This delightful sencha is a refreshing and well-balanced spring harvested green tea. With a textured liquor that is rich and full-bodied, with umami-sweetness and nice late bitterness.
Our tea comes from the Hachimanju tea garden. At times there is a direct trade off between organic and conventional teas in terms of aroma and flavour and we have been working hard to find a source of organic tea from Japan that we believe embodies all the wonderful characteristics of Japanese green tea. We selected this garden as the Watanabe family grow and produce all of the tea themselves and they have an ethos and belief in sustainable and natural farming practices. We loved them even more when they told that us that “weeding is performed by hand with our warm heart”.
Origin: Yakushima Island, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan
Flavour profile: Umami | Kombu | Pea
Processing highlights: To produce our Asatsuyu sencha the tea bushes are shaded 10 days prior to harvest and is considered an early budding cultivar. The Asatsuyu cultivar is commonly referred to as the natural gyokuro.
Harvest: Spring 2022
Cultivar: Asatsuyu (#2)
Tea Master: Watanabe family
Yakushima is located in the southernmost part of Japan. It benefits from a warm geographical location and high rainfall. It produces Japan’s earliest high-quality shincha. Located in the Kagoshima prefecture, 90% of the island is covered in forest and in 1993 approximately 21% of the island was declared a UNESCO world heritage site.
Elevation: 80-100m
A delicious green tea that is clean and pure. The liquor is refreshing and textured with a balance of kombu-like umami, sweetness and green pea notes.
Umami is the name for the fifth basic taste, after sweet, sour, bitter and salty that describes a ‘pleasant savouriness’.
Sencha pairs well with seafood, rice, egg dishes, raw and lightly cooked vegetables. Japanese confectionary, e.g., mochi, always provides a nice balance against the slight bitterness found in the second infusion of sencha.
Leaf appearance: Needle-like jade green leaves
Aroma: a distinct rounded aroma of fresh cut grass and pea notes combine to deliver a semi-sweet flavour
Liquor colour: bright yellow
