Back in the old days, tea used to be picked and processed by hand. Through modernization this practice got replaced by machinery. To preserve the tradition, however, each tea producing region in Japan has Tea Hand-Rolling Preservation Societies. And every spring they compete to determine who can produce the best Japanese tea by hand. Tea […]
Japanese tea continues to be popular abroad. But where can you enjoy it in Japan? It might be surprising to know that here tea houses and tea rooms are not that prevalent, and it can take some effort to find a really special place. One such place we would like to introduce today is Sakurai […]
In 1874, Japanese authorities invited two Chinese tea experts to teach black tea processing techniques to Japanese farmers. The produced teas were considered a bit of a failure and it was decided that more detailed knowledge was necessary to produce a black tea that would convince the export market. So in 1875, the government sends […]
It comes as no surprise to many that when you leaf through books on Japanese tea, you more often than not encounter only mention of green teas: sencha, matcha, bancha, gyokuro, etc. We mostly associate Japan with green teas. What is not such common knowledge, is that Japan actually has quite a chunk of black […]
We would like to introduce you to a type of Japanese tea that is so rare that nowadays only 7 farmers produce it: Goishicha. A fermented tea from the area of Otoyo, Kochi, on the beautiful island of Shikoku, Goishicha meets its origins all the way back to the Edo era at the beginning of […]
Frost came to tea fields in Wazuka Kyoto.
Wazuka is a small tea producing town in Kyoto Prefecture. However, it boasts a long tea cultivation history of over 800 years. Every years to celebrate the end of the harvesting season, Wazuka holds Teatopia Festival. It usually takes place on the second weekend of November and lasts two days. In 2018 the festival […]
These days in Japan tea is mostly harvested and processed with the help of machinery. Long gone are days when hand-picking and hand-rolling were used for commercial production. Not to forget the traditions, however, each tea regions usually has a Tea Hand-Rolling Preservation Association. These associations normally hold and participate in community events as well […]