Japan Kukicha Kagoshima Premium – Organic Green Tea

Brew & Taste

Japan Kukicha Kagoshima Premium gives a yellow to yellow-orange color, the aroma is light, as if floral sweet. The taste is dominated by umami, i.e. pleasant delicacy and deliciousness. Overall, the tea is very pleasant, with each sip whetting the appetite for more tasting.

Origins

The Kagoshima region is said to be the southern gateway of Japan. A breeze from the ocean provides it with a subtropical climate, the weather is mild all year round and a layer of volcanic ash covers much of it due to volcanic activity. They call it Shirasu. Why are we talking about it in connection with tea? Because it is this ash that is rich in the minerals that tea trees love so much. As well as the abundant rainfall and mist they get from Kagoshima's plantations.

The first tea trees are said to have grown in Kagoshima as early as 700 BC, but they gained more attention in the early 17th century when farmers purposefully planted them on plantations. While this increased tea production, the quality was not good. A change occurred in the late 19th century. Farmers established the first tea producer associations and gradually learned to improve their cultivation and processing techniques, in the famous Makinohara and Shizuoka tea regions. In the mid-20th century, they returned to Kagoshima, introduced a new cultivar of the Yabukita tea plant (developed in Shizuoka), and the quality of their production began to rise steeply.

Japan Kukicha Kagoshima Premium is a case in point. It is basically the stems and twigs of organically grown sencha that has been shaded before harvesting. Thanks to this, the maximum amount of L-theanine and other substances responsible for the unique sweetness of the resulting drink have been preserved in its leaves. To deepen the taste of the kukicha, the farmers processed it at a high temperature. The aroma is absolutely fabulous and the umami flavor is impossible to miss.

If you think kukicha was created intentionally, you're wrong. Like so many good things, this tea came into the world by a bit of an accident. The dried twigs and stems were used to make tea by poor peasants out of necessity. But they were very surprised at how fantastic it tasted, and so the fame of kukicha spread to the world.

Tea packaging preview

We pack our teas in a strong, zip-lock aluminum packet which allows you to easily re-seal its contents. This container protects the quality of the tea against humidity, light or foreign odors, all of which could noticeably affect the quality of the brew.