A few years back, while I was working in a tea and tech-based startup, I went for a Japanese food fair. There, I heard about Sayama tea for the first time, and as someone who was already interested in Japanese tea, I took the chance to talk to Kajishima-san, the lady who was running the NPO Saitama Agriculture Support Team. Over the years, after I left my previous job, I had the opportunity to help in various small ways, like translating an online Toucha event for her. In return, I’ve been able to buy lots of Sayama teas and even used them when I did my own mini tea-talk in 2023. 

At the start of the year, I was finally in Tokyo. Part of the trip was in Tokyo Disneyland, but my fiancé told me that my eyes were probably brightest during the day we were at Sayama, because it was my ‘Teas’neyland. And so, I’m here to share as much as I can remember, because Kajishima-san very generously brought the two of us around to visit a few farms! 

Our first stop was at Hiraoka-en, a traditional tea farm. This area in Saitama was developed in 1698, when the overcrowding in Tokyo forced the government to incentivise people to move to this previously undeveloped area. The family on Hiraoka-en has been here for eleven generations and have been growing tea for four generations. Previously, they grew crops like Sweet Potato and Mulberry (for silkworms), but they switched to tea when American demand for Japanese tea increased the overall demand for tea dramatically. 

Honestly, it’s hard to appreciate the thought involved in the planning of these plots until you actually see it. The plot is a long rectangle, with the house and a small grove towards one end. The grove helps to block the tea bushes from the harsh north winds and trust me, there is a noticeable difference in the wind strength before and after the grove! The grove, which contains bamboo and other plants, is also used as a food source and is the location of the compost heap (leaves from other trees are also added to the heap), creating a self-sustaining cycle for the plants on the farm. Nothing goes to waste; even the tea table is made from one of the old trees that used to grow on the farm.  

I was most intrigued to see new tea cultivars. About two years ago, the family planted a cultivar called Kirari. The Kirari cultivar was developed in Miyazaki prefecture as a cross between the sakimidori and the saemidori and I’m very interested in how it would taste as a sencha. Apparently they might be able to harvest the plant this year, so stay tuned for more news. The photo here is of one of the Kirari tea bushes that has not been pruned at all, it’s about two years old!

After visiting Hiraoka-en, we went to Asuka, a factory that processes tea to make tencha, the raw material for matcha. The factory is somewhat dormant now, since the harvest season is long over, but it was still fascinating to learn about a few of the steps involved in making matcha! A useful tip I also learned was that in order to prolong the shelf-life of matcha, you should keep it in the freezer after it’s opened (otherwise, try to finish it within the month). If you need to take matcha out of the freezer, do it quickly so condensation doesn’t form on the matcha powder. 

Another thing that I learnt, or perhaps I should say, I had confirmed, was that it was impossible to increase production of matcha rapidly. The factory would, in the face of so much demand, love to increase its production of tencha so that more matcha can be made, but matcha requires a specific way of growing which means that farmers need time to get the growing conditions and equipment in place. 

After visiting the matcha visit – and a delicious tea-infused lunch – we continued onward with the farm visits. Where Hiraoka-en represented the best of tradition, Shimizu-en represented the best of Japanese tea innovation, as Shimizu-san has been absolutely focused on Japanese black tea (wakoucha) for the past few years. And honestly, this focused has resulted in some amazing teas. 

I think if you track my journey with wakoucha (which I should probably do a post on) over the years, you can tell that wakoucha has, by and large, been a surprise. Some have been tricky to brew, others a bit underwhelming, and some have been absolutely surprising in the best way.

The yumewakaba black tea that surprised me a few years back was from Shimizu-en, and I was surprised to see how much more fragrant and floral his black teas have gotten in the years since. No wonder his shop is full of the trophies that he’s won for his black teas; these are sweet, rich, floral, yet not too heavy black teas that are a pleasure to drink straight. I spent way too much buying up the black tea versions of different cultivars (along with a sencha version of Okuharuka as I always enjoy trying to see if I can find the sakura note!) and I hope to do a comparison post sometime in the future! 

Our last visit was to Ohnishi-en, and I have to admit I was very excited for this. I’ve been wanting to visit Ohnishi-en ever since I saw an introductory video to Sayama tea and learnt that the owner, Nakajima-san, has won multiple awards for his hand-rolled tea. This is tea that I wouldn’t dare make for myself, given that I can be a bit slapdash with my water temperatures, and it was exciting to be able to drink it. 

The hand-rolled sencha was so interesting – the first cup tasted like an intense version of a sencha, except that it was as clear as water. It was a bit of a shock to drink a tea with this much umami, it almost tasted like a soup! Apparently, a feature that judges for hand-rolled tea look out for is its clarity; it should be as clear as possible. What a different from the regular sencha, which is normally a vibrant green colour! The tea is also a lot more delicate compared to regular sencha, since it has to be brewed with 50 degree water (regular sencha can be brewed with water between 70 to 80 degrees). And despite the intense umami note, it shouldn’t be too much like a gyokuro either, after all, you’re drinking sencha and not gyokuro, so the tea cannot be shaded too much either.

Learning about the ins-and-outs of competition grade hand-rolled tea was an eye-opener about how much there is to master in making tea. It’s not just about rolling the tea either – it’s also about the growing the conditions. For example, if you want the stems to be soft, you need to make sure the tea bush isn’t exposed to harsh conditions. Making high-quality sencha is a intricate process from cultivation to processing, and I don’t think I appreciated quite how much work is involved until after meeting Nakajima-san.

I feel like I’ve ended up giving you a lot of facts about tea rather than a more narrative tale about my visit, but this really felt like a learning journey to me. I always thought I knew a bit more about Japanese tea (especially compared to other types of tea), but my visit to Sayama showed me that I still have a lot to learn. One goal for my tea journey this year would be to consolidate the information that I know about tea – specifically, about Sayama tea, as a reference for both myself and hopefully for others. I’m still trying to figure out what that would look like, if it will be one very long and very hyperlinked blogpost or if I’ll put it all into an ebook, so if you have any suggestions, I am all ears!