Description
Yumesuruga Honyama Sencha - 2024 Shincha (New Harvest Tea)
Origin: Honyama, Shizuoka Prefecture
Cultivar: Yumesuruga
Infuses to a light green liquor with a slightly grassy aroma. Nice mouthfeel and a light amami (sweetness) that stays through a few infusions. It also has a very light shibumi (astringency) finish, so is a well-balanced tea with fresh notes across the spectrum.
The Honyama region of Shizuoka is in the northern part of the prefecture, containing the Abe River and the it's branches of the Ashikubo and Warashina Rivers, and near the foothills of Mount Fuji. Suruga was the old provincial name of current Shizuoka, and the Yumesuruga varietal can be translated as "Dream Suruga". The aroma of tea is everywhere in Suruga, and must have been for some time as poem of Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) recounts, "Suruga road / Even the mikan (orange) blossoms / Smell of tea bushes".
Shizuoka is Japan's largest growing tea region, producing nearly half of the country's tea output. The history of tea in Shizuoka goes back to the Kamakura Period when tea seeds, along with the seeds of Zen Buddhism, were brought from Song China by the monk Enni in 1241 and planted them in the Ashikubo area. During the Tokugawa Era (1600-1869), local lords increased commercial cultivation of tea to bolster the region's economy and their feudal coffers. Even in the late 1800's, Shizuoka was a large exporter of tea. Tea farming is spread across the prefecture, much of it with the beauty of Mount Fuji in the background. To the east lies the coast and the Pacific Ocean, and with many river valleys, growing conditions in Shizuoka are ideal for tea. With both a long history and an ideal environment, Shizuoka has long been a leader in tea agricultural science and technology.