🌿🤏SUMMER COMES TO THE TEAHOUSE🍵☀️
May 2nd is 'Hachijūhachiya' (八十八夜), the 88th day after the beginning of spring ('Risshun' 立春 in the traditional calendar).
This is peak tea harvest time, and the first tea of the year begins appearing in shops about now.
During the first harvest only the youngest parts of the tea plant, 'shincha' (新茶), are picked.
These leaves are considered to have the finest flavour and quality.
The leaves are steamed and then dried (rolled to create tea leaves for infusion, or laid flat for the creation of matcha later).
🌿JAPAN'S OLDEST WORKING TEA GARDEN🍵
'Okunoyama Chaen' (奥ノ山茶園) has produced tea for over 650 years old, and is the last of Uji's original tea gardens to have survived to modern times.
The tea store 'Horiishichimei-en' (堀井七茗園), founded in 1879, now cares for the garden.
In the 14thC the Ashikaga Shōgunate recognised the quality and importance of Uji tea by granting special status to seven tea plantations, collectively known as the 'Uji Shichimei-en' (宇治七茗園).
Urbanization swallowed 6 of the original tea producers, but Okunoyama remains.
Uji (宇治) is famed across the world as the birthplace of matcha production in Japan.
During the Heian period the nobility constructed their villas beside the Uji River to escape the summer heat in the capital. The temperate conditions were found to be perfect for growing tea!
Here's a previous thread all about Kyōto's oldest extant tea garden, in the grounds of Kōzan-ji (高山寺)🌿
⬇️
https://x.com/camelliakyoto/status/1501047038464512002
...and the first tea fields in Uji, at Ōbukudani (大福谷)🌿
⬇️
https://x.com/camelliakyoto/status/1454268586042683394
🌿THE BIRTHPLACE OF TEA🍵 Infused tea had been drunk as early as the 8thC in Japan, when it was considered an exotic delicacy and a miracle drug. There are records of plantations in Kyūshū and even on Mt Hiei in Kyōto, but before long it had once again fallen from favour. #Kyoto
Five weeks before harvesting, Uji tea farms cover their crops with a black cloth called kanreisha (寒冷紗).
This material cuts 90% of direct sunlight, protects the new sprouts from frost, and increases chlorophyll/theanine, making the leaves sweet and the resulting tea brilliant green.
Most Uji farms use a double black cloth, but Horiishichimei-en creates a third layer using reed and rice straw (the original method for covering the tea plants). Straw is also spread on the ground to protect the roots from frost & insects.
Due to the extra measures Horiishichimei-en employ, the fresh tea sprouts are slow to grow, but this makes them extremely soft and more flavourful.
In recent years the climate in Uji has grown increasingly unpredictable, a worrying development for producers.
The first leaves produce some of the finest (and most precious) tea, and so they are highly coveted🌿✨
Most farms will continue to pick the second and third growth of leaves, but flavour decreases with each harvesting and so Horiishichimei-en uses only the first picking.
There is a belief that the first tea of the season (初物) has some extra special qualities that will keep you in good health all year.
Get drinking🍵😉
Sencha (煎茶 'green leaf tea') is available from May, but the first matcha arrives in November.
Tencha (碾茶), the tea leaves used for matcha prior to being ground down, are prepared in May and allowed to age until the autumn, creating a gorgeously mellow flavour by November.
#Japan #Kyoto #Uji #matcha #京都 #宇治 #抹茶 #初物 #新茶 #shincha #everdaymatcha
Camellia Tea Ceremony