwards to create their distinctive and delicate shape. This is one of the most essential steps, which requires years of practice and training. In fact, the additional tine flexibility that a craftsman gives to a chasen contributes a lot to forming foam in matcha!
Image capturing Suikaen's Tanimura Yasaburo’s workspace. It is said that the taste of matcha depends on this aji-kezuri step. The small knife in the image above is the only instrument that is utilized in this process. Before this meticulous step, the master will always start by sharpening the small knife.
5. Mentori (面取り): The craftsmen will then shave minute amounts of material from the long edges off of each individual tine, removing rough edges. This helps prevent matcha from sticking to the tines.
6. Shita-ami (下編): After the tines are shaved, they are separated into inner and outer rings by a string of thread that weaves back and forth around the tines so that half of them are in the inner circle and the other half form the outer circle.
7. Ua-ami (上編) x 2 : Two additional rows of threading are added to secure everything in place and a knot is tied at the front of the whisk. This threading is most commonly black, but different colors can be used for various effects and occasions.
8. Shiage (仕上げ): The craftsman fine tunes the whisk’s tines (which are all splayed out at this point), forming them into their final shape. This step often involves twisting the inner tines into a knot. Finally, the finishing touches and inspection is performed by the lead craftsman, who makes sure that all the tines are evenly spaced and form an even circle.
Unlike mass-produced matcha whisks, Takayama chasen are entirely handmade, without the use of machines or chemicals. Before learning about the art of chasen making, it never crossed my mind to think that the initial process started out by the careful selection of bamboos which were then cold cured in the winter time... While I have yet to dance with a Takayama chasen in making matcha (I very much look forward to doing so!), I now have a deeper appreciation for the intricacy that is required in traditional chasen making.
All photos from this blogpost were provided by Suikaen (翠華園), the atelier of master bamboo whisk craftsman Tanimura Yasuburo in the Village of Takayama of Nara Prefecture. Follow their Instagram account to keep up to date with their beautiful and delicate craftsmanship.
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Featured image: Chagusaba tea farming at the Kaneroku Matsumoto Tea Garden where grass surrounding the tea fields are cut, dried and laid between plants to fertilize the field and prevent weeds. Photo shows a freshly planted tea field of koshun cultivar plants.
Water vapor rises and floats to the mountains. Rain falls on the mountain, trickles into the soil, emerges at a spring and eventually flows into the sea. Our agricultural practices affect the soil, the water and even how water moves. Both the tea in the mountains and the fish in the sea call us to work with them in a good way. Excellent tea and healthy ecosystems will be the result.
The relationship among humans, forest and water is one of the most ancient, long lasting and fundamental ways in which we impact the world. In this article we survey how people, and their agricultural needs, have interacted with land and waterways, all the way from mountains down to the sea, with a particular focus on tea. We will touch on nutrient dynamics of tea farms and explain how tea production can impact downstream environments. An example illustrates how collaboration between upland and downstream groups of people ensures the proper functioning of the ecosystems upon which they both depend.
The history of agriculture in Japan is defined by geology, topography and the dictates of rulers and population centers. Most visibly, successive waves of tree cutting were driven by monument building, city construction, charcoal making and also by peasant needs for their own fuel, building material, green material used for fertilizer and of course for food production. The scholar Conrad Totman has done some excellent research on the forest use and management history in Japan, here is a link to a short article. Most of the material for the section on forest history comes from his work, see references.
The most famous, and perhaps extensive, use of Japan’s most ancient and grand trees were to build the numerous temples, shrines, castles and houses of daimyos and emperors. As empires grew, so did cities, constructed almost exclusively of wood. Since fire, due to escaped domestic cooking fires or warfare, frequently destroyed buildings and sometimes huge sections of cities, more wood would be cut to rebuild.
Large old tree in Mount Otake, Toyko Prefecture. Photo courtesy of Moé Kishida.
Forest management, arguably the forerunner of modern nutrient management, was undertaken primarily for two reasons; to ensure stable availability of forest products and to prevent negative downstream effects, such as flooding and drought caused by erosion, silting and uneven water supply from the forest. Silting, which occurs when water carries sediment, has the negative effect of immediately lowering water quality for fish and aquatic life and subsequent negative effect on water flow and stream health when this sediment is deposited downstream. This deposition causes the river to become more shallow, and hence wider, slowing the flow and leading to further sediment deposition, a type of feedback cycle. Sedimentation makes low lying fields, such as rice paddies, much more susceptible to flooding. Rulers thus sought to prevent damage to these productive fields by reducing upstream sediment runoff. This, along with the desire to continue to harvest trees for construction, coal and the myriad of other uses pushed forest management in Japan through experiments with conservation, managed cutting, allowance for regrowth, replanting and then plantation forestry.
Two images of young, reforested woodland area with primarily one tree species. Left photo in Aichi Prefecture, right photo in Ome, Tokyo Prefecture. Photo courtesy of Moé Kishida.
A more intensive yet dispersed use of forest resources is attributable to farmers, who were of course the majority of the population for most of history. Rural people would gather not just cooking and heating fuel, but also collect wood to make charcoal to sell to urban dwellers. Furthermore, the traditional Japanese farming systems relies on the collection of brush, grass, moss, fallen leaves, basically any compostable organic material, for incorporation into farmland soil. This organic material would decompose and nutrients would slowly become available to the crop plants. For the sake of not romanticizing traditional farmer practices, it must also be mentioned that many farmers would burn the organic material and incorporate the ash, which made the nutrients available much more quickly but obviously resulted in the loss of almost all the carbon thereby contributing to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Extensive and intensive tree cutting for fuel and building purposes, notable for cities, temples and houses of the nobility, as well as farmers gathering brush, moss and forest debris, defined and transformed the forest structure, composition and ecology of Japan. One of the interesting examples of the effects of this change in forest structure is how the hiratake (oyster) mushroom, which prefers diverse, mature, fully shaded forests, was replaced around the 13th century by the matsutake mushroom. The matsutake thrives in disturbed landscapes and can grow well in pine dominated forest plantations, which were replaced unplanted diverse forests (Totman, 2000). This link between agricultural expansion, rapid growth of the nobility and the proliferation of matsutake may help explain why matsutake came to be a component of Japanese culture (check out the book “Matsutake, the mushroom at the end of the world” by Anne Tsing, if the relationships between people and mushrooms sounds interesting!).
Delicate and ephemeral Katakuri (Erythronium japonicum, a type of trout lily) flowering in a mixed forest. Photo courtesy of Moé Kishida.
Tea is often grown on the slopes of mountains for the interest of taking advantage of environmental factors often associated with terroir such as temperature swings, morning mist but also due to the practical fact that other crops, such as rice, soybean, buckwheat, fruits etc. are grown on the flat lowlands where their care is much easier. Tea simply lends itself to be cultivated on steeper slopes since each individual row can occupy a separate small terrace. Furthermore, since tea is a perennial crop that does not require tillage and maintains soil cover year-round, it doesn’t contribute to as much erosion as would an annual crop requiring tillage and not covering the soil for part of the year.
A steeply sloped tea field and monoculture forest in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture. Photo by Jimmy Burridge.
Before the modern era made available synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, tea cultivators relied, like almost all other farmers in Japan, on the aforementioned gathering of organic materials from surrounding areas, including forests, to apply to their fields. In the case of tea, this is termed the chagusaba method, mentioned in this interview. Chagusaba, as well as the more contemporary use of processed bat guano or fish meal as fertilizer, provides a relatively slow release of nutrients that naturally occurring soil microbes also use. However, particularly since the introduction of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, tea has often been heavily fertilized. Fertilization can promote lush spring grown and can enable multiple harvests. It can also help produce nitrogen rich leaves with plenty of umami flavor.
As discussed in a previous posts, the umami of high-quality tea is associated with a greater amount of nitrogen rich amino acids. Shading is the classic way to encourage the plant to produce more chlorophyll, the unique molecule that uses sunlight to transform carbon dioxide into sugars, and subsequently into the nitrogen rich compounds that provide the umami flavor.
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer comes from splitting atmospheric nitrogen (two nitrogen atoms triple bonded to each other) and then binding the nitrogen to hydrogen to make ammonia, and subsequently other forms of plant available nitrogen. This process requires a large amount of fossil fuel derived energy to create the high pressure and high temperature environment needed for the reactions. While the process was first developed during World War I, it was only used to produce fertilizer at a large-scale after World War II. In Japan, as in many places, this new source of nitrogen fertilizer came at a time of rapid population growth, yet severely depleted forests and traditional sources of nutrients. For that reason, many thought traditional methods could not support the agricultural demands of rapidly growing population, and indeed, at a global scale the spread of synthetic fertilizer enabled millions of people to be fed. In Japan, the use of synthetic fertilizer was encouraged and widely used through the post war years and into the 1990’s.
However, this fertilization impacts nutrient dynamics, soil health, ecosystem functioning and even human health in ways that are sometimes negative. The principal ways that fertilization can impact the environment is through runoff, leaching and volatilization. Fertilizer runoff and groundwater contamination via leaching occur when fertilizer is applied to the soil but not absorbed by the plant or bound to the soil before being transported by water out of the root zone. Studies have shown that most of the fertilizer applied to a field, in a high fertilization scenario, is not taken up by the plants and a significant portion is lost to the environment the first year (Chen and Lin, 2016). Runoff of nutrients, primarily phosphorus and the nitrate form of nitrogen (N), from farmland contributes to algal blooms and then eutrophication, which reduces water oxygen levels to the point that fish and other aquatic species actually die. Leaching of nutrients through the soil and into groundwater can similarly lead to elevated levels of nutrients in streams and springs where it can negatively impact riparian ecosystems (Nagumo et al., 2012).
As readers in the US may be aware, the Chesapeake Bay watershed is subject to intensive fertilizer management, in order to protect the health of the bay. In the past, unintended fertilizer runoff into the bay caused large algal blooms, leading to eutrophication, that in turn harm plant and animal life, including the all-important fishing industry. Several bodies of water in Europe, such as the Baltic Sea, the North-East Atlantic and the Black Sea also have experienced severe eutrophication problems due to excessive nutrients entering from agricultural areas (European Environmental Agency report summary). China also has major problems with excess nutrients harming water quality and ecosystem function.
Volatilization of fertilizer is the process by which a solid fertilizer is transformed to a gaseous form, usually in conjunction with soil microbes and in interaction with soil temperature, moisture, pH etc. Volatilization of nitrogen containing fertilizer can occur in the form of ammonia (NH3) or nitrous oxide (N20). Ammonia emission is a problem firstly to the farmer because the expensive nitrogen that was applied to the soil is literally floating away, and secondly, because when it returns to the soil it can contribute to soil acidification and eutrophication problems. Agriculture, in specific the use of nitrogen fertilizer, is a significant source of nitrous oxide emission, a potent greenhouse gas (Tian et al., 2020). While tea is only about 1% of total farmland in Japan, tea farming is responsible for more than 10% of N2O farmland emissions, meaning addressing N20 emission in tea is very important (Hirono et al., 2021). Research in Japan has studied nitrous oxide emissions from tea fields and offers tools to help understand and eventually reduce N20 production (Hirono and Nonaka, 2012; Zou et al., 2014).
Soil can also become more acidic due to fertilizing and farming tea (Yan et al., 2018). Acidic soil impacts the soil microbial community as well as root and plant growth. Studies have quantified how water leaching from acidified agricultural land enters groundwater and emerges in springs and streams to eventually impact fish and amphibians (Hirono et al., 2009; Yan et al., 2018). Recent research has broadened the scope of the effects of N fertilization to the soil microbial community and found that N fertilization, possibly in part via acidification, has decreased microbial diversity, weakened microbial community diversity and lowered soil microbial community stability (Ma et al., 2021).
Nitrogen application rates increased from the 1960’s through the 1990’s when focus shifted to reducing N application rates and improving nitrogen use efficiency (Hirono et al., 2021). Extensive and long-term environmental surveys of water quality in streams, springs and groundwater in an intensive tea growing region in Shizuoka show a downward trend of nitrate nitrogen in water systems surrounding tea fields since the 1990’s (Hirono et al., 2009). Much work by researchers, agronomists and farmers has been devoted to improve N uptake and utilization efficiency by using new techniques, technologies or simply adjusting the rate, timing and application method (Watanabe, 1995; Wang et al., 2020). Fertilizer management strategies, including limiting runoff from sloped field have been developed (Wang et al., 2018, 2020). Further developments of fertilizer recommendation strategy involve better characterization of the temporal dynamics of nutrient uptake by tea in order to match application with uptake (Tang et al., 2020). Other work has compared identical applications of synthetic fertilizer to a rapeseed (a plant in the brassica family) derived fertilizer and shown the rapeseed derived fertilizer reduces risk of soil acidification and water eutrophication (Xie et al., 2021). Nevertheless, total fertilizer (N and P) applications to tea plantations remains high and risks to surface, groundwater and eventually bays and lagoons and even the sea itself remain (Nagumo et al., 2012).
Precise and responsible management of steep tea fields at the Kiroku tea garden in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture. Photo courtesy of Kiroku Tea Garden.
Fishers in Japan have known of the links between the health of the fisheries and the health of agricultural and forest land for decades, and arguably for centuries. Certain coastal forest are even named ‘Uotsuki-rin’ – ‘fish breeding forests’ (Iwasaki, 2021). Seasonal ceremonies are still practiced that link forest and sea by bringing sea water to a forest shrine (Iwasaki, 2021). In another case, spring snowmelt causes a particular spring at the Nigatsu-dō temple in Nara to overflow and begin its descent to the sea, indicating the beginning of spring (Bedini, 1994). In spite of indicators that people historically knew about the connections between mountains and sea, it took some time to connect the dramatic changes in nutrient dynamics and ecosystem functioning to the introduction of chemical fertilizers.
The Ariake Sea in Kyushu prefecture is a salt water bay receiving fresh water from seven main rivers. It has the largest collection of tidal flats in Japan and demonstrates the challenge of managing nutrients and the interests of different actors. Ariake Bay provides nursery habitat for wild fish, as well as substantial aquaculture activities including seaweed and shellfish (Yagi et al., 2011). However, its drainage basin has also historically been intensively farmed, and into the present day, much tea is cultivated in the upland regions with vegetables and rice in lowland areas (Shiratani et al., 2005). As such, nutrient runoff and eroded soil entering the bay has been a challenge that affects fish, shellfish and seaweed cultivation. While innovative water recycling systems, improved upland and lowland farm management and other measures have improved conditions, government agencies, farmers and researchers continue to try to understand and resolve the challenges.
Two perspectives of a small waterway running through a semi-managed forest in Ome, Tokyo Prefecture. Photos courtesy of Moé Kishida.
As noted above, reduced application rates to tea fields has improved water quality in the Shizuoka region (Hirono et al., 2009), a trend that is likely to be consistent in other tea growing regions of Japan. There is a general movement towards more precise, appropriate and well-timed fertilizer use. A resurgent interest in reconnecting to traditional practices offers further promise to help regenerate healthy ecosystems, as the satoyama movement shows. Satoyama is a traditional agrarian landscape, one in which farmers and foresters modify the landscape and produce a type of mosaic of ecologic systems consistent with the previous couple millennia (Ito and Sugiura, 2021). Some satoyama groups focus on creating the complex human managed landscapes that produce the famous matsutake mushroom (Satsuka, 2014). That groups of young and old people, urban and rural come together to help revitalize traditional practices is an encouraging example of how people and environments can re-learn to live well together.
An inspiring recent article identified 3784 cases of forest and fishery initiatives supporting better water quality and fish habitats (Iwasaki, 2021). The author outlines several examples, including a reforestation project known as ‘The sea is longing for the forest’ in Miyagi / Iwate, which was initiated by an oyster famer concerned about watershed level ecosystem health. Another example in Kumamoto involves clam farmers, this time in Ariake Bay. The farmers there noticed the negative impacts of upstream soil erosion on their clams and started working with upland communities to reforest sensitive land and reduce erosion. Other projects addressed issues related to seaweed and sea urchin production. Japan is one of the few countries that has these sorts of farmer led initiatives that address watershed health by linking forest and sea. The type of agency and collaboration these collaborative projects demonstrate is very heartening.
People making space for cute forest spirits and good luck in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture! Photo by Jimmy Burridge.
Now we understand more about how changes in forest species composition, forest age structure and the soil itself effect water retention ability as well as the health and reproductive success of fish and amphibians. Migratory fish that travel upstream to lay eggs can play an important role in bringing nutrients from the sea or downstream lakes, but their migration and reproduction are sensitive to waterway health.
Modern tea production requires nitrogen inputs, even if from organic sources such as locally sourced green manure, spent soybean from soy sauce or miso production, fish meal or bat guano. This can be expensive and synthetic forms in particular, may runoff or leach into groundwater. Good management, which includes proper selection of product, as well as timing and rate of application are important. Many ecologically responsible tea farmers have both reduced fertiliser inputs and improved management. Tea farmers are recognizing the connectivity between tea farming and downstream partners and doing their part to support healthy waterways, which has positive effects on everyone downstream, even fish and fishermen.
Today, I would like to delve into the topic of shading and shaded teas. If you enjoy drinking gyokuro, kabusecha, or matcha, you have already tried teas that have been cultivated through different shading techniques.
In fact, Yunomi tea merchant Ian Chun has previously touched on this topic in an earlier blog post (Check out: How does Shading affect the Type and Quality of Tea?). Today, we will expand a bit on this topic as shading becomes more common in the world of Japanese tea!
Shade growing cultivation [Japanese: 被覆栽培; hifuku saibai] is a method of cultivating tea plants by shading them prior to harvest. This shading blocks a certain amount of sunlight from reaching new tea leaves for a certain period of time, changing the tea leaf. Also referred to as "covering" [被せ; kabuse] in the tea industry, it is a cultivation method that is employed to make tea leaves more tender, more green, with greater umami flavor and less bitterness / astringency—qualities that increases the quality of the resulting tea.
