The Story of Tea

by Mary Lou Heiss

  Heading north, the prefectures of Kumamoto and Miyazaki also contribute sencha tea, and in the far north Fukuoka and Saga prefectures produce sencha and gyokuro that are rich and sweet. In Saga the Ureshino region specializes in kamairi-cha. The Yame region, located in Fukuoka, enjoys a temperate climate that makes it Japan’s largest producer of gyokuro.

  Saga and nearby Nagasaki prefectures are historical pottery centers that have contributed to the country’s rich history of ceramic teawares. Korean artists who were brought to live in Japan at the end of the sixteenth century were responsible for influencing much of Japan’s ceramic sensibilities. Sen Rikyu, the Zen tea master, admired the rough, naive qualities of Korean ceramics more than the smooth style of the Chinese-made porcelain cups. On Kyushu the towns of Arita, Imari, Karatsu, and Okawachi still support a thriving ceramics industry comprised of both large and small pottery workshops. Porcelain tea sets as well as pottery teawares are made here, but pottery collectors know that the handmade pottery is found off in the mountains, where wood can be gathered to fire wood-burning kilns.

  Uji (Kyoto). South of the historical city of Kyoto, on the main island of Honshu, are Uji’s world-famous tea gardens that produce Japan’s most exclusive and expensive teas. Kyoto is Japan’s seventh-largest city and also the country’s culturally rich serene heart and soul. Despite its modern façade and crowded nature, Kyoto still shelters sublime vestiges of old Japan. From 794 to 1868, Kyoto was Japan’s imperial city. During this time the arts flourished and concepts of Japanese understated sensibilities of spare luxury were perfected. The tea arts were perfected in Kyoto, where the major schools of tea study are located today. Under his rule the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (r. 1449–1474) encouraged the expansion of tea gardens that had been planted several hundred years earlier in Uji, many of which are the oldest tea gardens still in production in Japan. Uji is famous for premium-quality gyokuro, sencha, and matcha. Nara and Mie prefectures, also known for fine tea, lie south and east of Uji.

  Shizuoka prefecture. Shizuoka prefecture is the largest tea-growing area in all of Japan. It is situated along the Pacific coast, southwest of Tokyo and due south of Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak. The Akaishi Mountains, the southernmost range of the Japanese Alps, end in western Shizuoka prefecture and provide cool, high-elevation locations, rolling foothills, and abundant rivers conducive for vigorous tea growth. In the central part of the prefecture Shizuoka City and its environs are protected by Suruga Bay, which brings a mild microclimate in all four seasons and frequent, nurturing dense coastal fogs. Sencha is the primary tea produced here, and close to 40 percent of all the sencha produced in Japan comes from this region. Shizuoka began to cultivate tea during Japan’s Kamakura period (1185–1333). Approximately 39,500 private tea farmers sell their tea directly to tea producers and packers in Shizuoka and at the weekly Shizuoka Wholesale Tea Auction.

  Central Honshu. Clustered in the center of Honshu, Shiga, Gifu, and Saitama prefectures are known for fresh, earthy, richly textured sencha. Aichi is a production area for premium matcha, supplying many of the finest teashops in Japan.

  SHIZUOKA IS A TEA TOWN

  We took the bullet train (the Shinkansen) from Tokyo Station to Shizuoka City, the capital of Shizouka prefecture, a quick ninety-minute ride. Stepping out from the train station in the city center, we detected the aroma of freshly roasting tea leaves. What a pleasant surprise—the slightly parched, toasty fragrance of tumble-dried leaf was a comforting and enticing welcome, and a vestige of a previous time, when a large concentration of tea finishers and tea blenders plied their craft here. Since the 1600s (Japan’s Edo period), this city has been a center for tea commerce. Today, tea factory buildings, teashops, tea warehouses, and pottery shops are still located in the vicinity of Chamati and Amzai Streets, tucked away behind the restaurants, shops, residential houses, commercial businesses, and karaoke clubs.

