Organic Makurazaki Black Tea Hime Fuki

Hime Fuki, a LIMITED organic Japanese black tea cultivated in Makurazaki, Kagoshima, Japan is made from an excellent Japanese cultivar named “Benifuki”. Cultivated organically and harvested by hand, known as tezumi in Japanese, it is comprised of only young leaves handpicked at the optimum timing in spring one by one with close inspection by the pickers. The tea breed, handpicking, processing, and natural oxidation of the tea leaves are the important factors that ultimately gives this particular black tea its fresh flowery aroma, soft rich taste, and beautiful ruby color!

AWARDED TEA

Hime Fuki has been awarded a gold star award three years on the run at the Great Taste Awards in the UK! Gold star honors at the Great Taste Awards are considered a very high honor and are only awarded after rigorous blind-tasting by up to 20 expert judges in the food and tea industry! Needless to say, winning such prestigious awards is an absolutely amazing achievement by such a small organic black tea grower from Makurazaki and one which left him jumping for joy! It really underlines the quality of organic black tea that can be produced in that particular region of Japan and has firmly put Makurazaki back on the black tea map where it surely has always deserved to be!

AWARD HISTORY

	In 2009, Hime Fuki gained the very prestigious “Great Taste 3 Star Gold Award” which is the award given by the guild of fine food in the UK! The 3 star gold award, which the guild gives the quotation of “Wow, you must taste this”, is the highest star honor that can be achieved!
	In 2010, Hime Fuki gained the one star gold award managing to continue the legacy of this GREAT organic Japanese black tea!
	Once again in 2011 Hime Fuki took the accolades at the Great Taste Awards by receiving a two star gold award! It has now received the prestigious and highly acclaimed gold star awards at the Great Taste Awards three years on a row!

100% HANDPICKED

(Handpicked = Tezumi in Japanese)
Although most tea in Japan is harvested by machines, the cultivators of this organic black tea choose to pick all leaves by hand. All leaves are checked for quality by eye and with their fingertips as they pluck them. The annual yield of the farm is therefore quite low meaning that each black tea is limited, but is ultimately superior in quality.

MAKURAZAKI JAPANESE BLACK TEA

If you know your time-line on Japanese black tea, you'll know that Makurazaki in Kagoshima prefecture was one of the main cultivation regions of high quality black tea in Japan in the 1960s. Unfortunately, restrictions on black tea imports were lifted in Japan in 1971 which led to a mass of cheap low quality import black tea entering the Japanese black tea market, already sensing what was going to happen, most black tea farmers in Japan at that time swiftly switched over to producing green tea leaving the Japanese domestic black tea market to slowly dwindle away. Thankfully, for a few Japanese black tea farmers, that didn't stop their passion and desire to cultivate black tea in Makurazaki because they knew they were making black tea with a very special taste (The triple awarding winning Hime Fuki Japanese black tea is evidence of that)! Therefore, still today there are black tea farmers, including some of the older original farmers, that are still cultivating and innovating the production of high quality organic black tea in the region! It is due to their efforts that it remains possible to enjoy the high quality taste of organic Makurazaki black tea!

Origin	Makurazaki, Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan
Organic Certification(s)	JAS
Harvest Date	May 2011
Harvest Period	100% First Flush
Harvest Method	Tezumi (Hand-picked)
Cultivar(s)	100% Benifuki
NET Weight	40g (1.41oz)