In general, the teas that are cultivated utilizing the cover cultivation method include gyokuro, kabusecha, and tencha. Gyokuro and tencha are made by being shaded for approximately 20 days or more, and kabusecha is cultivated by a shorter shading period lasting about 10-14 days.
In contrast to these teas, "sencha" typically refers to non-shaded tea (grown in full sunlight). However, you can also say sencha refers any green tea where the leaves are steamed and then rolled (so this excludes tencha where the leaves are not rolled). So sencha can be shaded a few days to increase its quality a little, or shaded and unshaded leaves can even be blended to either increase the quality or increase the volume. However, since kabusecha and gyokuro named teas fetch a higher price, there is little point in naming a gyokuro a sencha tea.
When did shading as a technique begin? Shading was a technique which began in the latter half of the 16th century with the original purpose being to protect the early tea leaf sprouts from frost damage when the temperatures still dropped low in early spring.
With time and experience however, tea farmers soon began to notice that the quality of the tea which had been shaded for frost protection was better—greener with a better aroma and flavor. Farmers also noticed that tea bushes grown surrounded by forest (i.e., more shade) and in forested areas also produced higher quality tea. In this way, shading grew into a technique which was utilized to produce high quality tea.
In 1835, a young Yamamoto Kahei VI (the 6th head of Yamamotoyama in Edo, the old name for Tokyo) while visiting Uji, Kyoto, to learn about tencha production at farmer/producer Kinoshita Kichizaemon, rolled the in-production tencha leaves in little balls and dried them. He took them back to Edo and called them Tama no Tsuyu (balls of dew, written 玉の露 -- the kanji then becoming gyokuro 玉露). This history of gyokuro continues from there as Eguchi Shigejuro 江口茂十郎 from Uji realized that the sweetness came from the shading of the leaves during cultivation.
Considering the fact that plants need water, sunlight and good soil, it may seem rather strange that we would want to limit the amount of sunlight that the tea bushes receive. But, just as a healthy amount of stress (eustress) can be good for human performance, stressors such as limiting sunlight can also influence the growth and chemical processes of the plant in a positive way. In fact, shading has advantages with respect to three essential aspects of tea: taste, aroma, and color.
Taste: Maximizing Umami
Perhaps the most significant reason for cover cultivation lies in obtaining the umami flavor that Japanese tea is known for. You may have heard of L-theanine amino acid, the chemical component that is responsible for the umami flavor in Japanese tea.
When exposed to sunlight however, theanine transforms to catechins, increasing astringency and bitterness. When shaded however, a greater amount of L-theanine in the leaves is retained, maximizing the amount of umami. In contrast, the amount of caffeine (which has a more refreshing bitterness in comparison to catechins) will be enhanced with shading. In this way, teas that are cultivated with shading tend to be low in astringency and bitterness and the tea drinker may better appreciate and access the umami and sweetness!
Unique Green Seaweed-like Aroma
By shading the tea leaves, a unique green seaweed-like scent that is referred to as a covering aroma [被覆香り; hifuku kaori; 覆い香り; ooi kaori] will be present in the tea leaves. This scent is created by making an aroma component called dimethyl sulfide. While too much dimethyl sulfide will lead to an unpleasant odor, if it is a small amount, it mixes with the other aroma components to create a refreshing and pleasant aroma of tea. The "covering aroma”, which can be said to be proof of the cover cultivation, is a scent which is representative and proof of high quality tea. Because kabusecha is shaded for a shorter period of time in comparison to gyokuro and matcha, this unique aroma will generally be weaker in a kabusecha.
However, the "covering aroma” can mask the scent of the actual tea leaves and cultivar specific characteristics, so it may not be suitable if the tea farmer is hoping to retain a unique or characteristic aroma.
Beautiful Color
Another aspect that is enhanced through shading is the color of the tea leaves. Because the shaded tea plants have to do photosynthesis with less sunlight, the plants must produce more chlorophyll to do the same amount of photosynthesis. The greater amount of chlorophyll, in comparison to a non-shaded tea plant, produces a dark but bright, beautiful lush green color. Moreover, because shaded tea leaves try to increase their surface area to obtain the most amount of sunlight possible, shaded tea leaves tend to be softer and more delicate, making them easier to process into an elegant and fine looking tea.
Kurihara Tea Garden’s heritage gyokuro tea leaves shining with life and color!
Now that we’ve talked about some of the benefits of shading, I would like to also touch on the different approaches that are used for shading ranging from traditional to current methods. While we will go into the details of these different types, each method is used similarly. That is, to produce high-quality tea (taste, aroma, color), prolong the harvest period, as well as to protect the tea bushes from frost.
The Traditional Honzu Technique [本簾(ほんず)被覆; honzu hifuku]
This is the traditional shading method for ceiling shelf covering, it is almost never applied directly onto the tea bushes. Today, this method is utilized to produce very high quality gyokuro and tencha (used for matcha). A key characteristic of the honzu technique is that the shading is done with organic material such as straw, bamboo or reeds. With this approach, tea farmers gradually increase the amount of shading by adding more material to the roof every few days, increasing the percentage of sunlight that is cut off over time.
Kuma Tea Garden's Traditional Shading
To illustrate an example, 50% of reeds could cover the entire tea field during the first 7-10 days (i.e., sunlight is blocked 55-60%). The subsequent step would be to layer 600-700kg of rice straw, evenly spread on top of the reeds, which will block 95 - 98% of sunlight, for approximately 10 days. At Yunomi, when the traditional honzu technique is applied, we call it “Heritage Grade” (e.g., Kurihara Tea #16: Competition Grade Saemidori Heritage Gyokuro Green Tea).
Spring harvest scene from the Kurihara Tea Farm to produce their heritage grade gyokuro. While it is rare to come across tea farmers utilizing the traditional approaches, some tea farmers will go through the labor intensive process to enter competitions and make the finest quality teas. Photo by Kurihara Tea Farm (Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture, 2020).
Shading with straw, bamboo, or reeds provides the ideal shade for the tea bushes (Just imagine how nice it would be to be present with tea bushes that are underneath natural shading!). Unfortunately, this traditional technique of shading requires intense labor as the tea farmer needs to gather the shading materials and they must maintain the shading structure in optimal condition during the growing season. For this reason, it is a technique that is now rarely employed. In fact, if you have visited the tea fields during early spring time in Japan, you may have come across a different and more common type of shading - black synthetic fiber material that covers the tea fields. This shading approach with black synthetic fiber material is called kanreisha [寒冷紗] in Japanese. Different types of fiber are available with varying opacity. Thus, in comparison to the uneven shading that may occur with the honzu technique using natural material, with synthetic fibers the tea farmer is able to regulate the obscurity of his shade grown tea bushes more, accurately, uniformly and effectively.
Close up of the black synthetic fiber material used for shading; Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture.
The black synthetic fiber material is generally applied to dual-layered shading method, tunnel shading method, or with direct covering. We will elaborate on each of these structures below:
The Dual-layered Shading Method [棚型二段被覆; tanagata nidan hifuku] is similar to the traditional honzu technique in both structure and purpose. First, the construction of this shading method is a simplified version of the honzu technique. It is built on a shelf-like construction of metal bars. Secondly, the dual-layered shading method is used for the production of gyokuro and tencha and additional layers can be applied on top of the same structure to progressively limit light. Although shading with organic materials requires the structure to be built and taken down after each harvest season, with the dual-layered shading method, the synthetic fibers can remain rolled up in the field throughout the entire year giving the producer greater flexibility with respect to use of shading for purposes such as temperature regulation and protection from frost/cold depending on the time of year.
While the dual-layered shading method is clearly easier to maintain in comparison to the traditional technique, there are a myriad of benefits of utilizing the traditional approach. As you can imagine, with honzu shading, the natural material used for shading allows the tea plants to breathe, which allows for better airflow. Further, the aroma of the straw (mmm!) becomes present in the air that the tea leaf absorbs, adding to the taste of that tea a unique trait that can only be obtained under organic material. When it rains, it is believed that the raindrops that have managed their way through the thick layer of straw will carry with them particles of nourishment that the straw has bestowed onto them, which they in turn deliver to the shade grown tea leaf and soil. The straw itself, after it has been used on top of the tea garden, is also used as a means of fertilizer. Although natural shading cannot be re-utilized like the synthetic fiber material, it does serve other meaningful purposes. That is, after it has served its primary purpose of shading, the straw is dropped into the tea field and layered out in-between the tea bushes. The straw then serves an essential role in the regulation of soil temperature of the tea field, which minimizes the growth of weeds and grasses, and, as it decomposes, makes its way into the soil to return as nourishment for the subsequent year’s new buds (does this remind you of chagusaba?).
Tunnel Shading Method [トンネル被覆; tonneru hifuku]
Mainly used for the production of kabusecha (lightly-shaded tea), with this approach, only one layer of synthetic fiber material is applied over glass fiber poles (8-10mm in diameter) that are bent in an arc shape, thus giving the canopy a tunnel shape. With this approach, the covering has a shading rate of 60 to 75%, and to make kabusecha, the shading is maintained between 10-14 days just before harvesting.
A downside to this approach is that it tends to be rather time consuming for tea farmers to set up the poles and then to put the shading over the poles. The majority of tea farmers prefer the direct shading method. Check out the tunnel shading method here (Japanese link)
Direct Shading Method [直接被覆; chokusetsu hifuku]
The least time consuming and most economical shading method that is used today for the cultivation of shaded teas (ranging from normal gyokuro, kabusecha, tencha, and even sencha). Because it is the most common, if you have visited a major tea producing region in Japan, it is likely that you have come across this type of shading. This approach of shading is similar but more simplified in comparison to the tunnel shading method, as the tea farmer simply lays the black synthetic fiber directly on top of the tea bushes.
Kuma Tea Gardens in Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture setting up their Direct Shading.
Kiroku Tea Garden's directly shaded tea bushes (to left) in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture.
The use of matcha for food began around the 1980’s followed by the demand for matcha for ice cream and beverages increasing in the Heisei Era (1989-2019). The popularity of matcha for both Japanese and Western consumers is one of the major factors leading to a significant increase in the production of shaded tea. Because the matcha produced for processing generally requires lower quality tencha, the direct shading method is applied to reduce costs for production. With time, the direct shading approach is predicted to continue expanding in the tea industry.
Okay! That will be all from me on shading and Japanese tea. I hope that you were able to discover something new with respect to this topic. If any additional questions arise, don't hesitate to leave us questions/comments. Shading is an art of Japanese tea cultivation and I hope that you will be able to enjoy different shades of Japanese teas utilizing all of your senses!
]]>If you are familiar with the typical Japanese tea, you probably think of the end of April ~ beginning of May to be the prime tea harvest season. After all, there is that famous traditional Japanese tea song which mentions the nearing of summer and the 88th night for tea harvesting. There is, however, a traditional tea in Japan called “Kancha” (寒茶) that is harvested during the coldest months of the year. Kancha literally means “cold tea” in English (i.e., ‘kan’ means cold and ‘cha’ means tea) as the leaves are harvested during the winter season. Traditionally, this period corresponded to “daikan” (Japanese: 大寒;meaning big cold) in the the old East Asian calendar before “risshun” or the beginning of Spring (approximately January 20 ~ February 4th).
Currently, the harvest period varies from region to region but usually happens between January to mid-February. In this sense, kancha could be thought of as the earliest harvested tea leaves of the New Year! The leaves look like fallen leaves in the winter and it is categorized in the broad bancha (coarse late harvested tea) category.
Thick and broad kancha leaves with a gentle sweet aroma; photos by Tea Farm Mitocha.
The major difference between tea bushes for kancha in comparison to tea bushes grown for what is now considered to be the typical Japanese tea (e.g., sencha, gyokuro) is that the tea leaves harvested to make kancha will come from tea plants that are generally left in the wild (i.e., without much human tending and caring) along with their surrounding environment. So, the tea plants of kancha are more like trees as they are not trimmed down as is typical with other commercial tea fields. This may perhaps remind one of the sannen bancha that is made by letting the tea bushes grow for three years.
Another element to note about kancha is that the tea leaves to make kancha are harvested by hand, scissors, or with a kama (type of sickle). The leaves will be harvested along with a good proportion of the branch. Steaming will follow the harvesting process. In comparison to other Japanese green teas, the steaming process is quite long lasting from 30 minutes to an hour. After steaming, the leaves and twigs are separated and the last step is to sun-dry the tea leaves (Tenbiboshi in Japanese).
In Shishikuichou, which is one of the villages where kancha is made, there are additional steps such that their way of making kancha goes: harvest, steam, roll leaves individually by hand, sundry, and then hand-roll again. Here, you can see some images of the kancha making process (Note: article in Japanese).
The steaming process of kancha making. The Tea leaves and stems are steamed in a steamer made from wooden barrels and placed over steam created from boiling water with firewood; Photo by Tea Farm Mitocha.
Kancha is quite rare these days but there are two main variations of this folk tea depending on the region where it originated.
Asuke, Aichi Prefecture
While Nishio in Aichi Prefecture is well-known for their high quality matcha, there is also a town called Asuke (Japanese: 足助; currently merged into the expanded city of Toyota) that is famous for their Asuke Kancha (足助寒茶). The young tea farmer Yuki Kayashita from Tea Farm Mitocha has been working to preserve Japanese traditional folk teas and is currently making kancha in the style of Asuke Village. While his farm is based in Nara Prefecture, he learned from farmers in Asuke Village. I recently ordered his makibi kancha firewood winter green tea to try and it was delightful to open a tea bag full of wintry tea leaves with a nice comforting sweet smell of the leaves and sunshine!
Enjoying Tea Farm Mitocha’s kancha outside on the winter solstice… Yes, tea cups can have long and pretty shadows, too!
Shishikui, Tokushima Prefecture
The other village where kancha is produced is in the town of Shishikui (Japanese: 宍喰), which is a cozy mountainous hamlet of approximately twenty farm houses in the Southernmost part of Tokushima Prefecture. If you ask the grandmas of this region that make the kancha, they will tell you with confidence that they have drank various kinds of teas but that they would prefer the coarse tea leaves picked in the winter time (rather than the soft new leaves in the spring) as they are full of nutrition and they are also the sweetest!
Here, the people in this village actually call these fields “tea fields made by field mice” as wild mice pick many of the tea seeds before hibernating to feed on them. I actually never knew wild animals were interested in tea seeds as a nutritious resource until coming across the kancha story! What is quite cute is that these field mice carry these tea seeds to their nest or hide them in storage places. However, because they are not too skillful and forgetful, the tea seeds will sprout from random places and grow into tea bushes. Thanks to these field mice, the tea fields expand naturally on their own and with tea farmers purposely planting tea seeds, that creates good teamwork!
In both Asuke and Shishikui, the tea leaves necessary to make kancha are harvested from rather wild tea fields. Thus, it is not necessary to use pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Often, the kancha tea fields are located in slopey mountainous areas. Moreover, rather than being separate from the forest (as is commonly seen in commercial tea fields), trees also coexist with the tea bushes. For instance, in the summertime, the deciduous trees will provide natural shading preventing the tea bushes from obtaining too much sun and therefore bitterness. In the fall, trees such as oak trees will shed their leaves providing natural fertilizer to the tea bushes. This natural environment also preserves the neat coexistence with wild mountainous animals such as field mice and wild boars. Perhaps, the regrettable aspect of kancha is that it is not produced a lot as there are only a handful of people that prepare this tea. Furthermore, the people that know how to make this tea are aging. That being said, kancha is not often sold on the market and it is a drink that is mainly for the local people. This is why kancha is considered to be a rare folk tea.
Well, since it is the shortest day on the Northern Hemisphere, I will wrap this blogpost up so that it is relatively short and light. But if you are feeling up for more related reading, please check out the links below. Enjoy!
Further Reading/Related Articles
Featured image: Makibi kancha firewood winter green tea by Tea Farm Mitocha.
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Moé: First, I would like to start by thanking you for taking the time today to do this interview with us. I know that Ian-san (Ian Chun) already interviewed you via Instagram a year or so ago, so there may be some overlap between the questions but I thought it would be nice to have an interview from a tea farmer like yourself (i.e., non-Japanese) in a blogpost form so that people could have access to it in written form. So, you are originally from the US, is that correct?
Yancy: Yes, I grew up in Washington State, across the water from Seattle. And before I moved to Japan, I was living in Colorado for about four years.
Moé: Well, I guess I will dive right in to ask --- I am curious to hear your story with respect to how you ended up as a tea farmer in Japan?
Yancy: In 2015, I went backpacking, just traveling. I went down to Mexico and I didn’t have much of a plan. And I ended up traveling with three people from different parts of the world. And one of those girls was a Japanese girl. And so, eventually we ended up traveling together down to Ecuador for seven months. And basically, we fell in love. I first went back to the States because I spent all of my money traveling. I worked for about three months and then I moved to Japan. And Japan wasn’t really anything I had thought of before, I was mostly interested in budget traveling and cheap traveling. I didn’t know anything about Japan but my girlfriend at the time was just telling me she had a guesthouse in the mountains and was rafting. So I just came here and then ended up working for a tea farmer doing harvesting and tea trimming and some grasscut work. I didn’t have any other real job. I was just doing part-time work… hmm, do you speak Japanese?
Moé: Yes... Although I'm afraid it’s rusty, especially now with Covid and being in France without having many Japanese connections in my vicinity. But after all, I am Japanese.
Yancy: Sometimes, I don’t know. I don’t just speak English.
Moé: Oh, you can mix the language if that helps. I code mix all of the time.
Yancy: Great, I was going to say arubaito (part-time). Anyhow, I was just working for this tea farmer. And there’s not a lot of young people where I live (*Since there are not many young people in Otoyo, a young man is about 65 years old). So I kind of just became this go-to guy when they wanted someone to come help out on the farm. And he just took me down to this other farm that had been abandoned for about three years and said,
“Yeah, you need a job! So if you want, you can cut this tea down and it will come back. And then, you can start farming on this property.”