  Not far out of town, rows of tea bushes come into view. Some houses feature rows of neatly tended tea bushes where vegetable gardens might have been. Nearly everyone has a classic, elegantly pruned Japanese pine tree planted by his or her doorway, with tidy little Zen gardens with a few stones and a bonsai or two tucked alongside. Further out of town, the spaces open up and the rows of tea bushes begin to sweep away from the road in long, fool-the-eye rows. We stopped to visit with Mr. Ichiro Mochizuki, a retired gentleman who was out tending his tea. Although it was late afternoon and threatening to rain, he wanted to show us his gas-powdered shearing machine in action. We followed him to his barn, which is actually his little tea factory.

  With some help from us, he brought one of his shearer machines over to one of the rows. He positioned himself across the row, holding one end of the clippers, and pointed at us to grab the other end. With a loud blast of noise from the gas engine, we moved down the row at a rapid clip, shearing tea from the tops of the bushes. The bag to catch the leaf clippings sailed out from the rear of the machine and trailed behind, partially aloft like a parachute, as it filled with the newly sheared leaf. The machine was surprisingly heavy and difficult to hold steady as it vibrated furiously. The next day, Mr. Mochizuki tracked us down in town and presented us with a bag of the aracha that he had fired from those clippings!

  VARIETIES OF JAPANESE TEA

  All Japanese green teas are steamed during the processing (except for one not very commonly seen style of tea, which is “parched” or pan-fired in the Chinese style). There are two classifications of green tea according to whether it is shade grown or sun grown. The teas listed below are easily available in the United States; some of Japan’s more obscure teas are difficult to find, however, even within Japan and thus have not been included here.

  The following is a list of green teas that are steamed and sun grown.

  Bancha. This common class of tea is lower in quality than sencha. Leaves for bancha are picked right after the first or second flush of each picking season, when sencha production is over. Bancha has a stronger flavor, which many Japanese people prefer with food.

  Genmaicha. This is made from sencha leaf, to which toasted and puffed brown rice is added. The proportion of tea to rice varies, but more rice to tea is generally desired to cut the slight bitterness of the sencha leaf. Sometimes matcha is added to the mix, which covers both leaf and rice with a soft powdery coating, and the tea is then called matcha genmaicha.

  Guricha. This steamed green tea is small in size and elegant in presentation. It is not a traditional needle leaf but has acquired the shape of a comma.

  Konacha. This powdered tea is made from the small leaves and pieces of leaf that are gathered from sencha processing. It is not as fine as matcha, nor does it command the same price or distinguished place of honor. Known in Japan as agari, kona cha is often served in sushi restaurants as a palate-refreshing tea that stands up well to the sweet and oily fish and the savory condiments.

  Sencha. This term has two meanings in Japan. First, it refers to the most popular style of leaf tea produced in Japan. Second, it has a historical reference to a practice of tea drinking that infuses tea leaves rather than the powdered tea of Chanoyu.

  SHIZUOKA WHOLESALE TEA AUCTION

  We were thrilled to receive permission to visit this busy place and arrived at the appointed time—5 a.m. Although the official auction hours are from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., it was clear from the size of the crowd and the level of enthusiasm brewing that things were in full swing. From the end of April until the end of June, this is the place where buyers and sellers come to trade aracha. From the number of buyers and sellers we saw engaged in business, they move a lot of tea. During the height of the tea season the auction operates every day; if it is raining and no one is picking tea (wet leaves clog the mechanical shearing machines), there is no auction until more tea is picked and more aracha can be made.

  Tea buyers examine the various lots on offer at the Shizuoka tea auction (Shizuoka, Japan).

  This was not the type of hands-waving-in-the-air-bidding-fo
r-antiques-country auction that we were familiar with back home. Instead, those with tea to sell placed the tea out for view in black lacquer trays on long tables. Buyers roamed from table to table, offering comments, fingering the tea, discussing things with one another conspiratorially, and sometimes throwing in a paper bid. Despite the size of the crowd, it was a pretty quiet place. Everyone seemed to be concentrating deeply. In fact, as we wandered and took notes and photographs for the better part of an hour, we were not sure that anyone even noticed we were there. All of the players wore official hats—yellow hats designated auction association members, green hats were reserved for industry and tea association members, and blue hats distinguished the local tea growers and producers. On the side of the room, two tea-cupping stations became increasingly busy as the crowd of buyers thickened. Ten industrial-sized water kettles belched out a heady supply of steam, a sign that they were ready to accommodate the volume expected to take place over the next few hours as buyers made their final decisions about prospective purchases.

