Tezumi Insights

A dewy young tea seedling with bright-green leaves against a dark background.
In Part 1, I did my best to summarise 800 or so years of matcha production in order to provide the relevant...
A vintage Japanese woodblock-style illustration depicting Edo-era figures processing and handling tea.
Not so breaking news: there’s a matcha shortage. While there are already dozens and dozens of articles and podcasts about the shortage,...
A hand holding a woven basket of freshly harvested bright-green tea leaves above a tea field.
Every year, around April and May, the Japanese tea world is thrust into “Shincha Season”. If you’ve been around Japanese green tea...
Masked workers refining tea among processing machinery in a Japanese tea factory.
Though the cultivation and harvesting of the tea leaves determines the quality of the raw material, the processing ultimately determines the final...
Overhead view of a gyokuro brewing set on a dark woven mat with cream cups, a red-clay bowl of fresh green leaves and a pouring vessel.
As one of Japan’s most luxurious and exquisite styles of tea, gyokuro demands a careful and unique approach to brewing to get...
A group of decorative Japanese tea canisters covered in washi paper with cherry-blossom and goldfish patterns.
While a great tea will taste amazing when fresh, if it's not stored well, that taste can begin to fade. We're often...
A hand whisking bright-green matcha with a bamboo chasen in a tan ceramic bowl.
If you’ve ever gone shopping for matcha (and if you’re reading this blog post, then I’m sure you have), you’ve undoubtedly come...
A labeled matcha canister beside a dark bowl of bright-green matcha powder on dark wood.
With matcha’s ever-growing popularity, it has never been easier to buy matcha outside of Japan. However, this explosion in availability did not...
Bright-green matcha being poured over milk into a glass to make a latte on a grey surface.
As the wave of matcha mania continues to sweep across the world, it has become increasingly easy to find matcha and matcha-based...