At the time, there was a woman living in the house on the property but she doesn’t live there anymore so it is an akiya (abandoned house). So anyways, I didn’t have any other super important things to do so I cut the tea down really short and then it just came back over the next year. That is, I could harvest the following year.
Moé: Not bad!
Yancy: So I received that farm and then another farm in which the people had been running it until they decided they don’t want to do it anymore. So the second tea farm was in a lot better condition. Last year my harvest was a larger quantity.
Moé: So you have been receiving these tea farms that have been abandoned. And you are in Otoya village, Kochi Prefecture?
Yancy: No, Otoyo.
Moé: Pardon, Otoyo. I am not familiar with that particular region.
Yancy: Have you been in Shikoku (One of the five main islands in Japan)?
Moé: Yes, well, only for short trips. I’ve been in Ehime Prefecture which was mainly to ride the Shimanami Kaido bike path and I also spent a week or so in a rural village called Hoichi in Tokushima Prefecture to help out at a rural community theater event.
Yancy: Oh! So my farm is just on the border between the Prefectures Kochi and Tokushima. Actually my farm is in Tokushima.
Moé: I see, and may I ask whether all of these interactions are happening in Japanese?
Yancy: Yeah, pretty much. My Japanese isn’t so great. Still, I have gotten a lot better. I’ve picked it up. So, I just started farming tea. And pretty much watching what everyone else does. And then doing the same thing. I trim my tea twice a year and then I only do one harvest.
Moé: So just the ichibancha (first flush) harvest?
Yancy: Yes.
Moé: And did you have interest in Japanese tea prior to moving to Kochi? Or was it something you sort of fell into?
Yancy: This was just something I fell into. I think maybe before I moved to Japan, I don’t know if I had ever drank green tea [laughter]. You know, I didn’t move with some sort of tea passion, not at all. I just liked the work. I liked the people doing the work. It was something to do, it was interesting. And it has been fun and fulfilling to build this pretty small tea business with my wife.
Moé: Very neat, I noticed you are pretty new to the Yunomi site. Could you remind me how long you have been tea farming?
Yancy: For about four years and I have done three tea harvests. This is maybe the first year, or perhaps the second year that I’ve started selling tea on Yunomi.
Moé: We have not interviewed a non-Japanese tea farmer before... Could you share with us some of the challenges that you have encountered, if any?
Yancy: Like from being a foreigner?
Moé: It could be yes, from being a foreigner. But also I would be open to hear about any additional challenges that a new tea farmer could face.
Yancy: For me, the challenge in tea farming is making money [laughter]. So, most small tea farms process tea at their own factory. They have a factory close to their farm or one that is their own. But I don’t have all the tea factory equipment. And I don’t own a tea factory. So I end up paying a big tea factory that processes many small tea farmers’ teas. I end up spending about a third of what all the tea is worth to the factory. And then another third goes into fertilizer, all the arubaito people (part-time workers), and the packaging. I do kind of nice packaging… it’s got a zip seal and thicker package. Once all the money goes into the business, it’s hard to make very much. And then selling the tea is actually also kind of challenging in Japan.
Check out Yancha's nice tea packaging!
Moé: I imagine…
Yancy: I sell tea at a farmer’s market down in Kochi. So, there are instances where I do sell a lot of tea, but it’s hard. And it takes a lot of time. I would guess I make maybe 500yen (about $4.40) an hour or less when it’s all been done. But I guess if it wasn’t that way, then people wouldn’t be giving away tea farms [laughter]. If you are in Kyoto or have a bigger farm, I would imagine it’s easier. Some tea farmers have a lot better system, a more profitable system in comparison to what I have here. And finding workers is hard, too. There’s not many young people. The older people here are pretty busy doing their own thing. They have their own farms. So they aren’t really interested in coming to my farm to trim tea, although they will come to my farm if I ask them to help out.
Yancy selling his teas at the Kochi farmer's market (Nichi yo ichi) on Sunday. October 24, 2020.
Moé: So, these would be challenges that come with living in rural Japan, correct?
Yancy: Yes. But I guess kind of a good point about being a foreigner though, is maybe that it’s easier to sell tea. Because I catch people’s attention. You know, I am the only white guy that is selling anything. There’s one other foreigner that has a vegetable stand but it’s a really big Sunday market and people are walking past me and they look up at me and go,
“What!? A white guy is selling tea???” and then they always ask me,
“Are you growing this tea?”
And I tell them, “Yes, I am a tea farmer.”
Their response is along the lines of, “What!?!?!, a tea farmer!?” (i.e., in astonishment).
And that way, it makes it easier for me to sell tea.
Moé: I can almost visualize the scenery [laughter]... but they probably just want to support you or they are simply curious to try your teas!
Zoom world snapshot - While Covid has made travel more challenging, we are also grateful we can interview our tea farmers in this type of format. This interview has inspired me to visit Yancy’s tea village and future guesthouse. Hopefully, I can make it there in person in the near future!
Moé [continued]: I know that there are traditional folk teas in the Shikoku area. Like the goishicha, although unfortunately, I have not tried this tea yet.
Yancy: Actually, the goishicha is from where I live. From Otoyo Village. The main goishicha farm is actually just down the road from me...
Moé: Oh, that is very neat! But you just make the typical Japanese tea like sencha and hojicha? Not the goishicha?
Yancy: I haven’t done fermented teas. So I do sencha. The sencha that has all the stem material as well. Then, I do the tokusen sencha (premium sencha Yabukita cultivar), which has the smaller stems sorted out. And when I get the bags of stem tea, I make hojicha from that. I was also buying bancha from the farmer that I was working for and making hojicha and making a profit from that. And I have received pretty good reviews of my hojicha.
Moé: So would you say that your hojicha is the tea that you would recommend to the customers at Yunomi?
Yancy: I guess I wouldn’t really know... But my hojicha is unique because I roast it on a “baisenki” (roasting machine). And I do it over charcoal that I made. So I made my own charcoal and then I just have a rotisserie, I think it’s called a baisenki. And I turn it by hand, and it’s all done by feel. There’s two holes on each end and then when the smoke starts to come out a little bit, I usually wait about 2-3 minutes and take it out. And then I will do another batch. So it’s just like a slow roasted hojicha. I think what I sent to Ian was a lighter roast. So I always get really good reviews on the hojicha and it’s kind of unique because I am making it by hand, and it’s tasty. I think it always changes a little bit, too. Sometimes, I make it from the ”kuki” (stems) and then sometimes I make it from “bancha”. And then, if I don’t sell all of my sencha this year, then I will turn this year’s sencha into a hojicha.
Moé: How long does the roasting process take you, when you are roasting it by hand?
Yancy: I can do about 500g in one time. Usually it’s like 13 minutes when I am timing it. To do 500g and then I pour it into a container. And then I put another 500g in. And I am always doing this on a rainy day. If I can’t work, if I can’t do anything on the farm, or my work gets cancelled for rain a lot of the time. So usually, it’s during the rainy season. I tell myself, okay, I have a day. I can sit at home. So I am going to turn this rotisserie over charcoal, listen to music and make hojicha today [laughter]. I usually spend a day making hojicha. It takes me a total of 5-6 hours and I usually only do 4-6kg batches. It’s not a lot. And then, I usually sell the hojicha pretty quickly and then I will need to make more.
Moé: So you mentioned this challenge of making a profit from tea. Do you envision yourself continuing tea farming in the future?
Yancy: Yeah, I am going to keep doing tea and farming tea. So, I mentioned before we were running a guest house out of the house we are living in. And we shut down the guest house about two years ago. I think for two years we haven’t taken any customers, just because we have two daughters now. The way we have it set up is that right now, I am in a tatami room [Yancy shows me the space around him], this used to be the guest house side. It’s a “kominka”, a really old house. It had a grass roof on it when I bought it. It was a really good setup for two people, a couple or a single person to have a guest house. But when you have two daughters, we just got too busy. I’m working and then after we pick-up the kids from hoikuen (kindergarten) it’s time for dinner and it just gets too noisy. It’s noisy, and so we haven’t been running the guest house for that reason. But we recently found a new house that’s just down the road. So we are going to open the guest house back up and we are also working on some other small business plans that kind of all fits into tea. I want to do bike tours in Otoyo.
Moé: Oh, bike tours and tea! That would definitely make me want to visit…
Yancy: Yes, we have all these beautiful scenic mountain roads with very little traffic. And we are working on opening a bike touring business and then reopening this guest house. That makes selling tea a lot easier if you have other customers coming through your business. Whenever we were doing the guest house, I would be sitting in the “irori” (traditional Japanese sunken hearth) room chatting with customers, drinking tea. And almost always sell a couple bags of tea. So I will keep trying for a little while.
Moé: That sounds like an exciting plan. So if you had a vision of yourself in 5 or 10 years, would you say it would revolve around this guest house but that tea farming would kind of be the central component?
Yancy: The guest house, bike touring business, and also farming and selling tea. I like doing my own work when I can. I was enjoying that for about the first 3-4 years that I lived in Japan, I was just kind of doing different handyman things, grass cutting, just helping out the people in my village. And then just a little over a year ago, I ended up starting work for a construction company. But you know, I have different plans. So my 5 year plan doesn’t involve working for a construction company [laughter].
Soba flowers in full bloom
Moé: Shifting gears from future visions to I guess current activities in your day-to-day life, I saw that you also do non-related tea products on your farm. Like soba and yuzu?
Yancy: Yep! So we grow soba, it’s kind of just a nice cover crop to plant in the summertime. It just grows and it has pretty beautiful flowers, and then we harvest the seeds in the fall. We cut down all of the plants and hang them and dry them. Towards the end of December, I will shake all of the seeds off the stalks and then I have a mill for milling the soba, and we will have toshikoshi soba! (*Soba noodles that are specifically consumed on New Year’s Eve to wish for longevity and health for the coming year).
Moé: Very cool, so you make your own soba noodles?
Yancy: Well, we are pretty bad at actually making the noodles… We make our own sobako (buckwheat flour) and use it to make pancakes and such but we are very bad at making the noodles [laughter]. And then the house came with some yuzu lemon trees, 6-7 trees. I planted about 10 more and then I think 8, or 6 of them died… because I put too much fertilizer.
Yuzu harvesting and work with one of his daughters, November 2nd, 2020.
Moé: Oh no… But Shikoku must be a great place for citrus trees. Well, we as Japanese know that Ehime Prefecture is very well known for their mikans for example.
Yancy: Yes, we have lots of mikans and different kinds of citrus.
Moé: So, would you say that these are all side projects around tea?
Yancy: They are just “Shumi” (hobbies).
Moé: [Laughter] Okay. Well, small delights are always nice to maintain in one’s everyday life.
Yancy: Just like we have chickens. They just recently started laying eggs. I got them last February, I think. I was thinking, I am just going to eat these chickens. And then I came home four days later and we had like four eggs and chicken poop [laughter]. We’ve been doing blueberries, too. Right now we have 7 blueberry plants planted that we started doing about three years ago and we have 8 more in pots right outside here that we have to plant in a month or so. And that’s kind of also potentially something we can tie into the guest house. People pay for mikan-picking, apple-picking, pumpkin picking etc…so that could just be a small thing we can do in the future. So maybe we can have people go out in the morning and pick our blueberries. But really, it’s just a hobby. All my farming projects are just hobbies except tea. I want to make money with tea. Everything else is just a hobby.
Moé: So in our tea farmer interviews through Yunomi, we have been inquiring about the effects of climate change on tea farming. I know that you have been tea farming for a shorter period of time but I was curious to ask whether you have noticed any influences of climate change on tea farming on a day-to-day basis, or whether this is a topic that you consider as a tea farmer?
Yancy: I wouldn’t actually know anything about that. I haven’t been doing it long enough. And I think nobody has really ever mentioned it to me. You know, all the other tea farmers. Where my tea farm is, it’s a tea village. Almost everyone has, you know, some small or more larger tea farm. But no one has mentioned anything to me about climate change. We did have a problem two years ago, in the spring. Where the new May came out. The tea started growing for ichibancha. And then we had one night of “shimo” (frost) and then, “shimo yaketa”, so the frost burned. My farm was pretty lucky because my tea farm is located lower in the village. So actually, it wasn’t so bad for me. But a lot of the other tea farmers were obtaining about ½ of their normal take/crop.
Moé: And I guess this was because where your tea farm is located (Aruse, Tokushima Prefecture) frost is not common, correct? Because I’ve observed that perhaps in frost prone tea farms you see the frost prevention fans. So this must have been an atypical year?
Yancy: Yeah, it was just kind of odd. We just had this one cold snap. It was warm, warm, warm, and then the tea was like, “Okay! We are coming!” and then the tea is growing steadily and then the cold snap happened. I don’t know if that had anything to do with climate change. But part of climate change is kind of more erratic weather patterns. So it could be...but it sounds like this wasn’t the first time something like this had ever happened but it is kind of rare.
Moé: I see… Well, a lot of our tea farmers have mentioned that global warming isn’t evidently impacting their tea farming at an acute level but on a longer time scale I imagine there have been changes that have been felt but also happening at a macro-level. Anyhow, you mentioned that your tea farm is located in a tea village. Would you say that there is a sense of community? Or do people work more individually?
Yancy: There is totally a sense of community. Everybody is helping each other on each other’s farms. We all eat lunch together whenever we are tea harvesting. Around here for a wage is “ichinichi ichimanyen” (one day wage approximately, $88.00) and then the tea farmer always feeds you lunch [laughter] and then at the end of the day, they usually send you home with a couple beers, too. So, we all just eat and work together. Well, most people are in their 60’s and 70’s. One couple that I work for - they are both like 85 years old and I go do tea trimming with them but they are still just able to do it.
Moé: Yes, I am often amazed at the older tea farmers in Japan.
Yancy: So there’s an abandoned school. So where I live, the village where I live and where I do tea farming are separate from each other. In the tea village, Aruse, there is an old abandoned school. But they’ve turned the abandoned school into a guest house. So that’s kind of their community project. They all do it together. I think they are closed right now due to the coronavirus. But anyways, there is a good sense of community. Everyone helps each other out in tea farming, they do soba together, hunting together… It’s a pretty good community.
Tea farmers helping each other out.
Moé: Oh, that reminds me of when I was in Houichi (Tokushima Prefecture), there were very nice soba fields and where I was staying, the host gave our group the option of eating only wild caught meat such as wild boar and deer [laughter]… sounds similar, although it was more of a sweet potato village. And changing subject a bit, when you hire your part-time workers, is that only during the busy harvest period?
Yancy: Yep. So on my tea farm, it takes one day for harvesting. One pretty full day. And I usually hire about 6 people. 3 people at least that can run the machine and then I need 3-4 people that can carry the bags full of tea down to the road. My farm is kind of far from the road so I need to hire people for that. Other than that, it’s only two other times a year when I need one other person. Just for doing the “sentei” (tea bush cutting) in the summer and also in the fall. 3-4 weeks ago, I did my fall sentei and I just needed one other person for that.
Moé: And outside of these times, it’s mainly just you? That’s monitoring and tracking things, doing all of the tea farming work?
Yancy: Yep, it’s mainly me. I do all the grass cutting, picking of weeds and vines. My wife was helping this year. It was so nice! But, she is pregnant again. So, we have another baby coming.
Moé: Congratulations!
Yancy: So we are going to have three children. It was so nice working together because I was like, we can do the tea sentei together. But she won’t be able to do it for a while because she will be having a baby.
One of the special occasions when Yancy's wife and partner, Azusa-san was able to help out with the tea farming work.
Moé: Well, it sounds like you have a lot to look forward to! And in the background, I do hear your daughters are home. So, I would like to wrap up by asking you if there is anything else you would like to say to the customers at Yunomi or simply, the people who drink your tea, or something else you would like to communicate?
Yancy: Yes, if you are already drinking my tea, thanks for trying it [laughter]. Hmm, what do I want to say to them?... [pause]
I hope everybody that buys my tea enjoys it and feels like they got value from the tea. I really appreciate whenever people are buying my tea because a lot of work goes into it. It’s a nice way to be able to sell my tea through Yunomi. So, please enjoy my tea I guess [laughter]. And to add to that, I guess a lot of my tea packaging has my Instagram QR code on the back. So check out my Instagram (yancha_boroya) and then it can be kind of fun to see all of the farming related things that’s going on in Japan. And also if any of the customers from Yunomi are interested in reaching out and want to talk to me about what’s going on in rural Japan, I am not super busy... Well, I am busy but I would be happy to talk to anyone who is drinking my tea or interested about living in Shikoku/rural Japan.
Moé: I may be interested in reaching out to you in the near future about living in rural Japan! For now, thank you again for your time today and I wish you the best of luck as you continue your tea farming journey and continue to grow your business with your partner and family. Thank you so much for your time and sharing your story with us today.
More about Yancha:
All photos from this blogpost were provided by Yancha.
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The sand at the beach was so smooth (Japanese: sarasara) that the wind and our footprints made beautiful imprints.
The Japanese fermented soybeans natto, has a slimy (Japanese: nurunuru) texture which some people find to be discomforting.
Photo by 自然さん (photo-AC).
If you know a bit about the Japanese language or have been to Japan, you may have encountered some of our fun onomatopoeias, which non-native Japanese often find intriguing. For the purposes of this post, I will of course not go into an extensive list of the onomatopoeias in our language. However, did you know there are some Japanese teas that are named with onomatopoeias? Here is an introduction to these unique teas!