  When a buyer determines that a particular lot of aracha is of interest, it goes to the tasting area. Copious kettles of perfectly heated water are supplied by the staff so that buyers can cup, look, taste, and spit over and over for hours, looking for the particular aracha that will complete the desired blend (Shizuoka, Japan).

  As the action waned, we left and stopped by the offices of a local saitori (tea dealer). We had passed by his shop on our way to the auction and noticed a group of men inside huddled around a tea-tasting table sipping and examining tea. The street was lined with tea dealers, and there was activity everywhere. It was now 7 a.m. and his business was concluded for the day—he had accomplished his goal of selling all of his tea. The saitori invited us to sit and taste some tea. We watched with curiosity while he placed a five-yen coin (a go en) on the small round platform on one side of his scale and added tiny amounts of tea to the platform on the other side. When the weight of tea reached the correct level and the scale balanced, he had the right amount—five grams—the measure that Japanese tea tasters use when brewing a taste of aracha. He explained to us that a go en also has the double meaning of “well connected.”

  Sencha is the most popular tea drunk in Japanese households and restaurants—more than 80 percent of all the tea produced in Japan is sencha. It is plucked three to four times a year, but the first spring picking yields the finest quality. Many quality grades of sencha are produced, including costly handpicked teas made in small quantities. The first plucking is designated as ichibancha; the second plucking, which begins about the end of June, is known as nibancha; the third plucking, which starts in mid-August, is called sanbancha; and the fourth picking, which begins in late September, is known as yobancha. Fukamushi Sencha is a deeply steamed variation of sencha that results in a sweeter, richer flavor that is less astringent in style. The following green teas are steamed and shade grown.

  Gyokuro. Associated with the ancient tea gardens of Uji in the Kansai region near Kyoto prefecture, gyokuro is Japan’s most treasured tea. It is labor intensive to produce and finicky to brew. Although most tea thrives on a balance of weather that brings sunny days interspersed with cloudy days, gyokuro (Jade Dew) grows under a full-shade covering before it is picked. It is only produced in the spring from the first leaf plucking. As soon as the weather stimulates the bushes to flush with new growth, the shade covering is applied. This is done in two ways. In the most elaborate way for the most expensive tea, trellises are erected over the rows of plants to completely cover the rows in large sections. Black netting is spread over the top of the trellis and down the sides, covering the entirety all the way to the ground. This method of covering is called tana, and while the bushes are completely covered, the new growth on the bushes is still able to grow freely as the material does not touch the plants. See “Uniquely Japanese” in chapter 2 for more information and photographs of covered tea bushes.

  Conversely, many bushes are simply wrapped in the cloth row by row, in a style called jikagise. Either way, fine, dappled light is able to filter through the cloth—about 10 percent—but the bushes essentially grow in the shade protected from the sun for twenty-one days. A further refinement is sometimes added, which requires covering the black tana with a thick mat of straw. The mat reduces the light through the netting even more, increasing the darkness within the tent. This step is reserved for the top grades of gyokuro and for tencha, which is processed into the most expensive powdered matcha for thick tea.

  The point of shading the bushes is to increase chlorophyll production in the plants by reducing natural photosynthesis in the leaves. This extra boost of green chlorophyll pigment changes the natural balance of caffeine, sugars, and flavanols in the leaf, creating the opportunity for the tea processors to coax added sweetness from the leaf. In addition, the absence of photosynthesis increases the presence of naturally occurring theanine (an amino acid that is believed to induce relaxation), which is the component of tea that is responsible for giving tea its vegetal taste. Usually, photosynthesis reduces theanine and increases tannins.

