Shizuoka Green Tea

May 1st, 2009

tea-shimbun
(Courtesy of Shizuoka Shimbun)

Shizuoka Prefecture produces 50% of all green tea harvested in Japan.
“Shinsha”/New Tea is being harvested in earnest and sold after a long wait!

Picture above shows tea being handpicked in Kawane, Shimada City, home of some of the best green tea in Jaapn, along the railway line used by the Oikawa Steam Locomotive, one of the very few left in Japan!

Tea is being dry-roasted (picture left bottom) , and auctioned (picture right bottom) in Shizuoka City.

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New Green Tea Season opened in Shizuoka!

shinsha-1

The new green tea season has just opened in Shizuoka Prefecture!
Our Prefecture produces more than half of all green tea harvested in Japan and is the leader not only in quantity but also in quality!

If you happen to stop at Shizuoka JR Railway Station, keep an eye open!

shinsha-2

The MOTOYAMA Tea Growers Association is offering a free tasting of their new tea to all and sundries!
New tea is called “Shinsha” (New Tea) or “Ichiban cha” (First Tea) in Japanese.
A great occasion to make acquaintance with Japanese National Beverage!

6 thoughts on “Shizuoka Green Tea”

  1. I’m living in Izu , Shizuoka at the moment. I’m looking for a sensei in the urasanke tea ceremony to learn from in the local areas, numazu, Mishima , shuzenji etc…. Do you know of any in the area? Your help would be much appreciated.

    Sincerely
    Tommy

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  2. Hi Robert,
    Green tea is something I am into right now. I thought you might have an entry on it since you run Shizuoka Gourmet Blog!
    Unfortunately, it’s something I can not do a lot of taste sampling being overseas. I do know that Shizuoka and to a lesser extent Kyoto (Uji) are the more famous tea harvesting areas but never came across one tasting truly worthy of attention. Actually, during my living in Japan, I liked it but wasn’t ever really an enthusiast.
    Until recently that is.. My wife’s parents live in Sasebo and the tea they recommended has me hooked. It’s Ureshino tea. Not that expensive, probably about 1000yen for a 100g pack. You have to brew with 5g of tea to 300ml of 70deg hot water for 1.5min. The one my parents in law brought over is not available over the internet so I am testing out a taster set being sold by ureshinotea.com. I was excited to hear that the shop owner tried out various types of teas from around Japan and concluded ureshino tea is his favourite, and he decided to make it his job. I will blog about it if it is any good.

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