Perhaps the most well-known out of the three teas I will be touching on today, batabatacha is a regional, traditional bancha originating from the 15th century town of Asahimachi Birudan in Toyama prefecture. It is a post-fermented tea which is prepared boiled, which may remind you a bit of the Chinese pu-erh tea. However, it is unique in that it was traditionally drunk whisked and foamed with a pinch of salt. While its roots are in Asahimachi Birudan, it has also been historically enjoyed in the neighboring prefecture of Niigtaa Prefecture in the Itoigawa region. Why “batabata”? In Japanese, “batabata” is an onomatopoeia which captures commotion and rushing. When used as an adverb, it signifies flapping (e.g., birds wings), rattling or cluttering noise. Particular to the tea, it captures the sound of whisking this unique regional tea to a froth.
Batabatacha leaves; Furyu Bancha Shop's Batabatacha from Asahimachi, Toyama Prefecture. Photo by Furyu.
The earliest known historical record of this tea comes from a 1472 visit of Rennyo, the 8th head priest of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism. Rennyo noted that the locals were combining this tea with rice and alcohol into a single dish that was eaten/drunk. Some say that the tea was consumed earlier than this date and while its exact roots are unknown, the process is said to have come from China.
Unfortunately, tea production Asahimachi Birudan died out by the 1970s, and the people purchased their batabatacha from tea farmer Hideo Shimizu in Mihama Village, Fukui Prefecture. In 1975, the aging Shimizu-san had decided to stop production, and Akinobu Hagiwara of Kosugi Village, Toyama Prefecture learned the process, taking over tea production. Subsequently, in the 1980’s, the people of Asahimachi Birudan decided to learn how to make batabatacha from Hagiwara-san in order to preserve this precious tradition. Through these efforts, tea fields were established in the village in the 1990s. With the help of Kagawa University Professor Kinjiro Miyagawa, the village improved the quality of their tea bushes and leaf processing, and now production has become a community project led by the local chamber of commerce. Pretty neat story!
Considering this hard work and the fact that batabatacha is fermented during the hottest period in the summertime, it is hoped that one may appreciate this regional folk tea even more! While the website is in Japanese, Asahimachi has a very nice webpage that captures snapshots of the village people making Batabatacha.
According to historical records of Asahimachi Birudan, tea was a drink which strengthened “kizuna” (Japanese character: 絆;definition: bonds/connections) between people. Perhaps, this aspect was especially strong in the people of this village. This was a natural tendency, as tea was consumed in social gatherings and contexts. For instance, after the majority of the family had left for work or school, the grandmas of the village would gather together to enjoy their cup of batabatacha. The batabatacha was also served and enjoyed in various buddhist affairs and ceremonies. For marriage, birth, funerals, graduation, employment, coming of age day, the list goes on… Yes, the cha-no-ma culture was very prominent amongst the people of Birudan. In this sense, tea was both ceremonial and casual in that it intentionally marked a specific occasion but it was also shared amongst close relatives and family in a convivial and friendly atmosphere.
Traditionally, batabatacha requires a special bowl and whisk. The pottery that was born in Asahimachi Birudan is called Gorohachi chawan (Japanese: 五郎八茶碗) and this bowl has a slightly narrow mouth. For the whisk, there is a traditional coupled bamboo whisk made specifically for whisking the local batabatacha (from Toyama and Niigata Prefectures). In Japanese it is called a "meoto chasen", literally "husband and wife tea whisk". Of course, one can improvise without this particular whisk and bowl and still enjoy the taste of batabatacha! In fact, the local people also drank unwhisked batabatacha with their everyday meal. Personally, I find it can be quite nice as an afternoon tea and we’ve brought it a few times on our hiking trips where its rustic vibe complements the outdoors.
The Meoto chasen (husband and wife whisk) available on Yunomi for the batabatacha fans out there who want to utilise this unique whisk. This whisk could also serve as a wonderful gift along with batabatacha to a newly wed. Photo by Seikoen.
Less known in comparison to batabatacha, botebotecha originated in Izumo, which is the current Matsue City, the capital of Shimane Prefecture. Botebotecha is made from tea leaves and branches that are harvested around October, then dried in the shade for approximately a month (this type of bancha is called: Hikage-bancha) and mixed with dried tea flowers. Like the batabatacha, the traditional way of making this tea involves whisking. To prepare the tea, the bancha tea leaves and the dried tea flowers are boiled together. The tea is then cooled off a bit and poured into a bowl. Then, the bowl is shaken from left to right and whisked with a long bamboo whisk that is dipped with salt. It is said that the tea flowers contain saponin, which helps to create a large amount of foam. Indeed, botebotecha looks like a white foamy drink!
Even though it may be difficult to gather all of the traditional ingredients, you can always improvise with the ingredients and enjoy botebotecha at home. At Yunomi, we have Botebotecha from Ocha no Sankoen, Shimane Prefecture, Japan available for purchase. Photo by Teamona.
What is perhaps interesting about the botebotecha is that it can act as a comfort food, like ochazuke, and is traditionally consumed with local and seasonal ingredients. While it varies across households, common ingredients include a small portion of rice, black beans (or rice with red beans, called sekihan), seasonal pickles (tsukemono), shitake and tofu skin. Once the tea is whisked, these ingredients are added and that is how it is enjoyed. It appears that the correct way to consume botebotecha is by tapping the bottom of the bowl so that the ingredients gather around on one side, then one tosses them all together with the tea into one’s mouth (i.e., without using chopsticks)! Another similarity with the batabatacha is that the onomatopoeia "botebote" also refers to the sound of whisking vigorously. Botebote was simply the sound that the local people of Izumo heard when the tea was being whisked.
Legend says the renowned tea master and daimyo lord Harusato Matsudaira (1751-1818, known by his tea name Fumai) would make this as a snack when he went hawking (i.e., hunting with a conditioned falconry bird). Alternatively, it is said that Fumai shared this method of consuming botebotecha with his people when they were struggling with famine, as a way to extend their rations and this is how botebotecha spread in Matsue City.
* Additional neat photos of this regional tea from Shimane Prefecture on Instagram: #botebotecha
Last but not least, I would like to end with “bukubukucha”, a traditional tea that has its roots from the Naha region in Okinawa. It was developed by the wives of the royal government officials and spread amongst the common people during the Meiji Era (1868 - 1912). Traditionally, bukubukucha was made in a ceremonial way, similar to chanoyu (tea ceremony) for celebratory gatherings such as weddings or for welcoming guests. Because bukubukucha can also be written with the kanji character “fuku” which signifies good fortune (Japanese: 福福茶 or 福々茶), it is intended to be a tea of happiness.
The burbling brook created a pleasant burbling (Japanese: bukubuku) sound.
Perhaps, you could guess based on the bukubuku onomatopoeia but bukubukucha is another tea that is whisked. It is unique in that the base is Jasmine tea, which is referred to as sanpincha in Okinawa. To add to this uniqueness, bukubukucha is actually made with a boiled rice water base. Rice is boiled (1:10 rice to water ratio) and this particular water is then mixed with the sanpincha and a bancha (or genmaicha) at a 1:5:2 ratio. The next step is to whisk the tea with a large whisk. Interestingly, only hard water from Naha or other southern parts of Okinawa that are high in mineral content makes the mixture foam properly. Oh, and while I have personally been referring to these teas as onomatopeia teas, perhaps, a more appropriate and tea-masterful way to categorize these teas would be to refer to them as furicha (Japanese: 振り茶), meaning whipped teas.
Getting back on track in the preparation of bukubukucha, once the creamy foam is formed in a large bowl, the tea is poured into smaller bowls and crushed peanuts are added on top. In this sense, because one is sharing the bubbles made in a large bowl, it creates a sense of unity and collectiveness with those you share the tea with. It is common for bukubukucha to be served with the famous Okinawan biscuits called chinsuko. It is said that the preparation of bukubukucha resembles temae (steps of the tea ceremony) of the more common chanoyu. Unlike the former two teas we talked about today, bukubukucha is quite foamy. So, it may even be challenging for those new to this tea to consume. One must actually first “eat” the foam before drinking the tea!
Bowl of bukubukucha with Okinawan chinsuko biscuits. Photo by Itanee (photo-AC).
Notably, during the post-war period, bukubukucha was disappearing from Okinawa and it appears to have been cut off from the culture for more than 40 years. Fortunately, however, during the post-war period, tools from the bukubukucha ceremony such as a significant bowl for making bukubukucha was found which propagated research on tools, water, and ingredients such as tea and rice. Foaming was once again promoted, along with the establishment of the Bukubuku Tea Preservation Association. Thanks to these preservation efforts, one is still able to enjoy bukubukucha in Okinawa Prefecture! While I have had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful nature there, I have unfortunately never tried this traditional tea. So, to try bukubukucha at a cafe in Okinawa… that shall go on my bucket list!
* You can obtain a better feel for bukubukucha and the warm Okinawan culture by checking out additional bukubukucha photos on Instagram: #bukubukucha
To wrap up today’s post on onomatopeia tea/furichas, did you wonder why there seemed to be a tradition of whisking, and making teas bubble across different regions of the country?
I learned this recently from Furyu Bancha Shop but one explanation is that our ancestors felt a sort of divineness in the Japanese word “tatsu”. In Japanese, we have many natural phenomenon that are described with the verb “tatsu” which means to rise, to stand up. Such as describing a rainbow form (Japanese: 「虹が立つ」; niji ga tatsu ) and the fog rise (Japanese: 「霧が立つ」; kiri ga tatsu).
Along with these natural phenomena, we also have the phrase, “awa ga tatsu" (Japanese: 「泡が立つ」) which refers to bubbles foaming. And it was also a prayer for when plant medicine spirits manifested themselves. Moreover, when people saw the start of bubbles forming when the hot water of the steeped tea started to boil or when their pot of food started to boil, they felt a sort of eternal vitality arising. And for this reason, it was wished that bubbles formed by a tea whisk would strengthen the medicinal properties of the tea. This was just one of the traditional customs of ancient Japan.
Well, I hope that today’s blogpost wasn’t too much Japanese language focused for you. But my hope is that the next time you go to whisk your bancha/matcha, or you see the start of bubbles forming in your pot of bancha, you may remember the beliefs of our ancestors and feel the good medicine coming up. Mmm, enjoy!
Featured image: Bukubukucha by Itanee (photo-AC). All other images on this blogpost were provided by the author unless otherwise noted.
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As Ian Chun’s earlier blogpost on cultivars states, a cultivar is a cultivated variety. That is, cultivars are a group of plants that have been bred by human beings for desirable characteristics. Cultivar improvement (Japanese: 品種改良) of the tea plant, camellia seninsis started during the Meiji Period. Today, when including unregistered cultivars, there are over 100 Japanese tea cultivar types!
Perhaps, it is important to mention however that cultivars and cultivar improvement expands beyond the world of tea. For instance, you can think of how there are many different varieties or cultivars of apples or tomatoes. They have different flavors, shapes and the plants themselves also can look a little different, grow in different ways, mature at different times. Similarly with tea, there are different cultivars that start growing at different times in the spring and have different sensitivities to environmental factors and result in a different cup of tea.
With a myriad of varieties to choose from one may wonder how tea farmers select the type of tea cultivar that will grow on their tea farm. This depends on a few major factors. We’ll touch on three for now.
In general, Japanese tea cultivars are cultivated to make sencha, gyokuro/tencha, or kamairicha (pan-fried tea). Although one can make any kind of tea (e.g., sencha, oolong, black tea) from any type of cultivar, tea farmers will select cultivars that are well-suited for the specific tea they would like to produce. So, when choosing a cultivar to produce sencha, one considers cultivars that have a good taste and aroma when processed into a sencha. These cultivars may differ from a gyokuro and tencha because with these latter types, there is the shading factor to consider. Thus, cultivars that grow well even when they are shaded and produce a refreshing green color are desirable. When selecting a cultivar to make kamairicha one considers cultivars that give off a pleasant aroma when the leaves are pan-fried.
Tea grows across different regions of Japan - from the Southernmost Island of Kagoshima up to the Kanto regions. These regions differ with respect to their climate and different cultivars are well-adapted for certain types of climates. For instance, Kagoshima is a major tea producing region in the South with a warmer climate and without much morning fog (*although this depends also on the topography of the region). In Kagoshima therefore, it is desirable to have a cultivar that buds (starts growing) early in the season (in Japanese, these cultivars are referred to as waseshu; 早生種). In fact, some of the tea producing regions in Kagoshima are well known to have the first flush shincha (i.e., hashiri-shincha) with cultivars such as the Yutaka Midori and Saemidori cultivars. On the other hand, colder regions may desire later budding cultivars to avoid being damaged by late frost and/or cultivars that are more resilient to cold such as the Okumidori cultivar (in Japanese, these cultivars are called banseishu; 晩生種).
When tea farmers have a lot of land and multiple tea fields, most also have more than one type of tea cultivar. Why? If they relied on one single cultivar, the harvesting time would occur all at the same time, which makes harvest, as well as processing much more difficult. A tea farm will therefore generally have a few types of cultivars with different budding times, that spread out the harvest and processes over a couple weeks (e.g., a combination of early, mid, and late budding cultivars).
The Kuma Tea Gardens in Yame, Fukuoka prefecture is a great example of a tea farm that produces a variety of single-cultivar teas that slightly differ in the timing of their harvests. To illustrate, across three different cultivars Saemidori, Yabukita, and Okuyutaka, their harvest dates were April 14th, 20th, and 30th, respectively. Because the tea garden is located in the South, they have a relatively early harvest in April. However, one can see that the harvest dates are a couple of dates apart form one another.
The Saemidori Imperiel Mountain Grown Sencha from Kuma Tea Gardens in Yame, Fukuoka prefecture. This tea received the gold medal (Prix D'OR) in the Japanese Tea Selection Paris 2020.
Even if you are not too familiar with cultivars, if you have been drinking Japanese tea for a while, it is likely you have heard of the “Yabukita” cultivar and that you have probably tried and (hopefully) enjoyed it. Developed in 1908 by a single farmer from Shizuoka prefecture by the name of Hikosaboro Sugiyama, the Yabukita cultivar has many favorable characteristics. This cultivar is frost resistant, is well adapted to multiple regions, grows uniformly and it has excellent flavor. It may be important to recognize Sugiyama-san began his novel agricultural practices and development of tea cultivars when there was little interest in cultivar improvement, or even using vegetative propagation rather than starting from seed.
The majority of tea plantations at the time used seeds, and most frequently what is called the Zairai/indigenous variety that we will touch on later. Since tea cross pollinates very easily, meaning one plant pollinates another. So even just two plants cross pollinating can create many, slightly different seeds, meaning that the dominant tea farmer strategy of the time was just to leave the genetics to do their own dance. This would result in fields with a variety of slightly different tea plants, budding at different times, growing at different rates and having slightly different flavors. Many of the Japanese tea experts did not care to invest in breeding efforts as they felt strongly that Japanese tea was characterized by an amalgam of various cultivars (Zairai) and that it was the blend of these diverse flavors that created the renowned Japanese green tea.
Yabukita cultivar tea fields ready for harvesting in 2021; photo by Kajihara Tea Gardens.
In fact, it was not until 1931 that the public began to recognize the outstanding quality of the Yabukita cultivar. The cultivar was highly praised by the Shizuoka Prefecture Agricultural Experiment Station in 1934 and was registered as a cultivar by the year 1953 (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry). The reason why the Yabukita cultivar became so wide-spread during this time was because in the 1960’s, the tea industry lacked the technology to prevent frost. With the Yabukita cultivar however, the young sprouts could sprout uniformly outside the dangerous frost period (mid-May). Moreover, it was a vigorous plant, easy to grow and yield a decent harvest making it a likable and stable cultivar for many tea farmers.
2020 statistics from The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
As one can see from the above pie chart depicting the major different tea plant cultivars in Japan, the Yabukita cultivar was still the dominant cultivar in the year 2020, representing 70.6% of the total percentage of cultivars (report from The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries). Yet, when one looks at the breakdown of cultivar variety by prefecture, one will observe that it varies by region because of the climate of the tea producing region as well as other factors. For example, warm Kagoshima, where the cold tolerance gives no advantage, cultivates the least amount of Yabukita compared to other regions and relatively more of the early types (Yutaka Midori and Saemidori). On the other hand in Shizuoka prefecture, where Yabukita was actually developed and where cold tolerance and late budding is a major advantage, plants the highest amount of Yabukita.
2020 statistics from The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
In the year 2016, the percentage of Yabukita cultivated nationally was about 75%, which means that it has decreased in the last 4 years by 5%. With time, it is thought that the percentage of the Yabukita cultivar planted nationally may continue to decline. This is because tea bushes are a perennial plant which takes time and expenses to reach harvestable maturity. Tea farms usually do not replace tea bushes until they are well over 30 years old (and when they do replant, the decision on what cultivar to plant is an important one!). Considering the Yabukita cultivar spread most rapidly in the 1960’s, it is likely the majority of these tea bushes are now over 40 years old. As farmers are considering when and how to replant their tea fields as their Yabukita bushes get too old, it is expected that tea cultivars may diversify even more.
Before cultivar development became popular in the 1960’s/70’s, Japanese tea farmers were primarily using seed propagation with zairai tea bushes. Zairai (Japanese: 在来) means “native/indigenous”, and refers to old tea bushes that have no identifiable cultivar. Cultivars are usually vegetatively propagated by rooting and planting a branch of another bush, making them essentially clones with matching DNA. In contrast, with Zairai, each tea bush will have very slightly different traits because it was grown from a seed. Given that, the Zairai is not truly a cultivar but rather a blend of different individuals. Plant scientists may actually call it a population. Still, collectively, in general people refer to the tea bushes as Zairai. If you ever have the opportunity to carefully observe a tea field of Zairai cultivars, you will recognise that the characteristics of the leaves and color vary from tea bush to tea bush. Speaking of tea fields, I had a pleasant dream the other day where I visited Zairai plants in the Yunnan Province in China, an area that is said to have some of the most Zairai tea plants in the world (Hopefully, that can happen in real life someday!).
Zairai tea fields at Kajihara Tea Garden; it may be difficult to tell but if you look closely, one can observe that the fields are not as uniform; photo by Kajihara Tea Gardens.
Today, this type of tea farming is not very popular among tea farmers, mainly due to the fact that it is not as productive (i.e., about 50% less productive in comparison to the Yabukita cultivar) and it is rather difficult to process. The tea bushes are diverse, which means the flavor and harvest time will vary between tea bushes planted next to one another, making harvesting a hassle. Nonetheless, the diversity leads to more resiliency in the tea bushes and because of that diversity and the fact that seed grown tea bushes have stronger and deeper roots, that look like a burdock root, they can absorb more deeply available minerals and tend to be more resistant to drought, pests and disease. Additionally, there are some farmers and people who simply prefer the traditional ways and stick to the historical Japanese tea taste. In fact, Zairai teas have their own strength providing a refreshing taste. If you would like a taste of old Japan, make sure to try a Zairai tea, especially as they are becoming quite rare!
Zairai Teas for you to try:
A cultivar that is recently getting increasing attention in Japan, Benifuuki is specifically known to be a cultivar for Japanese black tea (it was made by combining Indian Assamica and Japanese tea). Because of its high level of catechin, it can convert smoothly into flavorful tanning when used to create black teas. The Benifuuki cultivar is highly resistant to disease. It also makes flowers and leaves that are larger than that of the widespread Yabukita cultivar and provides a 30% higher yield. While black tea comprises a small 1% of Japanese tea production, tea farmers have started to experiment with making teas outside of black tea with Benifuuki.
A few Benifuuki cultivar black teas on Yunomi:
As you may be aware, Kyoto is famous for teas that require shading such as gyokuro and matcha. The three cultivars gokou, samidori and uji hikari were all developed in Kyoto prefecture. Although they are not officially registered, they are common cultivars in this area. If you like matcha or the rich umami of gyokuro, these cultivars are definitely worth a try!
Gokou matcha from Kiroku Tea Garden.
Gokou: a cultivar that was specifically made to suit the soil and climate of Kyoto prefecture, gokou is a cultivar that does well with shading and is thus often made into gyokuro and matcha. With a distinct and unique aroma that reminds one of earth, this cultivar is often noted for its' rich umami.
If you have tried a couple of single-cultivar teas, is there a specific Japanese tea cultivar that you especially like or find intriguing? And if cultivars are something that have not crossed your mind before, I hope you were able to gain a bit of insight from this blogpost. In my personal opinion, it is quite intriguing to try a diversity of taste and flavor of Japanese tea, just like one would when tasting wine. So if you do feel a bit more inspired to go outside perhaps the comforting Yabukita taste, we also have a few cultivar comparisons on Yunomi for you to try out - and yes, comparing different cultivars from the same producer from the same year is a wonderful way to do this. Happy tea tasting!
Cultivar Comparison (10g x 10 types): Azuma Tea Garden Stone Milled Matcha Sampler.
Featured image: Kaneroku Tea Garden's hand-picked Yama-no-Ibuki cultivar's fresh buds.
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Today, we share with you our interview with Yuki Kayashita, a young and creative tea farmer based in a village in Yamazoe, Nara prefecture. Over the span of 10 years his small farm has focused on production of a regional folk tea, called tenbiboshi kamairicha, which is a type of sun-dried kamaricha. His particular niche has been in developing a modern and low cost processing method that still respects the historical processing technique. Ongoing projects with less common cultivars promise exciting teas in the future!
Moé: Thank you for taking the time with me today. I am excited to be with you as Ian-san (Ian Chun) seemed very impressed by the rare teas you make and I heard that you have an inspiring story. I wanted to start by asking you about your journey in becoming a tea farmer. Would you be able to share a bit of your background with us?
Kayashita-san: Well, I’m from Osaka and none of my siblings, no one in my family is a farmer. I was born to a salaryman (white collar worker) household. And then I graduated from college and felt that I wanted to become a farmer. I wanted to live in the countryside in a place like Satoyama. So that’s why I began my farming training. In the beginning though, I had no intention to become a tea farmer. I did my training as an organic produce farmer.
During my internship, I was able to train under three different farmers for a total period of about three and a half years. In one of my internships, I was training with a producer who grew vegetables organically. And I took a seminar from a producer who grew vegetables utilizing natural cultivation methods. That interested me and I decided to do an internship with this producer. There, they were also growing tea. However, at that time, I was very much focused on produce. During the period of my internship, I never thought of becoming a tea farmer. I was going through my internships with the intention to become a vegetable producer.
Still, at that time, I heard that there was an event called,Yoshidayama Tea Ceremony in Kyoto (in Japanese: 京都吉田山大茶会; an annual tea festival which has been ongoing since the year 2010) and since I was doing some tea field work at that time in parallel with produce work, I thought to myself, why not go? It was at this event that I tried my very first kamairicha (pan-fried tea) from Kyushu and it left a strong impression on me. It made me think, “Wow, there are teas like this!” and this is when I started to think that tea could be exciting, too. So I guess by drinking this kamairicha, I was suddenly hooked on tea.
Moé: That's a neat story, just from discovering this kamairicha, you were inspired. In our tea farmer interviews that we have done at Yunomi, it just happens that the tea farmers we have interviewed thus far have all come from a tea family, sometimes generations of tea farmers. So I am curious to ask you, as a young tea farmer starting on your own, what kinds of unique challenges have you faced?
Kayashita-san: First, because we really started off from zero, it was not very realistic to think about making a living from tea provided that tea farming is quite costly. To have the right equipment and machines, necessitates a lot of money.
At that time however, I visited a tea house in Nara and I reached out to the owner to see if they could introduce me to a tea farmer that made kamairicha, as it was the tea that had left me with an impression. During my visit, they served me the tenbiboshi kamairicha (*from here on referred to as sun-dried kamairicha) that we now make today at Tea Farm Mitocha. It was the very first time that I drank this specific type of kamairicha and I was just as touched by this tea. Just like the time I drank the first kamairicha from Kyushu. It was very delicious.
And then, I was fortunate the tea house introduced me to the tea farmer that made this tea. With time, I was able to learn how to make this sun-dried kamairicha. This tea was very simple to make, and it did not require much machinery. So it did not require much cost in the beginning. Also, I feel that it doesn’t require as much technique or skill as sencha processing. And so, with this, I was able to start from zero.
Tea harvesting with a two-person machine at Tea Farm Mitocha.
Moé: So if I remember correctly, you learned how to make this sun-dried kamairicha from your tea master in Kumano, correct? How long did it take you to train with him, to learn how to make this particular tea?
Kayashita-san: Well, I began learning from him when I was already independent as a farmer, so I did (and still do) this in parallel with our own farm work. The tea harvest season is a bit earlier in the Kumano region so I would go and help out and learn from him, then I would come back to Yamazoe (Tea Farm Mitocha) and make the same kind of tea. I have been doing this every year, it is kind of my tea cycle. I guess it has been about 10 years or so now.
Moé: When I think about kamairicha, the Kyushu area comes to mind - specifically, places such as Nagasaki, Saga, and Miyazaki prefectures. But the sun-dried kamairicha that you make, originated in Kumano (Wakayama prefecture)?
Kayashita-san: I am actually not sure it originated there… but in Japan, traditionally, many people used to make folk teas. They were just teas that people made for themselves, for their families. Not teas that were made to profit from or to make a business from. I believe these folk teas were present across different regions of Japan. However, with time, the technique of making sencha was developed… And now, Japanese tea is predominantly sencha. One rarely hears about the sun-dried kamairicha, you know? It was probably more commonly made in households in the past, but it required hard work because the tea was made without any machinery. And so perhaps, it just happens that Kumano is a precious place where this tea was preserved.
Moé: That's lovely, and it is very neat that now you are making this traditional folk tea. So this is the story of why you are making this sun-dried kamairicha today!
Kayashita-san: Yes, it was delicious and it was also a simple tea to make. And because we started from scratch, making this tea was not as costly in comparison to the other Japanese teas. I guess it was a realistic choice.
Kayashita-san talking with enthusiasum about the sun-dried kamairicha preserved in the Kumano region over our zoom interview.
Moé: This is coming out of curiosity and with my little knowledge of kamairichas, but to make kamairicha, you do not shade tea bushes like you would to make kabusecha or gyokuro, is that correct?
Kayashita-san: No, we do not use any sort of shading system.
Moé: And what is the difference between sun-dried kamairicha and kamairicha? From the name, I would assume the part where it is dried in the sun but is that the only difference?
Kayashita-san: Basically, the first part where the tea leaves are roasted in an iron pan and kneaded is the same. However, with the sun-dried kamairicha, the latter process is natural drying instead of using a machine. And so yes, it is dried in natural sunlight.
Below, is a cartoon drawn by Tea Farm Mitocha depicting how to make sun-dried kamairicha. It compares the historical approach and how it is now made on their farm.
Steps 1-3:
Steps 4-6:
*Tea Porridge: a traditional Japanese recipe, similar to ochazuke but the rice is simmered in the tea rather than just pouring hot tea over rice.
Hand-picking tea on one of their tea fields in Yamazoe, Nara prefecture.
Moé: At Tea Farm Mitocha, you not only grow tea but also grow produce. Amongst all these things, is there a favorite farming task, or something that you especially enjoy doing?
Kayashita-san: Personally, I have been enjoying the process of planting new seedling (young tea bushes). We have been planting new cultivars and my hope is to increase the different kinds of cultivars. Before, the majority of our tea bushes were Yabukita (which is typical in Japan) and a bit of the Zairai cultivar. However, this became a bit unexciting to me and so at the moment, I would really like to plant new cultivars in replacement for the Yabukita. This is what is most intriguing to me now.
Moé: That's something new. As a tea drinker, I have been trying to explore outside the Yabukita cultivar, too. How many cultivars do you have at your farm right now?
Kayashita-san: Our numbers have been increasing steadily. So far, I have planted about 9 different types.
Moé: Well, I am no expert on the different types of tea cultivars… but I imagine you are able to observe subtle differences across the cultivars?
Kayashita-san: Yes, that is what is interesting to me. Because of the different cultivars, I am making the same type of tea in the same way (i.e., sun-dried kamairicha) but I observe and notice the differences. Besides planting the different cultivars, I would say another task that I like is hand-picking tea. The process of making tea that we hand-pick, I find enjoyable.
Planting the Ujihikari cultivar.
Moé: You mentioned in the beginning of our time today that you are from Osaka. Was there a specific reason you chose Yamazoe in Nara prefecture as the place that you would start farming?
Kayashita-san: I wasn’t very picky actually, but because I did my farm training in Nara, I was introduced to Yamazoe through the connections I had there.
Moé: I see… And on the land that you started your farm work, were there already existing tea fields or did you have to start from scratch?
Kayashita-san: In some areas there were already existing tea fields, but in general, the places that let you rent land, they are not in very good condition. Even now, there are increasing numbers of tea farmers that are quitting tea farming work but these fields are in rather poor conditions. You know, like there are more weeds than tea bushes. Under these conditions, we simply just began the work of weeding.
Moé: Yes, I have experienced this type of weeding in Wazuka when I was helping out at an international work camp based on tea farming. So I can imagine what kinds of conditions you started in… And this weeding work, you did all by yourself and with your partner?
Kayashita-san: Yes, we weeded by ourselves. I would say it was about half and half. That is, fields that were in decent condition and those that had been abandoned. With the former, we just began renting the land and utilizing the tea fields right away. With the latter, we decided to clean it all up and start new - by planting young tea bushes.
Moé: Impressive! That must have taken a lot of determination and hard work between the two of you. And is there anything special that you do with respect to your cropping system on your tea farm?
Kayashita-san: In general, we grow our tea and produce, organically without the use of any chemicals or fertilizers. However, when we plant a young tea bush, during the first few years we may utilize plant-based fertilizers. We use fallen leaves and also cut the kaya (a type of rice plant) and bamboo grass in the surrounding area and we layer it on top of the in-between spaces between tea bushes and such.
Moé: Changing course a bit to the topic of climate change, global warming continues to be an ongoing and pressing issue. Being surrounded by the nature of Yamazoe and doing farm work on a day-to-day basis, have you noticed any changes?
Kayashita-san: It has been 13 years since I started farming (including the years that I did my training) however, I have been noticing more and more that the climate in Japan is becoming tropical, almost like Southeast Asia. I have the impression that there have been a lot more storms and sudden changes. And clearly, it is a lot hotter these days. Before, it did not used to be so hot.
Moé: Besides the noticeable changes in climate and temperature though, you would say that there hasn’t been huge impacts to tea farming?
Kayashita-san: I would say so, tea as a crop isn’t heavily impacted in Japan.
A snapshot depicting an everyday scene from Yamazoe.
Moé: Before we close our interview with you today, I wanted to touch on your visions for the future. I was wondering if you have a specific vision for Tea Farm Mitocha - for the future of tea farming or for farming in general. That is, in 10 years if you could see a way of tea farming that would be your ideal, what would that look like?
Kayashita-san: Right now our central focus is making the traditional Kumano bancha, the sun-dried kamairicha. And because our tea processing factory is small scale without much space, we are rather limited in what we are able to do. However, in the future, I would like to expand our tea factory. Then, we would be able to set up lines to make different types of teas such as oolong and Japanese black tea. I would also like to have a space for the ichoka process (i.e., a process in which the harvested tea leaves are withered to enhance their scent). And as I mentioned earlier, I would like to keep replacing our Yabukita cultivars with different cultivars that have a bit of character - like those that are well-suited to make oolong tea or cultivars specifically for Japanese black tea. My intention is to strive to make teas that have personality and flavor.
All sun-dried kamairichas from Tea Farm Mitocha are processed similarly but differences in cultivar, picking technique and handling results in the differences you can see above. Incredible!
Moé: That all sounds refreshing and innovative. Especially because when one thinks of Japanese tea, I feel there is such a dominant image of sencha and the Yabukita cultivar.
Kayashita-san: Well, I think that is good, too. But there are so many senior farmers out there who are all experts in making these more typical types of Japanese tea. They have abundant experience and knowledge and so, for myself, I would personally like to pave a different path. Make teas that are outside the norm.
Moé: You have definitely got me curious about the sun-dried kamairicha especially since I am a fan of kamairicha. To close our time together today, is there anything else that you would perhaps like to say to the customers at Yunomi? Or to the people who drink/will be drinking your tea?
Kayashita-san: The sun-dried kamairicha is a very rare, minority tea. It is a local tea so I would like for people to discover the presence of such teas. That would make me happy. For them to get to know the bancha culture in Japan. In particular, the banchas that are specific to a region… For instance, the awabancha from Tokushima prefecture is an example. The sun-dried kamairicha is such a type of tea that has long been produced in the Kumano (Wakayama prefecture) area, it is rooted in the tea culture of this region and also in the land. If people can discover and become aware of such a culture, I would be delighted.
Moé: I would like to thank you very much for your time today, Kayashita-san. I feel that I have a new appreciation of traditional folk teas and of their significance. I very much look forward to trying your tea in the near future!
A simple but comforting tea, the sun-dried kamairicha from Tea Farm Mitocha.
This interview was done on August 6th, 2021 in Japanese and has been translated into English. The article was updated on November 23, 2023. All photos were provided by Tea Farm Mitocha. You can also follow their Instagram account.
Featured Image; Yuki Kayashita in the tea fields of Tea Farm Mitocha in Yamazoe, Nara prefecture.
In general, Japanese tea (i.e., sencha) is made from harvesting, steaming and processing the new buds of tea bushes. These types of teas are considered best when drunk fresh. However, sannen bancha is a little different in that it comes from bushes that have been uncut for three years or from stems and leaves that have matured for three years. It is a tea that is considered to be friendly for all ages because; in comparison to sencha, it has less caffeine and tannins, which can be stimulating for some. In Japan, people enjoy this tea just on its own, or at times, by adding a hint of ume (plum), a little bit of soy sauce, and/or grated ginger.
1. Aged for 3 Years
The first approach to make sannen bancha involves aging the tea for three years. Instead of harvesting the new buds from tea bushes, the harvested bancha (i.e., the mature tea leaves and stems) from the fall harvest are utilized. These tea leaves stems are steamed, as normal for aracha (rough, unsifted tea) and most teas, but then aged at room temperature for three years, which is what makes the tea a sannen bancha. At Yunomi, Tarui Tea Farm’s Sannnen bancha has been made this way as well as Uejima-san’s Sannen bancha.
Shop Tarui Tea Farm’s Sannnen bancha
Shop Uejima-san’s Sannen bancha
It is said that the origin of this tea was heavily influenced by a monk who came to Japan during the Tang dynasty. Originally, this tea was made by cutting wild tea bushes in the cold winter months, keeping them in a tea-urn (cha tsubo:茶壺), then closing the lid and sealed with various layers of Japanese paper. The tea was then stored and matured for three years.
2. Growing the Tea Bushes for 3 Years
The second approach involves cutting leaves and stems that have not been cut or harvested for three years. The following steps to make this alternative sannen bancha are similar to the typical aracha process in that it goes through steaming, drying, and roasting, except that in this method the tea is roasted over a wood fire. Sannen bancha made using this method presents a pronounced and very different type of terroir due to the long growth period. Traditionally, all steps were done entirely by hand! Ayumi Farm’s Wha-ha-ha Sannen Bancha is made from tea bushes that were grown for 3 years without being cut.
Ayumi Farms' Wha-ha-ha Sannen Bancha is made from abandoned tea bushes, which have been growing naturally for three years. Together with friends, Ayumi-san cut down the branches of tea bushes that are more than twice their size. Then, the branches are taken care of (the intertwined vines and grass are removed) and loaded into a truck. These photos are from their full moon sannen bancha harvest from last February. Photos from Ayumi Farms, Cyittorattu.
