What you have just found here is a very precious, 100% handpicked, traditionally farmed, certified ORGANIC matcha from the Nakanishi families tea plantation in Kyoto that should be prepared as koicha (thick matcha). Only the most prized top leaves of gokou tea bushes are carefully handpicked, and then processed and stone-ground into one of the best matcha that Kyoto has to offer.

Tenkei Hana is extremely aromatic and has the most lingering matcha scent when prepared. It has a distinctive complex taste that is full-bodied, rich, and mature, never chalky, bitter, bland, or solely sweet as so many matcha can be. The liquor color is a deep forest green and the aftertaste is thick, creamy, cleansing and endless. When it comes to ORGANIC matcha, it is easy to spot that Tenkei Hana is on a complete level of its own!

Why is Tenkei Matcha so special...

- Plantation has over 250 years of history.
- Grown at an authentic organic oishita-chaen (covered tea garden) on the single estate in Kyoto.
- Tea leaves are 100% genuinely handpicked
- Tea bushes are kept in the rare traditional Shizen Shitate style which are hand pruned and tailored, never machine harvested or machine shaped.
- Farm specializes in organic tencha and the growers are professional tencha artisans, not regular tea growers.
- Tea gardens have been awarded for their outstanding cultivars.
- 100% stone-ground.
- 100% single cultivar.
- Tencha is aged in the traditional manner and is aged for at least 6 months before release.
- One of only a few organic matcha in Japan that can truly be prepared and enjoyed as koicha (thick matcha).
- Very limited, never mass produced, quality is absolutely paramount.
- Completely free from farm-to-farm, region-to-region, and tea shop/manufacture/merchant blending/masking/tampering.
- TOTALLY ORGANIC JAS certified.

Tea Garden Images...

PLEASE NOTE: The proceeding images were taken under 95%+ shade they appear much brighter due to a high ISO speed being used on the camera that was used to take the pictures. Please see the last image for a more accurate feel of the actual degree of light.

A rare glimpse at a generations-old traditional JAS certified organic oishita-chaen (covered tea garden)! Organic gokou tea bushes shaded in Late-April:

A beautiful close-up of precious gokou tea leaves! There are not a great deal of new shoots on gokou tea bushes. That's one of the reasons why Tenkei Hana is so precious:

Genuinely handpicked matcha is very rare! Most tea leaves for matcha are either scissor cut or machine harvested from tea bushes that have been machine shaped these days. However, our Tenkei Matcha is always 100% handpicked from traditional Shizen Shitate tea bushes. Here you can see skilled pickers handpicking leaves for our Tenkei matcha at the tea gardens in May:

A more accurate feel of the actual degree of light once you have entered the oishita-chaen and your eyes adapt to the darkness: