Special features in location, cultivation and processing
Uji is considered the birthplace of Japanese tea culture, offering fertile soil for tea cultivation in the former floodplain of the Ujigawa River. Since the early medieval period, Uji has been renowned as Japan’s premier tea-growing region, and to this day, it continues to produce some of the country’s finest Matcha, Gyokuro, Sencha, and Hojicha. However, organic cultivation remains a rarity due to intense market competition, requiring years of experience to achieve the highly sought-after deep and harmonious umami flavour. Recently, the increasing international demand for high-quality organic Uji tea has begun to signal a shift, led by pioneering farmers such as ours.
Apart from the final grinding step, Tencha Sōon Organic undergoes the same production process as Matcha Sōon. After 34 days of shading, the finest leaves from the first harvest are carefully hand-picked, then steamed to halt fermentation. They are then cooled using a stream of air in special agitation machines to preserve their deep green colour and to separate any leaves that may have stuck together during steaming, ensuring an even drying process in the next stage. This drying takes approximately 20 minutes and is carried out in a special Tencha oven (tencha-ro) at temperatures between 90 and 180°C. In the final step of Tencha production, the light leaf blades are separated from the stems and veins by means of air currents in a special machine (Toh-Mi), and then cut into small pieces. The stems and veins are further processed into high-quality Usuore stem tea, while the leaf fragments become finished Tencha (Shiage Tencha, jap. 仕上碾茶), which is typically ground into Matcha using granite stone mills.
Single Origin
This tea comes 100% from the above-mentioned tea fields in Uji, directly sourced from the farmer.
Organic Certification
