Wazuka Kyobancha

Name: Wazuka Kyobancha
Brand: Tezumi Specialty
SKU: US-TEA-BA1-50
Price: 14.00 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

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50 grams

Single Origin | Multi-Cultivar Blend

Ships from the United States

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Made from the older leaves of the tea plants that are used to make matcha, this traditional Kyoto bancha is strongly roasted, giving it an intensely smoky aroma and soft taste

Also known as iribancha (炒り番茶 - roasted bancha), kyobancha is folk tea traditionally produced in the Kyoto region. After the harvest of gyokuro and tencha for matcha, the tea bushes are trimmed back to encourage new growth for next year’s harvest and it is the large leaves and stems from this trimming that go on to become kyobancha. After picking, the leaves are steamed and dried without rolling, after which they are heavily roasted, giving the tea its signature smoky aroma. Though the aroma is intensely smoky, the taste of kyobancha is often quite mild and light bodied.

Cultivar: Blend

Region: Wazuka, Kyoto

Producer: Azuma

Harvested: November 4th, 2023 | Roasted 2024

Elevation: 300m

Picking: Handheld Machine

Brewing Instructions

Tea/Water Ratio

5g per 200ml of water
(.18oz per 6.8oz)

Water Temperature

95º C (203ºF)

Brewing Time

120 seconds

Meet the Producer

Azuma Chaen (東茶園)

The family business is currently managed by fourth generation Teruko Azuma (東てる子) who has been involved in her family’s tea production for over 12 years. Now a certified Nihoncha Instructor, she is excited to share the delicious and natural taste of her family’s tea.

Nestled in the hills of eastern Wazuka, Azuma Chaen is a family owned tea farm founded in the late 1800s during the Meiji era. This area of Wazuka is far from any train tracks or major roads, and its scenery of endless rolling hills of tea fields has been designated a cultural landscape of Kyoto.

Azuma Chaen specialises in the production of low-pesticide tencha, the raw material used to produce matcha. Today, around 90% of their 5 hectares of tea fields is dedicated to tencha production and is harvested only once a year, which means they can avoid using pesticides as all of the tea is picked before the arrival of insects. While all of their tea fields make use of lower amounts of pesticides or even none at all, some of their tea fields are already certified JAS organic, with others in the process of conversion.

In addition to tencha, they also produce small amounts of sencha, houjicha, wakoucha, kyobancha, and oolong. As they primarily produce tencha, most of the cultivars that htye grow are well suited for shaded teas, such as Okumidori, Samidori, Asahi, Gokou. They also grow Yabukita and Zairai among others.