I got this (and a few tea samples) as part of The Tea Crane Kickstarter and was super excited to dive into it! For context, I read this after finishing the third report for the Japanese Tea Instructor course, so I was already in the frame of mind where I wanted to learn more about tea.

The Story of Japanese Tea is a detailed but not overly lengthy book that covers the cultivation and manufacturing of tea in Japan (including, but not limited to green tea and matcha) and the history of tea in Japan. There have been quite a few books that have touched on this from various angles but the value of The Story of Japanese tea lies in two key areas:

1. The information here generally goes deeper than most introductory tea books in English that I’ve seen. You could find the same information if you read The Tale of Tea or go for the Japanese Tea Instructor Course, but the former is very expensive and the latter is only in Japanese, so I think this would be the most accessible way to get a solid introduction to tea in Japan.
2. The case studies, where Sosen introduces the various farmers that he knows and talks about their tea, help to bring the information to life. It’s one thing to read about how organic vs conventional farming is, and quite another to see its impact on actual farms. I found the case studies to be the most valuable thing in the book for me.

There is only one point in this book that might be controversial, and that is when Sosen writes that he believes that “oolong production in Japan is not an attempt at the creation of a sincere oolong tea as it is perceived contemporarily, but an attempt at the recreation of an authentic green tea as was customary in the past.” Leaving aside the blurring of the tea categories, I’m not too sure how true the statement is because it’s such a general statement about all the oolongs produced in Japan. I’ve heard of tea farmers in Sayama that wither their green teas before the steaming, but they still classify those as green teas that have been processed slightly differently. On the other hand, teas that have been made as oolongs tend to be classified clearly as such (I’ve been looking at Hinokuni Kumamoto and Sayama Yoshino). While I think it’s probable that green tea used to undergo an unintentional withering/semi-oxidation process in the past (as they were transported to the factories), I’m not sure if we can say that all tea production that involve semi-oxidation in Japan are throwbacks to these roots rather than an attempt at making oolong as it is currently understood.

In other words, I think Japanese farmers are trying to make oolong when they say they are making oolong and are making green tea when they say they are making green tea (even if that includes a withering step).

Overall, I think The Story of Japanese Tea is going to be a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about Japanese tea but cannot read Japanese. While Sosen has a very strong bias for what he sees as the natural and traditional way to farm tea, this book covers the Japanese tea industry in general (not just the way he likes it) and provides a lot of valuable information about how tea is made and its history.