The Asanagi Sencha combines the leaves of various tea cultivars from Shutaro Hayashi’s teagarden in Kirishima. This tea is easy to infuse and the resulting infusion has a round and full taste.
The Miumori Kirishima Sencha is a composition of comparably deeply steamed leaves and comparably flatly steamed leaves of mainly seed grown tea bushes (zairai). The deeply steamed leaves give this tea a smooth roundness and sweetness, while the shorter steamed leaves bring an enjoyable flavour into the tea. At the same time, thanks to the blend of these two types of leaves, both, the 1st and the 2nd infusion are very delicious, because the opening time of both leaves types are not the same, when they get in contact with the warm water in the tea pot.
For this elegant tea, high quality sorts of Sencha from different tea bush varieties from the first flush are selected and combined into a very well-balanced and fine blend. Leaves from non-shaded tea bushes [roji-saibai] as well as leaves from shaded tea bushes [kabuse-saibai] are used. Also, the high end quality tea leaves of the shaded Asatsuyu tea bushes are part of this astonishing composition.
The final processing is especially noticeable: Both the fine final sorting and the precise final heating speak for the effort and labour that is invested into the teas from the first flush harvest, which are used for this Tokujou Sencha from Kirishima.
In his organic tea garden, Shutaro Hayashi has planted two types of tea bush cultivars bearing the prefix ‘Asa’, which stand for ‘morning’: Asatsuyu and Asanoka. Both cultivars have soft and light characters, and a fresh flavour. Asanomi Kabusecha is a balanced blend of these two tea bush varietals.
Asatsuyu tea bushes are known as one of the greenest tea bush varieties, which are found only in very few tea gardens. It is even rarer in organic tea gardens, since it is not easy to grow these sensible tea bushes and protect them from insects, who love the sweetness of this fascinating variety. The tea bush cultivar Asatsuyu being especially rare in organic agriculture, this tea perfectly represents the dedication of the family for rare high-end teas from organic cultivation, combined with the characteristic fragrance of teas from Kirishima.
The bushes are shaded around 10 days up to two weeks before the first flush harvest, and the finished tea leaves are sorted very finely. This tea’s infusion is brilliantly green and the taste is unbelievably deep and sweet, even in the second and third infusion – a real wonder!
The Miumori Matcha from Kirishima is a really high quality Matcha for Japanese tea ceremony, but still at a quite affordable price. It is a brilliant tea with lots of Umami and sweetness.
The Kirishima Aki Bancha is a very well-produced tea from autumn harvest. The Japanese word “Aki” is the word for autumn, but the brightly olive green, quite big leaves of this tea evoke the image of the last summer days. Since the sun in early autumn is not as strong as in summer, the taste is not too bitter and actually quite light. The enjoyable flavour of the leaves remains quite long on the tongue.
The Kirishima Miumori Genmaicha is a traditional Japanese tea blend with roasted rice and steamed green tea from Kirishima. The leaves that were used for this blend are very robust, so this tea can be infused with rather hot water.
Shutaro Hayashi uses leaves from the autumn harvest for this Houjicha. They are roasted strongly so they develop a nice aroma. Even while producing this simpler tea Shutaro stays true to his production philosophy by insisting on the fine sorting of the leaves. The very consistent structure of the dry leaves creates a stunning marbling with red and brown hues. The nutty infusion of the roasted tea is accompanied by a light sweetness.