Shop Ayumi Farm’s Wha-ha-ha Sannen Bancha
Japan has a unique macrobiotic food culture, partially influenced by traditional Chinese medicine that attributes hot and cold qualities to plants depending on their growing conditions. For people that are into this sort of perspective, sannen bancha has characteristics that are more similar to root vegetables because it is made from the lower parts of stems and even mature leaves rather than the upper, young, sun-soaked leaves. From a macrobiotic viewpoint therefore, it can have influences of warming up one’s body.
Before we wrap up this blog post, we will touch on the differences between a bancha and hojicha and understand where sannen bancha fits in. Because sometimes, it seems like there are so many types of Japanese teas, we hope that highlighting these differences will help you to get more familiar with Japanese tea terminology!
Bancha (番茶)
Bancha is known as folk tea, and refers in general to tea made from leaves that have been allowed to grow to a very large size. Bancha is typically made from tea leaves that are larger than sencha and that have been picked from autumn to early winter. In contrast, sencha is usually made from the first harvest in the spring. The flavor of bancha tends to be astringent, but has a lower level of caffeine than spring harvested green teas.
Just as sencha differs depending on the region where it was processed, there are also various types of regional-based banchas. Overall, “bancha” refers to a myriad of folk/regional teas produced using a wide-array of methods although they are rather simple techniques. These folk teas are increasingly rare, and I’ve found that even those who live in a region known for a particular type of folk tea may not know about these gems! While some people hold that bancha is a lower quality tea in comparison to a sencha, the local history, culture and terroir that comes through in banchas should not be ignored. There are a diverse array of banchas that one can try, and they can also be great after-teas for matcha!
Furyu Bancha Shop's Awabancha, a rare folk tea from Kamikatsu-cho, Tokushima prefecture.
So, while people generally mention that bancha is a lower quality tea in comparison to a sencha (i.e., in that the cultivation and processing are identical to a sencha and the difference being the quality of the tea leaves utilized to make the tea), banchas should not be under-appreciated. There are a diverse array of banchas that one can try; plus, they are also great after teas for matcha!
Hojicha (ほうじ茶)
Hojicha refers to roasted tea, generally roasted bancha green tea. However, it may also include roasted leaf stems, roasted spring or summer harvested tea leaves, unrolled roasted leaves (usually kyobancha), and other interesting combinations and variations. Owing to the strong fire over which it is roasted, hojichas have less amino acids (umami), catechins (shibumi), caffeine, as well as vitamin C. It is both an aromatic and refreshing tea, pairing well with meals or enjoyed afterwards. In Japan, it is an everyday tea that people drink both hot and cold, and is also commonly served in restaurants.
Dry hojicha leaves, photo by Yunomi.
In summary, what is the big difference between sannen bancha, bancha and hojicha? The main differences lie in the harvesting and manufacturing processes and of course, the three years growth or maturation period. Other than that, these teas are rather similar to one another. In fact, according to Japan’s Food Labeling law, sannen bancha would actually be categorized as a hojicha rather than a bancha because it requires roasting at the end of the manufacturing process.
Japanese Tea Types Diagram by Moé Kishida adapted from the Japanese Tea Test Official Textbook (日本茶の全てがわかる本;日本茶検定公式テキスト).
And what about brewing? Bancha and hojicha are brewed in the typical fashion using a kyushu tea pot, although the water can be hotter than for other teas. There are actually two main methods to prepare sannen bancha. One method is simply using a big kyusu and pouring in boiling water. A traditional way to prepare sannen bancha is on a stove top in a kettle. Just put some leaves in the kettle's infuser basket, fill the kettle up with water to cover the leaves, bring the water to a boil, then turn down the heat to low and simmer the leaves for around 5-10 minutes then turn off the stove. After that, remove the kettle's infuser basket which contains the leaves and it is ready to serve. If you make a big kettle full of it, you can continue to reheat it on the stove top or even just drink it at room temperature throughout the day. It can also be prepared and served cold in the summer months. Of course, personal preference is key.
What is your favorite bancha or hojicha? If there are other Japanese teas that you would like to learn more about, please let us know!
Feature image: Roasting the sannen bancha's branches and leaves slowly over a wood fire at the Peace Tea Factory where they processed their sannen bancha in Kawane, Shizuoka Prefecture. Photo by Ayumi Farms, Cyittorattu.
Moé: Well, Hori-san, I guess I would like to start by thanking you for taking the time today to do this interview with us, on your birthday, correct? And happy birthday! I already know a little bit about your background from the Kiroku Tea Garden page on Yunomi, but could I ask how exactly you decided to become a tea farmer?
Hori-san: Thank you for the birthday wishes. With respect to my decision to become a tea farmer… Well, my siblings are all women. And to be completely honest, at first, we really did not like tea farm work. It’s because, when we were young, we saw our parents who seemed to only care about tea. They were living just for tea and I guess I wanted more attention [laughter]. But I thought about how if we (i.e., their children) did not continue our parents’ work, nobody else would. So that was always in my heart.
And I was actually living away from Wazuka for a while due to marriage and working in Osaka. So I would visit Wazuka from Osaka to help out during the busy season. But eventually my marriage fell apart and my heart felt heavy. So I came back to the tea farm. While tea work is very hard in terms of labor, to the heart it is soft and kind, you know? So I was already back helping out with the tea farm in Wazuka when my father passed away. And I decided that I would continue the work of my parents with my mother, as it isn’t work that one can do alone. Even before I made up my mind to continue the tea work, some men inquired whether they should take over (instead of me). But I refused and told them that I can do it. And so, since then, it’s mainly been the two of us continuing the work together.
Women of Kiroku Tea Garden out in the tea fields; Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture.
Moé: So, it’s just mainly been you and your mother at Kiroku Tea Garden?
Hori-san: Yes, yes. And my sister is responsible for the work at our tencha factory. Usually, she has a job elsewhere, but when the time comes, she helps out at the factory. It’s not common for tea farmers to have their own tencha factory in Wazuka, but we are one of the few families with one. It’s in our heritage. In general, many of the tea farmers bring their harvested tea leaves to a shared collective factory where the processing is done. On the contrary, we take care of the entire process from harvesting to manufacturing the tea. It’s quite sweet, you know, like caring for a child [laughter]. That being said, during the busy seasons, we have a lot of work to do. We become sleep deprived and we may stay up working until 3:00AM… So, I guess to own a factory enhances the risks placed on one’s health and wellbeing. Thankfully, we are able to obtain a bit of help from part-time workers during the harvest seasons.
Moé: You are referring to the ichibancha (first flush), nibancha (summer harvest) seasons?
Hori-san: Yes. During this time, we say that “Senro ga inochi” (Japanese: 線路が命) . That is, during the harvest season, it’s essential to have everything ready to go. Once you harvest the tea leaves, you take it to the next step, and then to the next... That’s why we say senro is life (literally meaning railroad but referring to the processing line). With more hands from our part-time workers, we are able to make the process smoother.
Moé: In comparison to the generations before you, how has tea farming or the way of agriculture changed?
Hori-san: Well, I only have knowledge that was passed down orally so I am not 100% certain but back then, they didn’t have anything you know. No machines, no cars... My great grandfather went into the forest to cut trees down with a saw to go through the process of “kaikon” (Japanese: 開墾;a process of cutting down forests to make space for farmland). Then they would prepare the soil, dig holes to plant the tea bushes. The scale of the tea farms was a lot smaller. I believe that if you had one tea farm, it was considered to be pretty decent. When the time for harvesting came, they would pick the tea leaves manually or with a pair of scissors. They didn’t have the huge tea factories like they have today. So, within the tea farmers, there was a smaller scale tea factory where tea leaves would be massaged, processed and manufactured.
Now, with mechanization, tea farms are expanding in scale and we have machinery that allows us to harvest at a more efficient rate. Well, we at Kiroku Tea Garden, have our own tencha factory, but what is more typical is for these tea leaves now to be brought to a shared factory where tea farmers entrust their tea leaves to be massaged, processed and manufactured by someone else. From there, the agricultural cooperative members take it to the commercial sales market and that’s where the prices are determined.
Tea farmers used to be able to make a living just by growing tea but now, that is a bit more challenging. And this past year, with Covid, things have been different. In the tea market, the price of shincha (the newly harvested tea) dropped, being only worth the amount of nibancha (summer harvest) tea. It’s put a bit of pressure on the Japanese tea industry, I am sensing a bit of a crisis. I didn’t think that it would have such a direct impact on us.
Zoom world snapshot capturing our interview with Megumi Hori from Kiroku Tea Garden
Moé: Yes, Covid has, and is still having its (in)direct influences in diverse ways, I guess it illustrates our inter-connectivity with one another and it seems to be the new normal... But with respect to Wazuka specifically, when I was there, I personally got a sense that there were some young tea farmers with a lot of enthusiasm, (Like “Akky” (Akihiro Kita) from Obubu Tea Farms and Osamu-san)?
Hori-san: Well, that’s only a few tea farmers. I still think that with population aging, we do not have enough younger generations that will pursue this work. Compared to when I was first in Wazuka, the population here has decreased by half… That means that there will be even less people that will continue the tea work. I guess I am afraid that in the next 10-15 years, we may find ourselves in Wazuka with a bunch of abandoned tea fields. It’s a pity but the generation of Japanese these days has changed in that people drink tea out of plastic bottles as opposed to having a kyusu (tea pot). It seems that the Japanese people themselves do not have much respect for tea.
This is the reality here, you know… the tea used for bottled tea can be bought at a cheaper price, and so, who will buy the high quality good tea like ours? On the contrary, there is more hope on the foreign market. Actually, at Kiroku Tea Garden, we have been obtaining a bit more attention and support thanks to social media. It’s actually a pleasant surprise, seeing people appreciate or comment when I upload a photo of whisking a matcha for instance [soft laughter]. It warmed my heart especially during these times. I have more connections and friends abroad now since the pandemic. Well, I haven’t actually met these people in person but they are our friends. In Japan, this doesn’t really seem to get people’s attention, but overseas, many people have told us they want to support us because we are three women running a tea farm.
Moé: The situation in Japan is unfortunate, but it makes me happy to hear that people are supporting you from overseas. That is definitely encouraging! Along with this line of thought, would you say that one of the unique aspects of Kiroku Tea Garden is the fact that you are three women running a tea farm? And what are some of the challenges you have faced because of it?
Hori-san: Yes, I would say that’s number 1. And with respect to the challenges we face, it’s actually quite simple. Well, basically, I am rather short and do not have much stamina. But in the end, it’s possible to do everything [laughter]!
Moé: Ah, the mind does have a tendency to place restrictions on what we can or cannot do… I am afraid I am not familiar with the teas at Kiroku Tea Garden yet. Is there a tea that defines your tea farm or one that you would highlight?
Hori-san: There’s a tea cultivar called asanoka. It is a cultivar which originates from Kagoshima (developed at the Makurazaki Research Center; registered in 1996), a breed between Yabukita and a variety from China. We were the first tea farm in Wazuka to grow asanoka. Now, I think there’s someone else that grows asanoka and makes sencha, as it’s a cultivar that is generally used to make sencha. On our tea farm however, we use asanoka to make matcha. Even at the national level, I wonder if there are any others who make asanoka matcha… I am not sure! In that sense, we may be pretty unique. So, I would say it’s our top product. As a matcha (when whisked), you will obtain a very nice foam, a velvety smoothness with a fruity essence. Oh, and this year, we tried something new with our customers in which we made matcha with 7 different tea cultivars. And we sent a matcha sampler to our customers with a survey, so that we could obtain a grasp of what they liked most, to hear their opinions…
[The sound of bells]
Moé: Excuse me, my cat is just playing by herself… she is the only one that’s awake at this hour (around 6:30AM CET Time).
Hori-san: We have six cats...
Moé: Wow, six, that’s quite a lot!
Hori-san: They are all very cute. I am a cat-person, I really love them! [Hori-san brings a cat to herself] This one is named Yuzu. And all of our cats are named after Wagashi (Japanese sweets): Kinako, Anko, Dora (after dorayaki), Monaka, Yuzu…the mother is named Mike. They are all tea cats, you know. They sometimes make an appearance on our Instagram page. And when I am feeling tired from working in the tea fields, they are like therapy for me.
Moé: Mmm, my cat is my best teacher when it comes to the importance of napping and rest. I guess I could keep asking you questions about your cats [soft laughter] but I will steer us back to tea. Is there anything special that you do with respect to your cropping system on your tea farm?
Hori-san: Well, there is really nothing that particular we do at Kiroku Tea Garden but we take into consideration how to minimize the stress placed on our tea bushes. When we harvest for the nibancha we make sure to do a rotation. That is, every 2-3 years, in order to allow the tea bushes to rest we will do something that is called a "chugari" (Japanese 中刈り) which is to prune some of the tea bushes deeply.
Additionally, my mother is quite meticulous about everything. So if I stress out the tea bushes even a little bit, she will get angry at me. With my mother, her heart is really into every process of tea farming and everything is done with great care, even when picking weeds.
Hori-san’s mother serves as a role model for Kiroku Tea Garden.
Moé: Oh, the weeding dance! Much of the work I was involved in at Wazuka in the summer of 2019 was with weeding. But if we did it with more heart like your mother, maybe it would have been a bit different. I was curious to know whether you have a favorite task or a favorite season on the tea farm?
Hori-san: For me, the harvest season is my favorite time. Even though we have a lot of work, we have new part-time workers that help out on our farm, so there is new energy, it’s like a fresh spring breeze. Outside of those times, I am working with my mother day-to-day, diligently, throughout cold and hot humid days. Oh, this past year, we had an American girl interning with us for 2-3 months. We got connected through the Global Japanese Tea Association, Simona introduced me to her. I think it’s wonderful that some foreigners seem to have a deep passion for Japanese tea and are interested in tea farming work. If I could be fluent in English, it would be better [laughter]... But I cannot talk at all.
Moé: I struggle with the language barrier, too, in France. But that’s okay, after all, you are in Japan. And you can communicate through body language, listening by observing, tea work can be done that way, no? Did she speak any Japanese?
Hori-san: Yes, she could a bit because she came to Japan as a English teacher. But there were some challenges in communication. Still, she did the work properly and I also tried my best with my poor English [laughter]. So in all, it was a very good experience for us. I hope that perhaps once Covid settles down, I can do something similar. I am really concerned about the abandonment of tea farms and the future of the tea industry in Japan. It's not enough with just the people of Wazuka. And the reason why I say people outside of Wazuka, is because perhaps, they may be more enthusiastic. But, for the time being, we will continue our work here, even with the most recent challenge of the pandemic. After many years of hard work, it’s hard to let go of something that our family has invested so much care and energy into.
Moé: I very much respect and honor your commitment and spirit to the tea work. And perhaps, in the near future, new opportunities and relationships will arise from the abandoned tea fields. We shall see... Well, I would like to thank you again for your time today. It was a pleasure to get to know more about the women behind Kiroku Tea Garden. To bring closure to our time together, is there anything else that you would perhaps like to mention to the customers at Yunomi? Or to the people who drink your tea? Or something else that you wanted to talk about?
Hori-san: Thank you for always drinking our tea and matcha. Thanks to Yunomi and Instagram, we have many friends throughout the world. I would also like everyone to drink more Japanese tea [laughter]. And if they start to care a little bit more, my vision would be for people all over the world to help out so that tea farms can prosper and not be abandoned. And please come visit Kiroku Tea Garden. It would be wonderful to meet you!
From left to right: Hori-san and her pink highlights; mother and daughter. Thanks to Hori-san's graphic art background, Kiroku Tea Garden has quite a savvy website and Instagram account with beautiful tea farm photos. And, if you are also a cat-lover, that is a bonus!
At the end of the interview, Hori-san also showed me the pink highlights in her hair letting me know that adding color gives her pepp in the step in the tea fields. Her mother also enjoys adding purple to her hair. While Hori-san told me she wasn’t doing anything special for her birthday, I felt fortunate to have been a part of this day.
Note: This interview was done on January 19th, 2021 in Japanese during the off season on the tea farm. Now, the women are getting busy as they tend and care for their tea bushes preparing for the first flush season. All photos from this blogpost were provided by Kiroku Tea Garden. In the featured image the three women are together in front of one of their tea farms from left to right; Hiroe (sister), Yoko (mother) and Ui.
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Did you know that there are two ways of preparing matcha? Usucha and Koicha. Probably, the matcha you are familiar with looks like this:
Usucha matcha served at Ippodo, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Photo by Jimmy Burridge.
This is usucha, the more common type which people are usually familiar with. One would more commonly come across usucha in cafes in Japan, and it is often the one made/served in households. If you know a little bit of Japanese, the characters for koi (濃; thick) and usu (薄; thin) represent the degree of thickness of the matcha. That being said, koicha, or thick matcha is made with a higher matcha to water ratio and has a more impactful aroma and flavor.
For recap, matcha is typically high quality tea that has been shaded before harvest, processed by steaming, drying without rolling (most Japanese green teas are rolled), refined into flakes and then ground into a fine powder. The shading process reduces bitter-tasting catechin; therefore increasing the savory tasting theanine content in the leaf, creating matcha’s unique flavor profile.
The major difference between a usucha and koicha is thickness. While you may have previous experience drinking the usucha matcha (it’s quite smooth like tea, no?), if you have never tried a koicha, you may be surprised at how thick a koicha is! Indeed, koicha has a thickness that is almost like a thick soup, it is syrupy! The thickness is a result of having 2-3 times the amount of matcha and less water in comparison to a usucha. I remember the first time I tried a koicha, just the appearance of it made me think that it would be quite “shibui” (i.e., bitter in Japanese).
Koicha matcha served at Ippodo, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Photo by Jimmy Burridge.
However, with respect to flavor profile, the matcha typically used for a koicha will have more umami, sweetness and less bitterness. So, for me, it was quite an intense but pleasant experience especially with the wagashi (Japanese sweet) which balanced out the strength of the tea.
To elaborate a bit, it was as if I was transported to a dreamy mossy green world full of depth, an unknown yet strangely familiar magical realm. I could visualize moving through a scene from Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki’s film) with overlapping layers of vibrant green life, soft muffled sounds and thick moist air…
Mossy Friends in Oirase, Aomori Prefecture; photo by Moé Kishida.
