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History & Geography

Japan is an island country located in the Pacific Ocean. Made up of over 3,000 islands, it forms an archipelago that stretches along the Pacific Coast of Asia. 70 to 80 percent of its land is mountainous and not suitable for permanent living or agriculture. Most the population lives in densely populated areas, in coastal cities.

Tea first was introduced to Japan in the 900's through Zen Buddhism, when returning Japanese monks brought tea seeds back with them from China. Emulating what they had seen in China, they first cultivated powdered tea, or matcha, a style popular in Song Dynasty China. The tea was whisked in a bowl and shared, eventually evolving into the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

Japan credits the rise of tea drinking to a Monk named Eisai. Returning from China, he planted tea seeds in the capitol of Kyoto and writes a book "A Record of Tea Drinking for Good Health." In 1214, he was summoned to administer the last rights to a young shogun, who was suffering terribly. Eisai diagnosed him with being hung over, revived him with a bowl of tea and presented him with his book. The shogun adopts tea drinking and a tea industry begins.

Today, Japan produces both powdered and loose leaf styles of green (un-oxidized) tea. They are divided into 4 catagories: matcha, sencha, gyokuro and bancha teas. The most important growing regions are: Uji, Shizouka, Kagoshima and Kyoto Prefectures. Uji, Japan, just south of Kyoto, is the most famous tea-growing region in Japan. Most of the finest teas come from this region even though it produces on 4 percent of Japan's tea.

Our Japanese teas include: bancha, Genmaicha (tea with popped and roasted rice), hojicha (roasted tea), karigane kukicha (twig tea), sencha, gyokuro, and matcha.

While there are different cultivation/processing methods unique to each style of tea, they all have the same first step in common: steaming. Immediately after the tea leaves are picked, they are steamed to halt the oxidization process. In contrast, Chinese green teas are pan or oven fired.

Japan currently harvests most of its tea mechanically.  Traditional hand picking is now reserved for small lots of premium tea. The specialized harvesting equipment ranges from large tractor-like machines to smaller gas powered trimmers, which are carried by two people who walk between the rows of tea. The farmers using these precision machines are able to target the new shoots on the plant, while a vacuum pulls the clipped leaves into a basket.

Japanese green teas are famous for their umami taste, a flavor best described as the natural sweetness of the tea leaf, tasting like ocean and refreshing spring greens. This pronounced taste, occurring at different intensities depending on the tea, is directly related to how the tea was cultivated and processed. Generally, high grades of matcha, gyokuro and sencha teas have the strongest, sweet umami flavor.