Japanese Green Tea
 

Japanese Tea as a World Premium Tea


 

 

 

 

 

 

by Junko, July 2005

My mother and I took a train to Shizuoka prefecture in May 2004 to look for tea gardens where we could taste the most premium green teas made in Japan. To our delight, we found several gardens that represent a cross selection of local tea farms.
Shizuoka is fairly warm year round, which makes the area a perfect climate to grow green tea -- especially varieties grown in the valley, where there is a substantial temperature difference between day and night. Such conditions produce the delicate flavors recognized in premium green tea.
Green tea farms in Japan are lined up perfectly, and appear so methodically organized; they create a beautiful hillside mosaic.

We walked among the various farms, visited a hot spring in the valley and stayed over night at the mountain lodge. We found the Shizuoka people very friendly and kind. The prefecture still has the atmosphere of old-country Japan, with mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Mount Fuji is located to the West, a gigantic sacred mountain that crosses two more neighboring prefectures.

There are so many green tea gardens in Shizuoka, it was difficult to choose the best one. Still, we found a wholesale company that is very particular about the quality of the tea leaves they choose. By far, the flavor of their product was the most outstanding of the green teas we tasted.

We met the master tea taster, and watched him taste various teas that are sent to his company. He also decides which tea leaves to purchase and directs the task of blending and roasting the product at their factory. We also visited their tea factory and followed the process from fresh picked tea leaves to the steamed and lightly roasted dry tea.
Throughout the entire manufacturing process, achieving characteristic flavor and aroma from plain green tea leaves is of the utmost importance.

My mother and I have been drinking green tea all our lives. However, we were surprised and happy to discover this delicate flavor. And now we want to introduce this kind of quality to tea lovers worldwide, as well as those who have never tasted a really superior green tea.