JAPAN: UJI ORGANIC MATCHA AND GYOKURO TEA GARDEN
The organic matcha and gyokuro tea garden is located in the region of Uji, near the city of Kyoto in the prefecture with the same name.
"Drinking the organic Uji Matcha and Gyokuro, the taste lets you think of the original taste of the old sorts of matcha and gyokuro, which the noblemen in Kyoto drank hundreds of years ago, when Kyoto was Japan's capital and only the tea cultivated in Uji counted as the one and only tea (hon-cha)."
THE HiSTORY OF The ORGANIC MATCHA AND ORGANIC GYOKURO Tea Garden FROM UJI
The Ookawa® family has been processing tea leaves to make matcha for tea ceremonies since the end of the Edo period about 1865.
The family tea garden is located in the mountainous region of Uji, near the ancient capital Kyoto, one of Japan’s traditional tea-growing areas for gyokuro and matcha. The tea garden therefore specialises in the production of gyokuro, and since 1988 also in the production of tencha, which is used for the milling of ceremonial grade matcha. This tencha is gently ground on a granite mill, resulting in a particularly balanced and fine matcha. Now, already the sixth generation of the family is running the tea garden and carrying on the tradition of tea cultivation. They mainly cultivate the tea bush varieties Goko and Samidori, which are typical for gyokuro and matcha from Uji.
Since the 12th century, tea has been produced in the region around the city of Uji. Uji Matcha is particularly famous. No other area in Japan produces more matcha. This is also due to the close proximity to Kyoto, where there is traditionally high demand for high-quality matcha in tea ceremonies and in the many temples and tea houses in the city. However, Uji owes its reputation not only to the ancient capital, but also to its mineral-rich soil and nearly frost-free climate, which offer ideal conditions for tea cultivation. Today, Uji Matcha has become a symbol of the Kyoto region and is firmly linked to its culture.
TEA FROM UJI
Organic UJI PREMIUM MATCHA
The leaves of this sweet and at the same time expressive tea come from tea bushes of the Yabukita variety. Only the very finest spring harvest leaves are used for this matcha, which is exclusively produced for MARIMO by our Uji partner tea garden. It is the tea gardens‘ finest matcha quality.
After the harvest the leaf veins are carefully removed in a complex process. The resulting tencha (= tea without leaf veins) is slowly and gently ground on a traditional stone mill, in order to obtain a top-class matcha.
CULTIVATION AND PROCESSING
The tea gardener decided to not expose his tea bushes to completely natural conditions, but to make use of a reduced organic manuring – especially with rape pomace. Thus, his teas develop a very well-balanced flavour with a slight sweetness. Only a few tea gardens are able to reach considerable sweet nuances in their teas without using any fertilizers. In the case of shaded teas like matcha and gyokuro it is especially difficult, so organic manuring seems to be the best option. Other tea gardens, believing they would focus on a „traditional“ way of production, manure their tea bushes with an immense ammount of mineral fertilizers, which give the tea an often extreme sweetness. The use of significant portions of chemical and synthetic pesticides, to get rid of pest infestations in the gardens, should cause goose bumps to any reflective tea drinkers.
Rightly, our Uji tea garden partner questions if the above mentioned “traditional” production of many non-organic gyokuro and matcha tea gardens is really a traditional production method. At the zenith of shaded tea production times, when aristocrats had fallen in love with shaded teas, no such manuring was available of course. Every single tea drinker needs to decide for themselves whether one preferes the immoderately sweet flavour of a matcha or gyokuro, which is produced with the help of the chemical industry, or if one favours the natural taste of the Organic Uji Premium Matcha.
The most important thing for matcha is – and this is where all three fractions share the same opinion – that it is ground by a stone mill after carefully removing the leaf veins. In contrast to more simple powder tea, which is ground in a ceramic mill in far bigger amounts, stone mills can produce only about 30g per hour of the fine powder tea. Together with the shading of the tea bushes, this is the reason why a good matcha is costly.
FLAVOUR
It is very important to our Uji organic tea gardener that his teas are really traditionally produced, which for him obviously means not to use any of chemical and synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or colorants. This philosophy helps making both his matcha and gyokuro well-balanced in their flavour and without any artificially sweet taste. Drinking the Organic Uji Matcha, one can get a hint of how the original matcha must have tasted like, in times when Kyoto was still Japan’s capital, and only the tea from Uji counted as the one and only tea (hon-cha).
The use of a stone mill can be perceived very clearly with the tongue. The tiny particles of the matcha powder are not only considerably finer and create a far more comfortable feeling on the tongue. The tea also tastes much smoother than simple powder tea. Nevertheless, the removing of the leaf veins before the grounding plays an essential role as well. It improves the flavour and the feeling on the tounge immensely.
HISTORY
Not far from Kyoto, where the imperial court of Japan resided from 794 to 1869, is a small town called Uji. It became well-known when the aristocrats started a new kind of game: telling which of the teas was the „original“ (hon-cha) and which was the „not original“ tea (hi-cha). Regarded as „original“ were only teas from Togano teas, and later tea from Uji. Since then, Uji is one of the most reputable places for tea cultivation.
The drinking of powder tea, became a common form of tea preparation in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). It developed into an art in the Japanese tea ceremony (chado), having its zenith in Japan, while it was almost forgotten in China. Aristocrats started to favor the mildness of shaded teas. Thus, Uji became one of the most important places for the production of matcha and gyokuro, for which the tea bushes are shaded about three weeks before the harvest.