The matcha used for a koicha is sweeter, of higher quality and will be more expensive. In Japan, when one is looking for a matcha appropriate for a koicha, generally, we look for the character mukashi (昔). On the other hand, if you are looking for an usucha matcha, then look for the shiro (白) character. Of course, you can also obtain help from the person at the tea store. At least in Japan, and at the nicer tea shops internationally, they will know the difference between koicha and usucha and will be able to help!
You can even try this method on the Yunomi site! Search for “mukashi” and you will find matchas which are suitable for a koicha. It’s also possible to simply search for "koicha". In the matcha powder description, it will state whether it is suited for a koicha.
Two matchas side by side from Shogyokuen Tea Factory (Kyotonabe, Kyoto Prefecture). Notice the character "昔" (mukashi) on the left for a koicha, and the kanji "白" (shiro) on the right for a usucha. Product photos from Yunomi.
Some matchas well-suited to make koicha from Yunomi:
The list is not exhaustive but you can see that these matchas are a bit more expensive in comparison to some of the others available through Yunomi. In general, in Japan, the matchas appropriate for a koicha will cost at least 2,000yen (approximately $18.00) per 40grams. For more information about matcha quality, please refer to Ian Chun’s article on: Yunomi Matcha Grades.
As noted earlier, when one makes a koicha, you use about double the amount of matcha as for an usucha. While the specific amount of tea and water can vary by tea school, in general 2g of matcha is used to make a usucha and 4g of matcha to make koicha. For koicha, one utilizes hot water of about 80 degrees Celsius (176 F), with approximately 40ml of hot water and the mixing action is referred to as: Matcha wo "neru"(抹茶をねる; we knead the matcha). The difference between kneading and whisking may seem subtle and in fact, years can be spent to learn the proper method, but you can also just intuit the difference.
As you can tell from the koicha photos, no bubbles are produced in the thick matcha. So, if a tea master isn’t watching and you would like to experiment, try using gentle strokes that invert the top and bottom layers of the matcha and water mix, without making bubbles. If you’re familiar with baking bread think about the stage where you fold the dough in a way that doesn’t break the gluten. With proper kneading, one will obtain a thick, smooth, syrup-like matcha.
This contrasts to the usucha preparation method in which one utilizes around 60ml of hot water at about 90 degrees Celsius (194F). The action used for making ushucha matcha is referred to as: Matcha wo “tateru” (抹茶を点てる - we whisk the matcha). The goal of this type of whisking is to produce a thick layer of small bubbles, but there are of course different matchas that inherently produce more or less bubbles, and the amount of bubbles alone is not an indicator of quality, nor of your skill!
Lastly, there is also a difference when it comes to the matcha bowl used and how the matcha is enjoyed. For usucha, one usually selects a seasonally appropriate bowl. As you may know, demonstrating an awareness of the season by subtle cues in decoration, food or utensil pairings and even in conversation is part of high Japanese culture. Often usucha bowls are decorative with beautiful and/or colorful designs. In fact, in the usucha tea ceremonies, the custom is often to enjoy conversations related to the tea bowl. Thus, one can freely choose from different patterns, colors, and designs. In a usucha tea ceremony, if there is more than one guest, it is the case that each person is served one bowl of matcha.
On the other hand, to enjoy koicha, one utilizes a bowl that was made through raku-yaki, one of the most prestigious earthenware in the tea ceremony. A distinct characteristic of these types of bowls is that they are simple and without patterns. An educated observer will know they are made of a clay with specific density and an exclusive selection of glazes. They are potted by a method called “Tedukune” (手捏ね, hand kneading) and are made only with the hands and spatula, without the use of a potter’s wheel. More and formal, these raku-yaki bowls reflect the wabi taste of the great tea master, Sen-no-Rikyu. Lastly, in a koicha tea ceremony, the one bowl of koicha will be enjoyed by all of the guests (e.g., 3-5 guests). This way of enjoying matcha is to have been developed during the time of Sen-no-Rikyu.
*Please note these are the distinct differences; however, if one studies the Japanese tea ceremony, there will be numerous other detailed differences in the actual tea ceremonies (e.g., here is an in-depth table of other differences).
Inspired to try a koicha? While it may not be for everyone, it is an unique experience that all matcha lovers should experience at least once. Well, that’s just my opinion! Please note that usucha and koicha are individually complete demonstrations of hospitality, even while in some formal ceremonies an usucha follows a koicha. The two matchas have complementary presence in this formal presentation and become like yin and yang, sun and moon, fall and spring.
Feature image photo; Koicha matcha served at Ippodo, Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Jimmy Burridge
]]>Shizuoka Prefecture retains the top spot as Japan's largest producer of tea with 25200 tons produced according to government data. This title has been held by the prefecture since 1959 when 47900 tons were produced. However, while Shizuoka has much more land dedicated to tea production than Kagoshima, the #2 producer (13700 hectares vs 7970 hectares), Kagoshima producers have invested in recent decades in greater mechanization of tea cultivation and production allowing it to produce tea more efficiently.
Flatter, more expansive tea fields in Kagoshima allow the use of more efficient tractor-style machinery in the fields, and to accommodate growing need for mass produced tea for the bottled tea industry, larger scale factories are more common in the prefecture. 97.5% of Kagoshima farms utilize tractor style harvesting machines vs 65.8% in Shizuoka according to the Yomiuri article. This year, Kagoshima produced 23900 tons or 34% of total tea production in Japan vs Shizuoka's 36%.
As Japan's general population switches from leaf to bottled tea, the average price of tea continues to decline at wholesale, though the average price of Japanese green tea that is exported has risen steadily along with total export volume (6.4% of total production in 2019 according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries). The trends in the export of Japanese tea reflects a growing demand among foreign tea consumers, and a growing awareness of higher quality.
Feature image: Harvesting tea at NaturaliTea, Fujieda, Shizuoka
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The first time I visited the lovely town of Wazuka was in the summer of 2019 (pre COVID times), to participate in an International volunteer workcamp on tea agriculture, organic farming and Japanese culture through NICE, a non profit organization in Japan. The scenery of rural Japan is known for its natural beauty of mountainous landscapes, rice fields, and traditional housing. However, for me, it was the first time I was so awe-struck by the magnificent and artistic landscape of tea fields embedded within a village with tiled roof tops. I later learned from the tea farmers of Wazuka that the scenery shows over 800 years of the progression of tea production in the region, which is parallel to when Japanese green tea originated during the Kamakura period (1199-1334). Perhaps, one reason why it appears so beautiful to the human eye is because the tea bushes in Wazuka are trimmed and taken care of multiple times throughout the year (more than many other tea farms throughout Japan!). By arranging the tea fields in this way, tea farmers are able to efficiently cultivate their tea plants with care and optimise the amount of sunshine on the tea bushes. In addition, like the surrounding areas that are well known for producing some of the finest teas in Japan (e.g., Uji, Ujitawara) Wazuka has a favorable geographic location when it comes to climate, humidity, fog and temperature range for tea. In the year 2015, Wazuka was registered as a Japan Heritage Site. Because camellia sinensis is an evergreen plant, you can imagine the scenery to be magnificent all year round!
Ishidera Tea Fields, perhaps the most famous tea fields of Wazuka. This iconic view has been utilized for various tea products. In the spring, one may enjoy rows of cherry blossoms right by these beautiful tea fields.
In Wazuka, tea fields can literally be found everywhere, even in places you least expect them. It will make one appreciate the efforts of the Wazuka tea farmers who did kaikon (開墾;a process of cutting down forests to make space for farmland) even in very steep areas. If you ever help out on a tea field, a ride to the tea fields in the back of a farm truck up steep hills and around hairpin turns can be quite memorable and adventurous. One of the unique tea plantations in Wazuka is Harayama (Japanese: 原山の茶畑) which is well known as it is an “enkei chabatake” or circular tea field. In fact, it is difficult not to be mesmerized with the symmetrical beauty of this field, an elegant dance of nature and human hands. Harayama is also said to be the place where the first tea trees were planted in Wazuka. Where did the tea seeds come from? They were given to Jishin, a monk of Kaijusenji Temple from Myoe Shounin, who is the founder of tea farming in Japan (If you would like to review a bit of tea history in this region, please see our posts on Uji and Ujitawara). Because it is surrounded by nature, it can even be enjoyed as a hiking course. There are also electric bicycles you can rent in town and even though I am not a huge fan, I have to admit that it made the ride more pleasant. That is, you won't have to suffer that much because the electric bike is sure to help you uphill!
At times, the symmetrical beauty of the tea fields in Harayama will put one in a hypnotic state; photo by Moé Kishida.
Today, Wazuka produces only about 2% of Japan’s total tea (about 45% of the total tea is produced in Kyoto prefecture). However, Wazuka-cha (i.e., tea from Wazuka) holds a reputation for especially high quality tea with a rich umami flavor. Traditionally, this area was very well-known for sencha (which was developed in Ujitawara, a town about 10km northwest of Wazuka) and thus, tea farmers formerly produced only sencha. Yet, approximately 15 years ago, many of the Wazuka tea farmers began to also produce tencha during a period when there was almost no matcha production in Wazuka. For instance, Uejima Tea Farm's personally owned tencha factory was established in the year 2016, which is rather recent. Today, his tea production consists of 30% sencha and 70% of tencha/matcha. This reflects the state of tea agriculture in Japan but also in Wazuka. That is, an increasing demand for matcha.
Although at the national level, Wazuka may not produce much tea (e.g., in comparison to major tea producing prefectures of Shizuoka and Kagoshima), it ranks number one when it comes to places within Kyoto prefecture with respect to tea farm areas, the number of tea farmers households as well as the amount of tea produced.
Table 1. Aracha Production Volume (unit: tons) by tea types in Kyoto Prefecture. Statistics obtained from the Kyoto Prefecture Tea Industry, 2013.
Table 2. Tea Rankings in Kyoto Prefecture. Statistics obtained from the Kyoto Prefecture Tea Industry, 2013.
This lovely little cafe is definitely the place to go to peruse the largest selection of Wazuka teas! The Uejima family from Uejima Tea Farm is one of the families that manages this cafe. During my interview with Uejima-san, I appreciated hearing the history of Wazuka-cha cafe:
Uejima-san: “Last year was an exceptional year for Wazuka-cha cafe due to the pandemic, but nowadays, the cafe can make a profit of about 40 thousand yen (approximately $3700.00) in sales. This is a stark contrast to the very beginning when the four founding members of this cafe set out to start this place. There were days when we didn’t sell anything. The cash register drawer wouldn’t budge or make any little “ding” sounds! There were times when we needed to buy a 100 yen drink ourselves just to prevent the cash register from getting rusty… Actually, this gloomy period lasted for a period of about 3-4 years. And it would have been okay if we actually had customers but back in the initial years, the other farmers actually made fun of us. They were very doubtful and wondered, “Who will come to such a place to buy tea?” Things started to pick up around the 6th year, and in our 10th year we really started selling. That’s because there were changes in our society. The community building activities and cultural promotions started to include sightseeing of tea fields and tea drinking. And through social media and marketing, people came from outside Wazuka. And there was also the help from sightseeing buses. There is a president of the Keihan bus who is in charge of the Tea of Kyoto route and we asked them to develop a route that went through the Southern parts of Kyoto...”
Tea selection at Wazuka-cha Cafe. There is also a place to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea with an option for dessert! Photo by Wazukacha Cafe.
Perhaps, one of the strong imprints I took away from Wazuka was simply the kindness of the tea farmers and people of this town who deeply care about their home town and about sharing the tea culture that is deeply rooted in the land and people. If you ever have a chance to visit, I encourage you to interact with the locals, even if you do not speak Japanese. A good place to do that may be at the Wazukacha cafe, visiting during their annual Chagenkyo Tea Festival (note: site in Japanese), or try going to the local bathhouse where you will likely be able to hear the dialect of this region!
Autumn tea harvest with the Nishiyama family in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture (top photo). Tea farmers, friends, and volunteers who help out with tea farming often gather at Nishiyama-san's place to enjoy okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancakes, bottom photo). In addition to tea farming, Nishiyama-san is also quite masterful when it comes to making okonomiyaki! Photos by Jimmy Burridge.
Of course, we are aware that this may not be the best time to visit Wazuka and buy tea at the Wazuka-cha cafe. The good news is that Yunomi has quite a selection of teas from these hardworking and heartwarming tea farmers:
Photo by Kiroku Tea Garden.
We hope you enjoyed learning a bit about Wazuka, the hidden tea town tucked in the mountains of Southern Kyoto. Cheers to Wazuka-cha!
Feature image credit: A praying mantis tea field bathing; Wazuka, Japan; photo by Moé Kishida.
]]>“Oh, by the way, Moé-chan, that man over there is quite a tea farmer here!”
At that time, I didn’t quite understand what they were talking about. But, I still remember seeing Uejima-san and feeling his presence. Even though I did not know him, I sensed the other Wazuka tea farmers respected him. Through this interview, I was able to further learn about Uejima-san’s passion for tea, his care for Wazuka and his diligence, all of which contribute to him being such an important figure in Wazuka’s direct-from-producer tea world. Additionally, I was pleased to experience his good sense of humor as well as his Wazuka accent and manners of speech. I hope you will enjoy learning about him and that it will make you appreciate his oishi (good) teas even more!
Uejima-san has been on the path of tea since he was 22. However, even from a very young age, he had a gut feeling that he wanted to become a tea farmer. Here is his humorous story about becoming a tea farmer!
Uejima-san: There was a time in middle school around the time when I was 14 when my father was hospitalized for about 3-4months due to his liver. So my younger brother and I felt that because our father was in the hospital and our family couldn’t harvest tea leaves, we needed to do something! But, we couldn’t do much, even with the help from our mother. Our neighboring tea farmers helped us out. But of course, their help came after their own tea farm got harvested (you know, everyone prioritized their own farm) so our tea farm got further behind and behind… And my brother and I just couldn’t accept this situation!
Well, so this is kind of a funny story now, but we made what is called this daihachiguruma (Japanese: 大八車). I guess you could say it’s like a traditional wheelbarrow. And with my brother, we put two pairs of hand-scissors on the wheelbarrow that we were planning to use to harvest tea leaves, got excited and said,
“Okay! Let’s go tea harvesting!!”
But, as we were heading to the tea farm by foot with this wheelbarrow of ours, we saw these creepy black crows. They started squawking “kraa, kraa” at us. And we were still quite young and these crows really scared us. So, in the end, we didn’t harvest any tea leaves [laughter]. But, I just remember this intense feeling of wanting to protect our tea farm. The feeling of wanting to do something because our father couldn’t be out in the fields.
Photo by Peter Lloyd.
Uejima-san’s father ended up being out for one tea season. Even though the wheelbarrow incident with his brother was unsuccessful, after this incident, when Uejima-san was 15, he took the first step in committing to the path of tea by deciding that he would attend a 4-year agricultural high school, specialising in tea. He thought tea was fun and interesting. And, he knew he wanted to protect the family’s tea farm due to the hard work of the generations before him - they had expanded the family’s tea fields and he knew he wanted to follow their path.
Showa period 52 (April 1977): Uejima-san entered the tea business world at 22yrs old, helping out on his family tea farm. He hadn’t taken over the business yet but he shared with me how he started selling tea directly to customers.
Uejima-san: Even though I say I am the 5th generation tea farmer in our family, up until the 4th generation (i.e., my father), everyone just brought their teas to auctions or markets. Tea was sold only by wholesale. So once I committed to the path of tea, I started questioning,
“Why can’t we sell directly to our customers?”
I thought, it really isn’t that fun to just bring tea to the agricultural cooperative and to have our teas sold by them. So back then, I still didn’t have much authority over the tea work. But I asked my father if I could have some tea so that I could try selling on my own, by putting the tea in little bags and trying to sell it. And my father told me to do as I wanted. So I gave my first shot at trying to sell my own tea at some of what you would call flea-markets today. I would go to the Gangoji temple in Nara, that was maybe my very first attempt. But at first, I couldn’t sell any tea...
I have to say, I just really liked tea. And so that’s why I decided to follow my ancestors, my father’s footsteps. And also, I wanted to help my father out. There was a strong feeling for that back then. And of course, it was not all easy. Like when I was trying to sell those small bags of tea by myself, it was not all glorious. But when this one woman who bought my tea told me it was good tea, that became my savior. And then the tea dialogues began. I would ask what kind of tea the customers wanted to drink and they started telling me. And that’s when I realized that by selling my own tea, I could hear customers’ voices and make tea that they enjoyed, which I found joy in.
With early experiences of his tea dialogues with customers and selling directly to them, Uejima-san now always makes tea while keeping his customers in mind. He enjoys making custom-made tea, making tea that is pesticide and chemical free, grown with resources that are readily available in Japan, and tea that is environmentally friendly. When I asked Uejima-san what his visions for the future of his tea farming and business were, he let me know that one goal he has is to be able to deliver all of his tea directly to the hands of the people asking for the tea. There is nothing he values more than being able to make the tea that people ask for!
Moé: So a characteristic I am sensing from your work ethic, Uejima-san is diligence. It sounds like you and your father worked countless hours; perhaps, overworking at times, in the tea business. Was there a time when you got sick or burned out from work?
Uejima-san: Well, I’ve never hurt my body or gotten sick from tea farming. However, there was one time when I got a gastric ulcer. I actually had three holes in my stomach...
It was in my early 30’s, I think. Well, you may be surprised to hear this but you know the railways? And there are railroad crossings, right? There are these blocks beneath the tracks but I used to do work that replaced these blocks underneath. This wasn’t an all year job. During the warm seasons, there wasn’t much work. But from November to about March, there was high demand. So what the job entails is… after the last train ran for that day, those of us who did this job would go, “Okay, let’s get to it!” and we would remove all of the spikes from the railroad tracks, remove the rails and the blocks from underneath. Then we replaced the blocks, put the tracks on and drove the spikes back in. That was my part-time night job across a period of about 10 years.
