First Harvest Sencha Suruga Takumi

一番摘み煎茶 駿河内匠野

Origin
Suruga, Shizuoka

Producer: Yoshiteru Kosugi
Tea Farm: Suruga Takumi
Variety: Yabukita
Soil: Red Soil
Harvest: early May, harvested with scissors

This sencha comes from Suruga Takumi, an area situated on the steep mountains of Shizuoka Prefecture along the upper portion of the Abe River. The tea plants grow on dramatic slopes, with the tea farm down below them. It is a harsh environment for harvesting and crafting tea, however the abrupt shifts in temperature, sharp winds, rich red soil, and mist from the nearby river create the perfect conditions for these Yabukita trees. Their leaves are harvested by hand with fine scissors in early May. 

High mountain tea has a powerful clarity as the leaves are rich in phytochemicals that concentrate there in response to the challenging environment. This sencha has been processed in a special way in order to showcase the particularly vital quality of these tea leaves. Usually, sencha is steamed for 60-90 seconds, with a 20-30 second steaming being considered very light. For this tea, the steaming was only a few seconds, preserving the immediacy of the tea leaves and the remote place from which they are from.  

This short steaming makes us reconsider what we think of as sencha. The tea is brothy and nutritive, almost like a gyokuro. It brews an icy, clear liquid without any haze that smells floral and complex, like an entire garden. Each infusion makes us salivate right away, which has an interesting effect with the tea itself: this tea has a bodily viscosity that feels something like a green spit-transfusion. The fresh looking leaves maintain their vibrancy, and despite the short steaming time, this tea feels warm and soothing, gradually becoming more gentle and sweet through several infusions.

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Brewing guide