- Portrait of Takeshi-san, a partner farmer who produces organic tencha in Miyazaki (Kyushu).
- His tencha goes into the blend of our organic premium matcha, guaranteeing a consistent taste.
- Certified organic (JAS) in 2017, after three years of sometimes difficult transition.
- His tea comes from the Yabukita cultivar, the most widespread in Japan.
- His production aims for a quality benchmark set by the cooperative.
Throughout this feature, I'm taking you to meet Takeshi-san. He's one of our partner farmers at Kumiko Matcha. He produces organic tencha in Miyazaki Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu in the far south of 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, resilient long-term agreement, which I covered in this article (click this link).
As a reminder, our organic premium matcha tea is the result of a blend of several harvests and several cultivars created by the tea master.
The benefit of blending is that the quality and taste of the matcha remain consistent whatever the production year, despite the changing quality of the harvests from one year to the next.
In the world of champagne, they talk about a cellar master — it's the same concept!
Takeshi-san's tencha regularly features in the blend for our organic premium matcha tea, depending on the year and the choices of the tea master.
The fresh leaves are harvested and carefully selected to produce organic matcha of exceptional quality.
In this article, I'm going to show you Takeshi-san's work through videos I filmed during my trips to Japan in May 2018 and 2019.
Meeting Takeshi-San
click the play button to start the video (1min44) - May 2018
During a visit in 2018, Takeshi-San gave me a short interview in his field, between rows of tea bushes waiting to be harvested. Even though the filmed conversation is fairly short, you can really feel the farmer's passion and dedication to growing his tea.
The Harvest
click the play button to start the video (3min) - May 2019
Harvest season is a key moment in matcha tea production.
This year, Takeshi-san and his father invited me to drive the machine that harvests the tea leaves. This highly efficient machine harvests the tea leaves without damaging them. However, this type of machine is only effective on very flat ground.
In the video, Takeshi-san says he'll do everything he can to make great tea for our matcha tea community in France.
In this video, you'll see the super-efficient harvesting machine in action, as well as the farmers removing the shading from the leaves just moments before the long-awaited harvest...
click the play button to start the video (2min38) - May 2019
Takeshi-san's Tea
click the play button to start the video (4min30) - May 2018
Takeshi-san and his father started the transition to organic farming in 2014, and after the required 3 years of transition they received JAS organic certification in 2017.
2018, the first year after their certification, was very tough for them: the tea plants were still a little weak, and the stems were too thick and kept getting stuck in the machines.
Learn more: Shade-Grown Cultivation: Why Cover Matcha Green Tea Leaves? →: You may have noticed that the tea fields in my videos are sometimes covered with black or silver nets. In this article, I'll show you what tea shading is used for, what its effects are, and the techniques used by farmers.
The Organic Tencha Production Process
click the play button to start the video (5min30) - May 2018
In this video you can see the entire process of transforming fresh tea leaves into organic tencha, thanks to the cameras.
Right at the start of the video, I promise that another video in better quality is coming — you can find it right here. This one is shorter and more condensed, and briefly walks you through all the steps of tencha production.
click the play button to start the video (3min57) - May 2018
Here are all the steps required to make tencha:
- steaming: the steam stops the oxidation of the leaves.
- preliminary drying: air blows the leaves around and dries them in what looks like a "butterfly cage".
- drying the leaves in an oven at 100 °C
- grinding the leaves, which produces the tencha.
- the stems are also collected to make kukicha (stem tea)
At the very end of the video, I point out that Takeshi-San's tencha comes from a Yabukita cultivar.
If you'd like to learn even more about the matcha production process, I invite you to watch my visit to Nishi-San's factory here.
Find your ideal matcha 🍵
Browse our selection and find exactly what you need.
The Tasting
click the play button to start the video (3min30) - May 2018
In this video, Takeshi-san shows us the farmer's tasting with three teas: the day's harvest, the previous day's, and a benchmark (that is, a reference point) provided by the cooperative. Takeshi-san's tencha production must come 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 more yellow than the benchmark's. He had to persevere to get closer to the quality standards of the cooperative.
This is only the beginning...
The organic green tea harvested and processed into tencha by Takeshi-san is then sent to the cooperative, blended with other tencha, and this blend is ground with a granite mill to produce organic matcha tea.
Thanks for reading this feature! Are there any other products you'd like to learn more about?
If you have any comments or questions, let me know below — I'll take good care of you.
- Val from Kumiko Matcha
=> Now: Visit our Matcha Tea collection and enjoy free shipping on orders of 49€ or more.