So why was I doing such a job? Maybe you could say it’s because of my father. For a tea farmer to survive in Wazuka, one needed more tea fields. That was the central focus of our family. But because we were a branch house of a larger generation of tea farmers (i.e., which goes back 20 or so generations), we didn’t have much land to start off with. In order for us to make more tea, we needed more tea fields, and the only way to do that was to buy or rent more land. So in order for us to get ahead, we needed to do something different than others. That was a habitual saying of my father.
My father did the same thing when I was in high school. He would work in the tea fields during the middle of the day (as opposed to starting in the morning like other tea farmers), eat dinner, take a bath, then get ready to go to the railroad work. He would arrive at the railroad tracks before 12AM. Then, the railroad work was done around 4-5AM, you get back home around 7-8AM, sleep, and at noon (12PM), wake up to go into the tea fields, work half a day, repeat… that was our cycle. And that’s how we were able to make a living, save up to buy more tea fields. That’s our family history. And when the railroad work was relatively close by, it was possible for me to come back home. But during the very busy period, I had work in other parts of Japan like Shikoku, Takamatsu, Kochi, Tokushima prefecture, etc… I was extremely busy during this time traveling to different places and this is when I got three holes in my stomach [laughter].
Actually it happened on a job site. One night during our night work, I thought,
“Wow, I really don’t feel well.” and then literally collapsed on-site. When I went to the local hospital the next day and got an X-ray, they sent me right away to a bigger hospital. And so when I got there, I found out I had three holes. That week, I stayed relatively quiet and rested.
And night railroad work was very cold you know; below 0 degrees Celsius, especially during the winters. When everyone was sleeping, we worked and believed we were getting ahead little by little. That’s the way my father thought. Maybe there was an easier way forward but we are clumsy so that was our strategy [laughter]. So I stuck with it and that was the routine of my work days in my 30’s. And yes, people did laugh at me, and tease me. They said, he has a wife but he’s never home at night… [laughter].
But those days of hard work have gotten me to where I am now. Now, I have a respected presence in the tea industry. And, “I am the only *Mr. Perfect” [laughter]. Perhaps, I am boasting too much… But you know, I hear that for Westerners it is normal to brag, they call it “promotion” or something.
*To elaborate on the Mr. Perfect comment above, in the 90+ year old tea tasting competition held in Kyoto, Uejima-san is the only winner to ever achieve a perfect score!
Below, with actual numbers, you can also see how Uejima-san's family has expanded their tea fields over the years. Nowadays, there are three that take care of the tea farms. Uejima-san usually employs two additional employees to help during the busy time(s) and his wife also helps with the harvesting during the peak season.
1st generation - 300 *tsubo 坪 (0.099 ha)
*Tsubo is the area of two standardised tatami mats in Japan, a unit that is still commonly used.
2nd generation - 0.25 ha
3rd generation - 0.5 ha
Father’s generation - 1.5 ha
Uejima-san - 4 ha
Moé: Just out of curiosity, is there a time on the tea farm that you enjoy most?
Uejima-san: September in Wazuka is a very nice time. The time before the fall harvest season is when I really like the tea fields. Maybe you are surprised, you probably thought the 1st flush season!? I like this time, too, but this is a time when I am in this warrior mode so I cannot really get in this mood to appreciate the tea fields. Because everyday, I am strategically planning about what needs to be done next [laughter]. So don’t get me wrong - I do think the shincha season is a nice time, but I appreciate more the time around September.
Photo by the Wazuka-cha Cafe in Wazuka, Japan.
Moé: Do you have any last messages for the Yunomi customers, as we would like to do our best to connect our tea farmers to our customers?
Uejima-san: Thank you, always for drinking our tea [soft laughter]! Japanese tea is very healthy so please drink a lot and stay healthy. That’s the one thing I would like to say… And I would also like for them to hold value in what we call, “cha-no-ma” (in Japanese: 茶の間).
This may be a difficult expression, but it is the process of preparing, steeping, presenting and drinking tea. We have this traditional and ancient saying, cha-no-ma in Japan. There is the word, ma in Japanese (間;spaciousness).
The “ma” of steeping tea.
The “ma” of communication…
So cha-no-ma is a specific way of inviting guests to one’s house and making the tea in front of them. It is a type of hospitality that creates a relaxed space for interaction, that’s how we do it in Wazuka. So I would like the customers at Yunomi to make space for cha-no-ma and to embody this cha-no-ma. And to share it with their family and friends.
Many foreigners think that tea is just something that is served freely after a meal in Japan (which may be true at some restaurants). But Japanese tea is much more than that. It is an essential element of what we refer to as the cha-no-ma. Tea as the central item. We utilize the tea to create space for and initiate communication. So I would like the people who drink my tea, who drink Japanese tea, to have a good way of being and living through tea.
Moé: I appreciate you bringing this up, as it has not been mentioned in our previous tea farmer interviews.
Uejima-san: Well, the word “cha” is used a lot in the Japanese daily conversation. Not just in cha-no-ma but… we use it in our daily conversation like, muchakucha (無茶苦茶 - unreasonable), ochame(お茶目- mischievous)... You can just see how much tea is ingrained in our day-to-day lives in Japan. Well, for a long time now, society has equated success with doing things faster and we’ve forgotten how to take things slow. Enjoy a simple kind of life. People don’t seem to have time. But, if I could show, if I could communicate, that it is possible for one to make just a little bit more time, space, and care… and that by doing so, it is possible to create a slightly different world. That’s what I would like to transmit. Take time to make tea in a teapot (kyusu, 急須 in Japanese). And for people to enjoy the process of steeping tea for themselves but for others, too. After all, tea is not something you drink when you are thirsty, you know?
When you are thirsty, you drink water. The tea we make is not to quench thirst, you know that right [laughter]? Anyhow, usually after I have talked a lot about this and that with respect to tea, to make a final closure, I wrap up by saying, well then, what kind of tea do I want for my customers to drink? So, the punch statement for my tea goes, when you are thirsty, you drink water. But, the tea I make is what you drink when your heart is thirsty [laughter].
Moé: Fantastic! You have it all down, Uejima-san [laughter].
Perhaps, Uejima-san’s teas are what we all need to quench our heart thirst during these times… I hope that you enjoyed his ways of storytelling and his sense of humor as much as I did. During our interview, I also learned more about the history of the Wazuka-cha cafe from Uejima-san, so I am hoping to include some of this information in our upcoming major tea region’s post on Wazuka. Be well, drink tea, and take the time and space to enjoy the whole process of sharing tea!
*Note: All photos for this post are from Uejima Sourakuen (Uejima Tea Farm) unless otherwise noted. If you are curious to check out Uejima-san's teas, you can access them here.
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Today we are back to share the second part of our interview with Ayumi Kinezuka from Ayumi Farms, Cyittorattu. In the first part, we asked Ayumi-san what inspired her to establish her own farm. Today, we share the second half of the interview as we touch on topics of the influences of global warming on tea farming as well as Ayumi-san’s visions for the future of farming. Enjoy!
Moé: Global warming continues to be an ongoing and pressing issue. Being surrounded by nature and doing farm work on a day-to-day basis, have you noticed any changes?
Ayumi-san: Yes. For instance, I feel that tea harvest time for the very first flush is getting a little bit earlier and earlier. And the way it rains - there are times when it rains very heavily or longer time periods without rainfall. The temperature changes can be more drastic and unpredictable. Previously, I felt there was a natural rhythm that I could sense into or read. Like during this time, we do this task, and during this other time, we do this task. Now, the rhythms are more challenging to follow. Although, I do think that tea isn’t as difficult compared to other crops. For example, vegetables can be heavily affected by climate. So much that there are times when you can’t grow any vegetables in a season. But tea is a perennial plant so the roots are very deeply rooted into the soil and the impact is less.
Another interesting observation is that during drought in the summer when it is very hot, and the sun is very strong, tea bushes can of course be negatively affected. However, I’ve observed a difference in the extent to the impact depending on whether it is an organic farm or not. A few years ago, we had a very heavy drought during the summer. That winter, I would see some of the tea bushes from the farms that were not organic and used chemical fertilizers had withered but tea bushes from the organic farms were unaffected. This is because the chemical fertilizers utilized on the non-organic farms, these things are spread on the top surface of the soil. So, because the nutrients that the roots need are more on the surface, the roots of the tea bushes will not be too deep. On the contrary, organic fertilizers take time to become available and they are subject to complex biological processes as they move down into the soil, so the tea bushes grown with organic fertilizers, their roots will be deeper down into the soil and therefore more resilient to drought. In this sense, because of global warming and climate change, moving forward with organic farming perhaps provides more resilience and/or flexibility to the current situation of our environment.
Moé: So you would say, with the demands of global warming, one way to continue moving forward would be to be resilient with organic farming? Is this something that you think about on a regular basis? Or does it not cross your mind often?
Ayumi-san: Well, actually I have thought about it quite often, with respect to how to move forward with global warming... One is like I mentioned previously, to continue with organic farming as it provides a more flexible and resilient system. Additionally, with the continuous influences from global warming, I believe it is very important to be conscious and aware about how to live on a day-to-day basis that is less burdensome to the land and Earth, and to be aware of the choices one makes as a consumer. For instance, as a farmer, the first thing that comes to mind is what do we make and how do we make things? We think about how to grow things without harming the environment and how to make that possible. And, as farmers, we are also consumers. So we also take care in the choices we make when purchasing products. Basically, as a consumer, one is supporting the product that one is buying as well as the way in which it is produced. Therefore, it’s important to know clearly what you would like to support and to support the process in which the product you are buying. Hmm, do you kind of understand what I mean [laughter]?
Moé: Yes, I understand [laughter].
Ayumi-san: And also what is valuable is to do that not by myself but to share this with other people. For instance, at Cyittorattu, we hold many events. Like sharing the experience of rice planting or hand picking tea leaves. However, we do not just host workshops… as a farm, we would like to be a means in which people can learn and increase their knowledge about something and we also make space for participants to discuss with each other during the workshops so that it hopefully gets people to start thinking about certain issues. That being said, our events are more than just a fun experience, more than just eating delicious things! Of course, those are integral aspects of the workshop, too. But we also make an effort to include an educational aspect so that we can create opportunities for learning and to provide material for people to chew on. For instance, in our workshops on tea, we talk about some of the things I’ve shared with you today while we are hand-picking the teas or perhaps during the periods of rest.
Moé: I would love to be able to participate in your workshops the next time I go back to Japan. I have to share that when working on Cyittorattu’s collection page for Yunomi, I was looking at your farm’s Facebook page to find out more and to obtain photos… and was quite jealous you will have a *mochi-pounding event (*note: this interview was held before welcoming the New Year, 2021)!
Ayumi-san: Yes, yes, please come! The mochi we pound for that event before the New Year comes from the mochi rice that we planted and harvested this year (2020). So, people can participate for that one event, or some people choose to participate for the full series. So for one year, they can join us in rice planting, harvesting, and then the mochi pounding.
Moé: At Cyittorattu, you not only grow tea but grow various crops and make different products. Amongst all these things, is there a favorite farm task, or something that you especially enjoy doing with others?
Ayumi-san: Hmm, what I like to do most… I guess I really can’t choose one thing because everything can be enjoyable. So, I would say the thing I am doing at that moment is the thing I like to do the most… [laughter]. That is, because throughout a year, the seasons are very different, and the tasks vary from season to season. No day is ever the same. Because even on a day-to-day basis, there are smaller, minute changes. And our farm also changes. The more we take care of it, the better the conditions. So, being able to sense these changes is also something I very much look forward to everyday.
A few heart-warming seasonal snapshots from Ayumi-Farms, Cyittorattu. Despite the difficulties of the world we live in now with climate change and the pandemic, Ayumi-san finds gratitude in being able to continue day-to-day tasks on the farm and in the unchanging small everyday delights. Like children always having a good appetite and the ume (plum) obtaining a reddish color with the strong sunlight. Photo by Ayumi Farms, Cyittorattu; posted November 24th, 2020 and August 21, 2020.
Moé: Changing topic a bit from the present to the future, do you have a specific vision for the future of tea farming and farming in general? For instance, in 10 years if you could see a way of farming that would be your ideal, what would that look like? Would it be farming utilizing traditional Japanese methods?
Ayumi-san: Well, I wouldn’t exactly say just sticking to traditional methods. There are things that we can do now that we couldn’t have done previously because of advancements in technology. So, we utilize what is available today while referring to traditional methods. Also, I believe we are in this time when we don’t just rely on farmers to produce. Today, there really aren’t many farmers. There has been a drastic decline of farmers and farmland, including tea farms that are becoming abandoned. In this current situation, we farmers cannot protect these farmlands and rural communities by ourselves.
One approach that we have been taking is to have people who are not farmers help on our farms, such as in hand picking tea leaves. And for different tasks, different people will come and help us. And another approach we are trying now is to encourage people to produce rice just like farmers on the weekends. As you may know, nowadays, people produce their own vegetables and community gardens are becoming more common like you see overseas. But with respect to growing one’s own rice, people may be more hesitant as many people have never done it before and they also don’t have people that can teach them how to do it. So people kind of create their own barriers thinking that it is more difficult than it actually is. But in reality, I think making rice is quite easy [laughter]! Of course, making rice at the level of a rice farmer - high quality and in large quantities takes time and effort. But to grow rice enjoyably just for consumption with your family is very easy. So, I believe that people who aren’t farmers can easily make their own rice. And we would like to lower the hurdle for them and to show and to teach them that it is feasible. So we have started to hold workshops since last year. And because of that, this year two families have started to make their own rice. Additionally, we will teach 3-4 families who would like to start growing their own rice how to do it; from how to use a rice harvesting machine and the different tasks associated with producing rice depending on the time.
Scenes from the rice harvest festival in October 2019. More than 60 people participated, with about a half of them children. This is a busy but magnificent time in Japan. Photo by Ayumi Farms, Cyittorattu; posted October 9, 2019.
And we are thinking we would like to expand this kind of workshop to growing tea. But tea is a bit different in that if a family produces 100kg of tea, they may not consume it all themselves [laughter]... So, we are still at the initial stages of deciding how best to do this kind of workshop. But as a vision, I would like to take this kind of reciprocal (learning - teaching) approach across various crops so that many different kinds of people can become familiar and be comfortable but also have a relationship with farming.
Moé: So your vision would involve co-being, co-living with people who are not farmers? A community supporting AND community supported way of farming?
Ayumi-san: Yes, because in a rural community/farm village (農村; nouson in Japanese), even if one family is farming very well, you actually cannot continue agriculture. For example, in tea farming, tea farms can be located at the very top of a mountain. And so the farm roads to get to these tea farms need to be taken care of (e.g., cleaning, repairing the road, etc.) by everyone who lives in that community. That being said, if these tasks are just left to one family or farm, it would not be possible. It takes an entire community to keep a rural community alive, and because of the community, farming is possible. That is why our vision and hope is to increase the number of people who are interacting with us and in relationship with each other, so that we, ourselves can also continue farming. In the short term, this may not look like the greatest approach. Because we are teaching the people that would or used to purchase our rice (i.e., our customers) how to make rice themselves. So then, we will eventually not be able to sell our own rice. Some people have actually worried about us because we are losing our own customers [laughter]! But what is more important, in the long-term is to have a sustainable community. We wouldn’t want for the farming and agriculture of that specific place to wither and die…
Moé: Well, we’ve covered a diverse array of topics in our conversation today, and you have definitely got me thinking and inspired. Is there anything else that you would perhaps like to say to the customers at Yunomi? Or to the people who drink your tea?
Ayumi-san: I really take care in where the products that we use on our farm come from, and I personally think about where they have been made, in what context the product comes from --- such as the farm and the people, and their philosophy in the growing process. So I take that into consideration on our farm when we are growing our various crops. With the help of people like Ian-san and yourself, even if people are purchasing our products from overseas, I hope that people will be able to know and understand; for instance, where the tea is coming from, or how our miso is produced. And when they actually go to drink our tea, they may say something like, “Oh, this is what sencha grown with rice straws tastes like!” [laughter] That kind of way of appreciating our products would make me happy…
Moé: That’s lovely. Actually, when I was working on your collection page and product descriptions for the Yunomi site, I started to admire all of your tea names (e.g., sencha that laughs with the mountains). It made me wonder, wow, if I drink this tea, will I really be able to hear the laughter from the mountains in Fujieda?
Ayumi-san: [Laughter] Yes. Well, at that time, the mountains are indeed so beautiful! And if you can imagine, it is the first tea harvest season, so the people making the tea are also very excited and enthusiastic. Additionally, when we hand pick the tea leaves, we also have visitors helping us out so it is such a wonderful and joyful time! I guess that can also be said for our 3-year bancha tea, we are all laughing “wa-ha-ha” during the process. Hence the name, the “Wa-ha-ha three year bancha” [laughter]. Oops, maybe we are joking around too much...
View of the beautiful tea fields at Ayumi Farms, Cyittorattu. Ayumi-san's tea fields are located in the mountains of Fujieda, Shizuoka prefecture at an altitude of about 600m. In the North, one may spot Suruga Bay over the mountains. If you open your ears, you can hear birds chirping and singing. Photo by Ayumi Farms, Cyittorattu; posted April 20, 2020.
Moé: That all sounds beautiful and valuable to me and makes me want to be there in person. Well, thank you so much for your time today. I personally would like to gain more experiences in farming and agriculture, especially in Japan. So hopefully, when travel becomes safe and a bit more fluid, I will look forward to visiting your farm!
Ayumi-san: You’re welcome any time. We’ll be waiting for you!
Feature Image; Ayumi Kinezuka in her tea fields located in Fujieda, Shizuoka prefecture. By Ayumi Farms, Cyittorattu
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