  This reversal of leaf dynamic is one of the factors responsible for gyokuro’s distinctive flavor and rich, pine-green color. The best Uji gyokuro is made exclusively from the bud and new leaf, which is hand-plucked. This type of select picking has a limited number of production days possible each year—approximately ten. Gyokuro of this caliber accounts for only 1 percent of Uji’s total gyokuro production, which is just under 20 percent of their total tea production. The remaining 80 percent is sencha production, with another small percentage of tencha leaf that will become matcha powder.

  When processing gyokuro, the fresh leaf undergoes a different rolling, separating, and drying procedure for the leaves to acquire their characteristic thin, needlelike appearance. Special clonal varieties of tea plants have been developed for gyokuro production that yield small, sweet leaf. When brewed properly at a low water temperature, gyokuro produces a sweet, rich tea with a characteristic, striking vegetal flavor. Because of the specific combination of variables necessary to produce gyokuro, this is the most expensive Japanese leaf green tea and highly regarded among connoisseurs. There is much debate about who makes the best gyokuro; competitions are held yearly to crown the best producer. The most famous gyokuro-growing region is Uji, followed by Okabe in Shizuoka prefecture, and the Yame district in Fukuoka prefecture.

  Kabuse cha. This shade-grown tea is grown throughout Japan. Not shaded for as long as gyokuro, kabuse-cha is considered a shade-grown sencha. It combines the green freshness of sencha with the creamy, pungent richness of gyokuro.

  CHAMPION GYOKURO PRODUCER MASO KONO

  For the past five years running, Maso Kono from Minamiyamashiro village in Uji has been the man to beat in gyokuro competitions. We arrived at his house late one misty spring afternoon just as he was heading out to his new matcha factory to tinker with some equipment. We tagged along, happy for the opportunity to visit his pristine factory and to learn something from this tea master. It was clear that even though he owns nine other sencha and gyokuro tea factories, this new factory was his baby. It had cost him 60,000,000 yen ($550,000) to build this state-of-the-art facility.

  He led us back to his house to have a taste of his competition-grade gyokuro. As the water heated, he explained that competition-grade gyokuro is picked and processed differently than gyokuro manufactured for daily tea drinking. Pluckers snatch just the tiny bud or shoot for the competition grade, whereas high-quality gyokuro plucking begins perhaps one week later, and it is the bud and one leaf that will be sought. If you think that this is too subtle a difference to matter, you should know that transient details matter significantly to Japanese tea connoisseurs like Maso Kono. Millimeters and seconds matter: competition-grade tea is the stuff of minutia and ephemeral detail. Winning a competition significantly raises the amount of money that one can expect to generate from other tea produced throughout the season and bestows great honor on the tea producer.
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  He grabbed a container of tea on the table and tipped some leaf into a rugged-looking, rust-colored, hand-thrown pottery kyusu teapot embellished with a vigorous streak of putty-colored glaze. He poured hot water into a yuzamashi to let it cool a few degrees. He explained that when brewing gyokuro, the water temperature is critical. Water that is too hot will brew bitter tea; when water is too cool, the voice of the tea cannot be heard. Just-right temperature brings out the inherent sweetness and vegetal flavors. Then he tipped the water from the yuzamashi into the teapot and gently swirled the pot for one minute. He filled tiny cups only half full with tea from the pot; this was tea meant for sipping and pondering. It was golden yellow, intensely aromatic, and tasted like bamboo, asparagus, and every other deliciously delicate spring taste that the earth musters. What a sublime treat.

  Matcha. This bright emerald-green tea powder is whisked to a slightly frothy drink in the Japanese tea ceremony. Matcha is made in many regions of Japan, but it is always made from tencha, shade-grown leaf that is grown under the same conditions as gyokuro. In Japan many people appreciate the unique properties and flavor qualities of matcha and drink it as a simple, refreshing cup of tea. When matcha is consumed this way, the greatest percentage of antioxidants is realized because the entire leaf is consumed, not just an extraction of the leaf.