Tsuji-sensei, a fifth generation tea farmer, is one of Japan’s top cultivators and producers of tencha, and his Asahi cultivar tea field has helped him win dozens awards over the years at the regional and national level. The accumulation of accolades have led to the prestigious Prime Minister’s Award for agriculture in 2017.

Tsuji-san creates a very small micro-lot of tencha leaves for submission to tea competitions each year. This limited edition version is grown under the same shading as the main batch of leaves, but is a careful hand picking of just a few kilograms of the very best of the best of these leaves while they are still young, then carefully processed and stone mill ground into matcha.

About the Farmer

The Azuma family’s black tea is made with specific cultivars from single fields. Without using pesticides, small insects called unka populate the field in the early summer and damage the leaves in a way that turns into a delicious flavor when the leaves are withered into black tea. The process is similar to that seen in the Taiwanese oolong called Oriental Beauty.

Product Info

Steeping Info

About The Azuma Tea Garden

Product Info

Steeping Info

About The Azuma Tea Garden

Kyoto

(99 products)

Green tea Matcha Black tea Gift ideas

Kyoto, the ancient capital, is perhaps the most famous locale in Japan. A city of World Heritage Sites featuring temples and shrines centuries old, Kyoto is a showcase of traditional Japanese culture. Uji-cha, or tea from the city of Uji, just south of Kyoto, is a cornerstone of the thousand-year history of Kyoto and thus Japan.

Uji-cha is regarded as the origin of Japanese tea production, where the Buddhist monk Eisai started the first tea fields to provide tea to the country's nobility. The leaves are grown primarily in surrounding municipalities (Ujitawara, Wazuka, etc.) and refined by factories in Uji. Uji-cha production dates back to the Kamakura period (1185-1333), and in the 13th century tea fields were founded near the famous Byodo-in temple. As time went by the name of Uji-cha spread throughout Japan, and Sen-no-rikyu, the priest who made the tea ceremony famous, played a critical role in establishing the region's fame. Today, Uji-cha is known for high quality tea such as gyokuro and matcha, as Shizuoka and Kagoshima dominate production of tea on the whole.