Description
|
Charaku Fine Japanese Tea 2025 Nakaisamurai Shincha (New Harvest Tea) Variety Pack Gift Box, 4 x 30g. Save 10% when purchasing all of our Nakasamurai teas together and support this rare family farming village! These are Naturally Grown teas with no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. A gift box with a variety of four naturally-grown teas representing four farmers selected among the ten farms currently farming in Tenryu Village, Nagano Prefecture. Three of the teas are Yabukita cultivar Sencha, and the fourth is a Yabukita cultivar WaKoucha (Japanese Black Tea). Although the cultivars and growing region are the same, each tea has a subtle difference in character. 1. Mr. Kakishita Koki's Tea (Kakishita no Ocha) is a Sencha that infuses to a medium golden-green tea with a grassy aroma. Full-bodied with a very round mouthfeel. it has a grassy robust flavor, but still a good balance of amami (sweetness) and shibumi (astringency). The finish is more on the shibumi side, but still a smooth and enjoyable finish. 2. The Tea of Ms. Maeda Misa (Misa no Ocha) is a Sencha with nicely rolled leaves infuse to a light golden-green tea with a warm forest aroma. Medium-bodied with mostly amami (sweet) notes up front with a faint touch of saltiness, smooth and well-balanced amami/shibumi (sweet/astringent) flavors in the mouth, and a very mild astringent finish. If you like a tea with mellow sweet notes, this is one to try. Farmer Maeda was originally a worker in the Regional Revitalization Cooperation Team, helping the elderly tea farmers to work various fields throughout the village and learning the production side of becoming a tea master. At the end of her term, however, she stayed on with one farm and eventually became the successor. 3. Oohira Sachiko's Tea (Satcha no Ocha) is a Sencha that infuses to a medium golden-green tea with a grassy aroma. Full-bodied with mild sweet notes of grass and honey, and a slight shibumi (astringency), but very smooth, finish. The astringency fades on 2nd and 3rd infusions leaving mostly sweeter notes. Farmer Oohira is the middle child of five sisters and has been tea farming since her eldest son was born. She is witty and young at heart, but always a hard worker, hand-picking her teas grown with natural farming methods. When asked how to make a good cup of tea, she answers, "Just add hot water." I guess that when you start with your own good tea, that is a perfectly honest and obvious answer. 4. The WaKoucha (Japanese Black Tea) made by Farmer Shinoda Taiki has finely cut leaves that infuse to a brick red tea with a dark stone fruit (think black cherries) aroma. Medium-bodied and smooth, notes of black cherry and plum with very little astringency. The color. flavor, and sweetness continue to hold up in the 2nd and 3rd infusions. This tea can be brewed slightly stronger to stand up ice or milk, but we encourage trying WaKoucha straight at least the first time. Farmer Shinoda, known in the village as Taiki, was a young traveling farm worker who was helping the aging Hatano Shichirohei to tend his Nakaya Farm tea fields. Besides being a long-time tea farmer, Hatano was also known for his tea picking songs. Taiki became the successor to the Nakaya Farm in 2020, and also became Shichirohei II. He practices only natural farming methods using no pesticides. Besides producing Sencha, he also produces this WaKoucha with tea trees left behind by Shichirohei I. Nakaisamurai is a small district within Tenryu Village that lies along the Tenryu River with sloping hills that are so steep that they seem to be held up by the tea fields. There are no convenience stores or traffic lights, and the community of tea farmers is a tight-knit one. However, the aging rate is the third highest in Japan and farm succession is a difficult challenge. As a place of tea production, it is barely known in Japan. I first saw a feature about Nakaisamurai Tea on Japanese TV, and was completely enthralled by the idyllic environment and the passionate community of elderly farmers and young NPO workers. I reached out to them and a relationship was born to share some of their small production with you. Commercial tea cultivation in the area is relatively young, going back just to the 1970's. Ten families still farm here and are sales activities are managed by a Non-Profit Organization. The NPO serves to bring in tourism to this hidden valley paradise, revitalizing tea fields and keeping natural farming practices, and to ensure that the aging tea farmers have the help they need to tend the fields and that products are sold directly at a fair price to keep tea culture alive in the area. They create packaging designs, do marketing, operate a small tea cafe, and run tea-picking and tea-making events. As some of the young NPO workers have now become tea farmers in their own right, the program is looking successful for the future of tea in the village. The individual tea package image is a drawing by one of the NPO workers, Ms. Yuka Naito. It shows the Tenryu Village layout of the geography and ten tea farms working in the area. Each of the farms uses a portion of the image on their packaging, and when all of the ten farms' packages are laid out together, it forms the full map image. How charming is that?! We're happy to include a personalized note for you! Just include the desired text in the Comments section of your order. |