Yame Kabusecha

The mountainous part of the Yame region is called Oku-Yame. Its elevation and inverted climate means it is prone to fog, which acts like a veil over the tea fields that grow there. This natural protection causes the tea plants to store nutrients in their leaves, eventually resulting in a tea rich in an umami flavor.

Kakuda Seicha is from a tea farming family in Kamyo-cho of Yame City in Oku-yame. Three generations previous to him, his ancestors built a small tea factory with the intention of producing genuine Oku-Yame tea that reflects the virtues of this mountainous terroir. Kakuda's relationship with this region, and the practice of farming and crafting tea there, runs very deep.

Similar to gyokuro, this green tea is crafted using the "covering" method before the leaves are harvested. The tea bushes are shaded with nets for roughly a week, blocking sunshine and causing the tea plants to produce an increased amount of catechins and L-theanine. This method is famous as a technique for suppressing bitterness, while increasing the sweetness and umami in the finished tea.

As we would expect, Kabusecha is a deep, forest green color and has a distinctive "covered" aroma, similar to gyokuro. It brews a refreshing, glowing, yellow liquor that gets sweeter through infusions. This is an excellent green tea for those who appreciate something mellow on the palate, dislike bitterness, but who love the revitalizing, eye-widening impact of sencha.