It was cold and rainy last Tuesday when we checked in with the Otsukas in central Japan. Kakegawa is in the heart of Japan’s largest tea area: Shizuoka. However the warm welcome more than made up for the weather.
We did many tastings of the new season that was winding down. We tasted teas from the same factory but different days. Teas from different factories but made the same day. Also we tasted various light and deep steamed teas. These vertical and horizontal tastings were fun and instructive. It allowed us to understand better the lighter taste of our Ichiban Sencha. It is lighter because thicker tea does not develop until the later days. However Ichiban is prized in Japan.
Also we tasthe new Scent of the Mountain, they were roasting the day we showed up. This is one of our most popular Senchas and we were quite pleased by the Otsukas.
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Enjoy getting to know Tsuyoshi Sugimoto, the owner and president of Shohokuenchten tea company in Kyoto, Japan, and a longtime colleague and friend of the Harneys.
