Farmer profile: Takeshi-san

In this feature, I'll take you to meet Takeshi-san. He is one of our partner farmers at Kumiko Matcha. He produces organic tencha in Miyazaki Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan.

Takeshi-san's organic tencha is bought by the cooperative that produces our flagship product: organic premium matcha tea. This cooperative works with its partner farmers through an ethical and resilient long-term agreement, which I covered in this item (click on this link).

As a reminder, our organic premium matcha tea is the product of a blend of several harvests and several cultivars, realised by the tea master.

The advantage of blending is that the quality and taste of matcha remain consistent regardless of the year of production, despite the varying quality of each year's harvest.

In the world of champagne, we talk about a cellar master; it's the same concept!

Takeshi-san's tencha is regularly included in the blend for our organic premium matcha tea, depending on the year and the tea master's choices.

Fresh leaves are harvested and carefully selected to produce organic matcha of exceptional quality.

In this item, I will introduce Takeshi-san's labour through videos I filmed during my trips to Japan in May 2018 and 2019.

My encounter with Takeshi-San

Click on the play button to start the video (1 min 44 sec) - May 2018

During a visit in 2018, Takeshi-San granted me a short interview in his field between rows of tea plants ready for harvest. Although the filmed exchange is quite short, you can feel all the farmer's passion and determination in his tea cultivation.

The harvest

Click on the play button to launch the video (3 min) - May 2019

The harvest period is a key moment in the production of matcha tea.

This year, Takeshi-san and his father invited me to drive the machine that harvests the tea leaves. This high-performance machine allows the tea leaves to be harvested without damaging them. However, this type of machine is only effective on very flat terrain.

In the video, Takeshi-san says he will do his best to make good tea for our matcha tea community in France.

In this video, you can view how efficient the harvesting machine is, as well as the farmers removing the shade from the leaves just moments before the long-awaited harvest...

Click on the play button to start the video (2min38) - May 2019

Takeshi-san's tea

Click on the play button to start the video (4 min 30 sec) - May 2018

Takeshi-san and his father began the transition to organic farming in 2014, and after the regulatory 3-year transition period, they received JAS organic certification in 2017.

The year 2018, the first year after their certification, was very difficult for them: the tea plants were still a little weak, and the stems were too thick and got stuck in the machines.

The organic tencha manufacturing process

Click on the play button to start the video (5 min 30 sec) - May 2018

In this video, you can view the total process of transforming fresh tea leaves into organic tencha thanks to the cameras.

At the very beginning of the video, I promise you another video of better quality, which you can find right here. This one is shorter and more condensed and briefly presents all the stages of tencha production.

Click on the play button to launch the video (3 min 57 sec) - May 2018

Here are all the steps involved in making tencha :

• Steaming: steam stops the oxidation of the leaves.
• Preliminary drying: air blows the leaves and dries them in what resembles a "butterfly cage".
• drying the leaves in an oven at 100°C
• grinding of the leaves, which produces tencha.
• The stems are also harvested to make kukicha (stem tea).

At the very end of the video, I specify that Takeshi-San's tencha comes from a Yabukita cultivar.

If you want to learn more about the matcha production process, I invite you to view my tour of the Nishi-San factory. here.

Tasting

Click on the play button to start the video (3 min 30 sec) - Mai 2018

In this video, Takeshi-san introduces us to the farmer's tasting with three teas: the day's harvest, the previous day's harvest, and a benchmark sent by the cooperative. Takeshi-san's tencha production must be as close as possible to this benchmark sent by the cooperative.

In 2018, Takeshi-san's tea leaves were a little too thick, with too many stems. His tea was yellower than the benchmark. He had to persevere to meet the cooperative's quality standards.

This is just the beginning... The organic green tea harvested and processed into tencha by Takeshi-san will then be sent to the cooperative, blended with other tencha, and this blend will be ground with a granite mill to produce organic matcha tea. Thank you for reading this dossier! Are there any other products you would like to learn more about? If you have any comments or questions, let me know below, and I'll take care of you. - Val de Kumiko Matcha

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