Honyama Temomicha
Moriuchi ChanoenMade entirely by hand from picking and steaming to masterful hand-rolling, this sencha delivers a taste unparalleled by machine-made tea. Each small batch takes over six hours to gently knead into thin, beautiful, intact needles.
Temomicha (手揉み茶 - hand-rolled tea) represents the pinnacle of sencha production. Historically, all sencha was hand-rolled, however mechanisation of the sencha rolling process allowed farms to produce sencha faster and cheaper. Hand-rolling would have died out if it weren't for the various temomi preservation societies, which have turned this vanishing tradition into an annual competition. Now extremely rare, hand-rolled teas are made from top quality leaves and processed to perfection.
Like all sencha, temomicha is first steamed to deactivate the oxidising enzymes. To keep the leaves intact and preserve their fresh flavour, temomicha is steamed very lightly. From there, the leaves are rolled in a multi-stage process designed to break down the cell walls, even out the moisture content, dry the leaves, and finally shape them into tightly-rolled needles. All of this takes over six hours and takes place on a specialised table called a hoiro (焙炉) which covered in washi paper and heated from underneath—traditionally by charcoal, alternatively by gas or electric element.
The entirely handmade nature of this tea is evident in all aspects of it: the perfect needles, the exquisite aroma, the intact leaves that unfurl as they steep, and the complex taste and silky texture. This tea shows of the rarely seen zing of Yabukita, which evolves in to a fresh and tingly finish, reminiscent of nashi pears.
Producer: Moriuchi Chanoen
Region: Honyama, Shizuoka
Elevation: 150m
Cultivar: Yabukita
Harvested: April 29, 2021
Picking: Handheld Machine
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.
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.
Brewing Instructions
Traditional
Hot Tea
Use 3 g (0.11 oz) of tea leaves for every 20 ml (0.68 oz) of water
Heat your water to 60º C (140º F) or cool boiling water by pouring it into a yuzamashi, into the cups, then into the teapot
Let it steep for 40 seconds (+40 seconds for subsequent infusions) before pouring slowly until the last drop. Enjoy!
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).