Today, the association of tea farmers in Hamamatsu city held a new year sale of specialty teas, including Sencha matured in Akiha Shrine on the top of Mt. Akiha.
In the new year sale, 5 prominent tea farmers provided visitors with tasting their specialty teas including the matured tea. I’d like to share the features of the excellent tea farmers as follows.
(1) Hasegawa Seicha Hamakitaen
Hasegawa Seicha exhibited a tea jar so-called “Chatsubo” used for the tea maturation in Akiha Shrine. The “Chatsubo” expressed mysterious atmosphere of tradition.
Hasegawa Seicha provided visitors with a tea experience of grinding Tencha for matcha making. The tea experience was very popular to children.
Unfortunately they could not sell the matured tea because of high demand for the tea.
I got 2 impressive features of Hasegawa Seicha Hamakitaen. The tea farm cultivates all tea plantations without any pesticides and herbicides. And they tries various product developments cooperating with other businesses such as confectionary shops, Tofu (soybean curd) shops and local association for specialty products development. The detail is described on the official webpage in Japanese.
I think the series of their multihued efforts could be a model of omni-channel relationship to their stakeholders, including business partners, customers and consumers.
(2) Kaneta Ota-en
Kaneta Ota-en is one of the most prominent tea farms in the United Tea Estates of Shizuoka. The tea farm have received the prize of Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries many times as posted before.
Kaneta Ota-en also produces the matured tea by keeping their specialty teas stored in Akiha Shrine.
Unfortunately the booth of Kaneta Ota-en was so crowded that I could not try the tasting. But I could buy the matured tea stored for approx. 6 months in Akiha Shrine. I’m looking forward to steeping it!
(3) Kurisaki-en
Kurisaki-en is a tea farm producing tea on the mountainside in Haruno Tea Estate, where is located between Tenryu Tea Estate and Mori Tea Estate. The tea farm cultivates various tea cultivars, such as Yabukita, Kurasawa, Okuhikari, Sayamakaori, Meiryoku, Kanayamidori, Yamanoibuki, Benifuki and Fujimidori. They served award-winning tea by the special apparatus for a bit steeping developed by Kaneta Ota-en.
The bit infusion of MAFF-award-winning tea has rich umami with creamy note.
In addition to the Sencha, they kindly served cups of black tea and Hojicha. Kurisaki-en produces black tea using a very rare tea cultivar ‘Fujimidori’. This tea variety is so mysterious that nobody knows the parent cultivars. Besides, there are some tea specialists who don’t know the cultivar ‘Fujimidori’.
The black tea has smooth mouthfeel and calm aroma!
The infusion of ‘Fujimidori’ black tea produced by Kurisaki-en.
The infusion of Hojicha produced by Kurisaki-en.
(4) Suzusho
Suzusho also deals with various tea cultivars. This tea farm names each loose leaf tea as their cultivar number, such as 7109, 7111 and 7132. Now 7109 and 7111 are called as ‘Surugawase’ and ‘Kurasawa’ respectively. Only 7132 has the cultivar number in its name, ‘Shizu 7132’.
The chief tea farmer in Suzusho, Mr. Suzuki, explained Tenryu Tea Estate has wider variety of tea cultivars because the steep slopes are difficult for tea farmers to re-plant new cultivars. Of course, the strong demand for ‘Yabukita’ cultivar had tea farmers to re-plant some tea plantations in Tenryu Tea Estate from old varieties to ‘Yabukita’. But in comparison with other tea estates in Shizuoka, Tenryu Tea Estate has relatively diverse tea cultivars.
The loose leaf tea of 7109 ‘Surugawase’ has delicate and clear taste with less astringency. Based on the explanation by Mr. Suzuki, ‘Surugawase’ is so fragile that the tea farm hardly pluck sufficient yield. This delicate cultivar has clean flavor and silky mouthfeel.
The loose leaf tea of 7111 ‘Kurasawa’ has full-bodied flavor and good astringency, which suits for my preference! At the same time, the infusion of ‘Kurasawa’ brewed by Mr. Suzuki has delicate flavor and mild mouthfeel.
The loofe leaf tea of 7132 has good fragrance like cherry leaves, which is famous among tea lovers in Shizuoka. Shimizu Tea Estate produces original Sencha brand of this cultivar “Machiko”.
(5) Marutama
Marutama cultivates their tea plantation on Mikatabara upland. This tea farm produces deep steamed Sencha. Tenryu Tea Estate is famous for its light steamed Sencha with ful-bodied flavor due to sharp astringency. On the other hand, tea shoots grown on Mikatabara upland suits for deep steamed green tea because of the thicker leaves due to the sufficient sun shine.
Their deep steamed Sencha has also been matured in Akiha Shrine based on the partnership among tea farmers in Hamamatsu city.
The appearance of deep steamed Sencha matured in Akiha Shrine.
Marutama tea farm produces matured black tea too. They matured their black tea by storage in Ryugashido Cave, located on the Inasa region, the west side of Hamamatsu city.
The black tea is very smooth and has delicate flavor. The president farmer, Mr. Suzuki, served this black tea with an unique confection of soy beans coated with sugar and Hojicha powder.
The association of tea businesses in Hamamatsu city has been promoting the tea industry in the city. In this event, Hamamatsu city organized the opening ceremony played by Taiko drummers in Inasa region.
Taiko music played by Taiko drummers in Inasa region.
The event booth was full of visitors and they enjoyed every specialty tea and tea experience.
At the beginning of 2019, I could meet excellent teas by prominent tea farmers!!