Uji Samidori Matcha

Name: Uji Samidori Matcha
Brand: Tezumi Specialty
SKU: US-TEA-M4-20
Price: 45.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Price

Save

/

20 grams

Single Origin | Single Cultivar

Ships from the United States

In stock, ready to ship
Backordered, shipping soon

Soft and silky as usucha, powerful and aromatic as koicha. A tea full of finesse achieved by traditional shelf-shading and careful hand-picking.

Uji city in Kyoto has long been at the centre of Japanese tea and has been famed for its high-quality matcha production for centuries, dating back to the 12th century. The shading method used to produce modern matcha (c. 16th century) along with sencha (1737) and gyokuro itself (1835) were all invented by Uji farmers looking to push the boundaries of tea quality. Though the name Ujicha remains associated with high-grade tea, most tea branded as Ujicha is produced in the neighbouring towns of Ujitawara, Minamiyamashiro, Kizugawa, and primarily Wazuka.

Cultivar: Samidori

Region: Uji, Kyoto

Producer: Yoshida Meichaen

Harvested: May, 2024

Elevation: 15m

Shading: 40 Days; Honzu

Picking: Hand-picked

Brewing Instructions

Tea/Water Ratio

1.5-2g (2 tea scoops)
60ml (2oz) of water

Water Temperature

70º C (158ºF)

Whisking

20 seconds

Meet the Producer

Yoshida Meichaen (吉田銘茶園)

The leader of Yoshida Meichaen is 16th generation farmer Riichi Yoshida (吉田利一) who has been working alongside his younger brother for over 65 years. They are helped out by their sons who will become the 17th generation owners of the farm. Riichi-san is also the Chairman of the Uji Tea Hand-rolling Preservation Association, preserving the hand-rolling method of his grandfather which was certified as an intangible cultural property.

Founded over 200 years ago, the small 2 hectare tea fields of Yoshida Meichaen are nestled in the Ogura district of Uji. When they started growing here, their fields were surrounded by many other farms, but in the past 30 years, these tea fields were replaced by houses and buildings as the city of Uji grew.

Though the scenery may have changed, the Yoshida family still produces tea using traditional methods, such as hand-rolling, hand-picking, honzu straw shading, and sorting tea using traditional bamboo screens rather than modern metal sieves. They have competed in the National Tea Competition every year since it started over 75 years ago, and have won 1st place in the over 20 times.

Since the 14th generation, the Yoshida family has also been entrusted with the management of one of the oldest tea gardens in Kyoto, and perhaps in Japan, at Kosanji Temple in Toganoo, where the bushes were sown with seeds brought from Song Dynasty China by Eisai.

Cultivar: Samidori

Not to be confused with the more popular Saemidori, Samidori is a classic Uji cultivar. Though it is one of the oldest cultivars, bred by Uji tea breeder Koyama Masajirou (小山政次郎) in 1939, it is technically unregistered. It was developed to be suitable for shaded teas, with leaves that grow vertically for easy hand-picking.

Today, Samidori is commonly grown in Kyoto for use in gyokuro and matcha where the cultivar’s bright green colour and deep umami shine through.