Description
Murakami Tokiwaen Sencha, Tokiwaen Tea Farm, Niigata - 2025 Shincha (New Harvest Tea).
Origin: Grown by Tokiwaen Tea Farm in the town of Murakami, Niigata Prefecture.
Cultivar: Proprietary blend of Yabukita, Fukumidori, and Okuyutaka cultivars.
This signature Sencha blend for Tokiwaen was comes from mid-first harvest in early June. It undergoes a slightly stronger roasting during processing to bring about a light grassy aroma and mellow flavor. The tea infuses to a light to medium green color with the aforementioned light grassy aroma. It's full-bodied and very smooth and mellow. The sweetness is moderate and there is very little astringency, except for a faint bit at the finish. While astringency tends to emerge on later infusions at higher temperatures with many teas, I found this tea to do the opposite, with more sweetness emerging on the third infusion and astringency fading away. This tea can also easily make a fourth infusion still with well-balanced flavor. To me, it's a "nomiyasui" (easy to drink) Sencha that is very mellow and relaxing.
The Yabe Family has been involved in the tea industry in Murakami since 1839. The current head is Yabe Tomohiro. The Tokiwaen building in Murakami is a renovated Machiya-style building that goes back to 1878. It was partially remodeled in the 1940's, and a tea room was added in the early 2000's.
Murakami Tea is regarded as the tea grown at the highest northern latitude in Japan that is grown on a commercial scale, and with a long history of tea production. You would not think that tea could be grown amid the harsh snowy winters of Niigata Prefecture, but the ingenuity and hard work of farmers there has created a tea growing history of over 400 years.
Murakami was a castle town in the Edo Period (1600-1868) and in the very early 1600's, the Murakami lord Horitango no kami Naoyori brought a tea master from Uji to help start tea production in Murakami. Tea cultivation flourished through the Edo Period, and in the subsequent Meiji Era (1868-1912), Murakami was exporting tea abroad to places like the United States and the Russian Empire. Demand fell during and after WWII, and tea plantations in Murakami grew smaller in competition with large-scale producing prefectures like Shizuoka and Kagoshima. However, Murakami's commitment to quality tea has not lessened and they are beginning to grow again.
I first encountered Murakami teas (Murakami-cha) on antique-buying trips to Niigata Prefecture in the early 2000's and began to enjoy it as a go-to everyday tea. In those days before Internet sales, especially in rural Japan, I would mail cash to an elderly woman at the small tea shop where I first bought Murakami-cha and she would mail me tea in return. Also in the envelope would always be my change, a few cents taped inside the packing envelope. These touching exchanges that provided me my daily morning tea in Yokohama made the tea taste even sweeter. I am so happy to now be working with tea farmers in Niigata to finally bring Murakami tea to my Charaku Tea friends!