Honyama Yabukita Wakoucha

Name: Honyama Yabukita Wakoucha
Brand: Tezumi Specialty
SKU: US-TEA-B4-50
Price: 16.00 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

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50 grams

Single Origin | Single Cultivar

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A smooth and balanced black tea with a robust taste and mild sweetness. Can be enjoyed straight, iced, or with milk.

Of Shizuoka's many tea-growing regions, tea from Honyama is praised for its transparent and elegant taste, deriving from the mineral rich soil and the subtle, natural shade of fog and mountains. Tea grown on the slopes that border the Abe and Warashina Rivers, which flow through Shizuoka, is said to be Honyama tea. Along with the neighbouring region of Kawane, Honyama tea is often grown at a higher elevation than most other Japanese teas. Tea from this region has been grown and revered for centuries, and has even been presented as tribute to the Emperor by order of Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Edo period. Typically unshaded and lightly-steamed, honyamacha is known for its clear, crisp taste, and distinctive aroma, known as yama no kaori (山の香) or mountain aroma.

Cultivar: Yabukita

Region: Honyama, Shizuoka

Producer: Moriuchi Chanoen

Harvested: June 23, 2022

Elevation: 150m

Picking: Handheld Machine

Brewing Instructions

Tea/Water Ratio

2g per 100ml of water
(.07oz per 3.4oz)

Water Temperature

90º C (194ºF)

Brewing Time

120 seconds

Meet the Producer

Moriuchi Chanoen (森内茶農園)

Head farmer Yoshio Moriuchi sees agriculture as a natural laboratory in which he can hypothesise and experiment, discovering new ways to cultivate and produce tea. He’s always trying to do something new and innovative, and is constantly refining and improving his teas. He is a Nihoncha Instructor and Temomicha Master (手揉み茶 - hand-rolled sencha), and has won 1st place in the Shizuoka Temomi Competition and 3rd Place in the National Competition.

His wife, Masami Moriuchi, manages operations at Moriuchi Chanoen. She is a certified Nihoncha Instructor Leader, full-time Nihoncha Advisor Lecturer, and has also won awards for her masterful Temomicha.

For almost 300 years, the Moriuchi family has been growing tea in the Uchimaki sector of Honyama, Shizuoka. Currently headed by 9th generation tea farmer Yoshio Moriuchi (森内吉男) and managed by his wife, Masami Moriuchi (森内真澄), Moriuchi Chanouen is a certified Eco-farm, using less than half the standard amount of pesticides in order to preserve the balanced ecosystem of the tea fields. Additionally, they mix their own fertiliser which is over 80% organic.

Since 1999, they have been manufacturing oxidised teas such as black and oolong, making the best use of the unique characteristics of the over 15 cultivars that they grow, which include Marishi, Yama no Ibuki, Sōfū, Saemidori, Kōshun, Yume Turuga, Tsuyuhikari, Okumidori, Inaguchi, Benifūki, Minami Sayaka, Musashi kaori, and of course Yuabkita. Additionally, they grow some Taiwanese cultivars such as Chin Hsin Da Pa (known as Seishintaipan in Japanese).

Cultivar: Yabukita

Yabukita is the de facto standard tea cultivar across Japan against which all others are compared, and accounts for 75% of tea fields by area. Its name means ‘north of the bamboo grove’ alluding to its selection in 1908 from a sample of Shizuoka Zairai from the north side of a bamboo grove.

Since its official registration in 1953, it has become incredibly popular due to its frost-resistance, yield, strong aroma, and balanced taste. Its flavour has since become practically synonymous with Japanese tea.