Organic Hoshino Sencha

This organic sencha green tea comes from a grower whose tea garden is located in the famous Hoshino tea region of Yame which is in Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu Island. His small-scale tea garden is located in the mountainous area of Hoshino village in a secluded spot surrounded by a natural environment and beautiful tall and well-cared for forests. At the tea garden the grower uses the Yabukita cultivar which is considered the dawn of modern day cultivors and the most widely used in Japan.

The special point about this sencha's cultivation is that just prior to harvesting the grower directly covers the tea bushes for about 7 days with black netting which blocks around 50% of sunlight. This coverage is similar to kabusecha, only shorter. The coverage does two things, it causes the leaf pigment to become greener, and increases the amino acid and chlorophyll content in the new growth. The purpose behind this is to give the resulting tea a greener infusion color and a sweeter deeper taste. The image below shows the tea garden in Spring just after removing the coverage:



The practice of covering sencha is pretty common among tea growers in Japan these days especially non-organic growers, however it can attract many bad/pest insects which can damage the tea bushes new growth, so it often results in applications of chemical pesticides which of course puts the purity and the quality of the tea into question. By nature organic growers in Japan never use chemical pesticides on their crops, so when doing this style of sencha an organic grower must be very vigilant and monitor the progress of the tea bushes very carefully during the coverage period. It's not easy to do this task genuinely like an organic grower does, however after a number of years of farming organically in a natural environment, and an increasing number of beneficial insects almost guarding the tea garden, the hard work usually pays off and it's possible to maintain tea bushes that are stronger, healthier, and more resilient to disease then tea bushes grown with agricultural chemicals.

As for processing, this sencha is medium steamed and maintains excellent leaf quality. The special note about the processing of this organic sencha is that the hiire stage (the final drying) is conduct by the “Jikabi Hiire” method which means that the leaves are dried by the use of an open flame as opposed to the infrared or microwave drying that is often used today. The Jikabi Hiire method is difficult to perfect and requires skill. Some traditionalist swear by it, and say that it produces the most natural sweet-smelling aroma.

This sencha is the type of organic green tea you can drink everyday. You can enjoy it's fragrance, liquor color, leaf quality, taste, and never become tired of it. It has many flavor nuances including sweet, savory, oceanic and a lovely refreshing aftertaste. It's also really well-produced and excellent value, so we are sure that most everyday sencha drinkers will love it!

Brewing Suggestion

Steep	Leaf-Water Ratio	Water Temperature	Infusion Time
1	1g/1oz	70°C/158°F	60 seconds
2	-	75°C/167°F	10-30 seconds
3+	-	Hotter Water	Longer Steeps

Additional Information

Origin	Hoshino, Yame, Fukuoka, Japan
Organic Certification(s)	JAS
Harvest Date	Early June 2011
Harvest Period	100% Ichibancha (First Harvest)
Steaming	Chumushi (Medium)
Cultivar(s)	100% Yabukita
NET Weight	100g/3.53oz