Yame Sencha “Shinsui"

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.

This sencha is the highest grade of sencha from this producer, made from hand picked leaves harvested in the first picking of the season, when the tea plants are in their most tender and vibrant state.

It brews a stunning glowing, slightly opaque, lemon coloured liquor. By the second infusion it looks exactly like Mountain Dew! This luminous quality translates to the palate as a beautiful mouthfeel: dense and suspended with sweet, bright green notes.

The third infusion still glows an opaque yellowish-green and the leaves in the gaiwan look like steamed radish leaves, while the mouthfeel remains gentle and unified. Its vegetal notes come forward in later infusions, reminding us of its nutritive and cleansing properties. This is quintessential sencha, perfectly balanced, and not too umami forward considering its terroir.