Taku just got back from a month long business trip, where he hopped from Japan to Australia to Singapore then back to the states. Along the way he picked up some organic matcha samples to try out.
Growing organics in Japan is super, super hard. First, you have to find land on a mountain top so that you won't get pesticide drifting from your neighbors. Then you have to plant your baby trees and wait five years, until the leaves become harvestable. That means these farmers have nothing to sell for FIVE years!!! During those five years, you have to manually weed out vines and basically baby these tea bushes.
Organic tea farming also involves boar-fighting, did you know? You have to fend off the wild boars that want to eat the vines that grow on your tea bushes.
Naturally, tea that from the mountains high above, without herbicides, insecticides, and chemical fertilizers are going to taste innocent. They aren't as full as conventionally grown teas in flavor, but they have this light, almost ephemeral sweetness to it. It is very, very hard to put a finger on.
Needless to say, after sampling 12 matchas in one sitting, we were all very exhausted. But this is only the beginning! We'll be doing some more tastings in the weeks to come...
Stay tuned!
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