An okumidori single cultivar kamairicha green tea coming from the award-winning Miyazaki Sabou Tea Garden. The okumidori cultivar, while not as popular as the yabukita is a well-rounded and late-budding tea cultivar with an advantage of being able to resist early spring frost. Often used for senchas, this is a kamairicha coming from the award-winning Miyazaki Sabou Tea Garden who specializes in pan-fired green tea (kamairicha), as well as oolong tea, and black tea. 

What is a kamairicha? Kamairicha is a centuries-old traditional Japanese green tea which is made by heating the leaves in a pan instead of the typical steaming process that senchas go through. It is the common method of producing Chinese green tea, but is quite rare today in Japan. Rather than producing the typical round pellet shape associated with gunpowder tea, the Japanese method gives the shape of a comma (i.e., the punctuation mark). In general, kamairicha is well known as a traditional folk tea from Southern Japan and is now predominantly cultivated by small-scale family farms in remote mountain areas such as Gokase (certified as a World Agricultural site in 2015), Miyazaki prefecture where Miyazaki Sabou Tea Garden is located. Kamairichas can be a nice change from the senchas one may be used to with the pleasant scent of roasted chestnuts. And one coming from the Miyazaki Sabou Tea Garden is sure to be a high quality tea worth trying! 

Product Information 

• Ingredients: Pan-fired green tea
• Cultivar: Okumidori
• Harvest: Spring
• Region: Gokase Village, Miyazaki Prefecture