Gyokuro, the finest green tea of Japan

Green tea is now very popular all over the world but have you ever heard of “Gyokuro” green tea ?  It is regarded as the best green tea and is grown mainly in 3 regions in Japan, that is, Yame in Fukuoka, Uji in Kyoto, and Asahina in Shizoka.

I visited one of the Gyokuro tea farm in Asahina taking a taxi from Shizuoka Station, that took me about 40 min for 7000JPY but it’s really worth it.

The gyokuro tea farms are in the quiet small village by the river.  I saw lots of rice fields as well on the way, along with tea farms.  Noboru-san, the gyokuro tea farmer, kindly showed me in his tea farm.  Most of the tea plantation was shaded partly with black sheet and partly with “Komo”.  He told me “Komo” had been made by the rice straw and in this region, people grew rice for the rice straw to make “Komo”.  He also said currently nobody could make “Komo” as it was not being wanted as it used to be due to the convenience of plastic black sheet.  So sad losing a tradition.

He served me the second cup and refreshing cold brewed gyokuro.  And here came the main tea, Tsuyu Cha.  He mentioned this was the very unique way of tasting peculiar to this region.  3g of gyokuro tea leaves in a cup, a bit of 40 degree water, and put the lid on it to wait for 2 min.  He said, a gyokuro master in this region had said “Gyokuro was not a tea to drink but a tea to taste”.  I nodded.  Tsuyu Cha literally means “Tea Drop”.  I sipped the drop.  A drop was enough, the umami expand all over my mouth.

Again, Gyokuro is really special.  You may have had it somewhere else but was it really authentic ?  It would be a great experience for you, if you’ve got any chance to come to Japan, and if you are a tea lover, to visit local tea farms to come across your favorite teas !