Best organic Japanese green?

[Uji]

I was very impressed with OCha Warashima Supreme organic tea.
What other organic Sencha and Gyokura is excellent?

[Chip]

Recently I have had pretty many organics from O-Cha.

Currently a new limited edition asamushi "Sencha 7132" that is very eye opening, quite good.

Oku Yutaka is a fun chumushi.

I have never had an organic gyokuro that can match the rich sweetness of a really good conventional.

[Uji]

What other vendors have good organic Sencha?

[togei]

There is a guy in the village next to mine that grows organic tea. I know he processes it in a number of styles. His site is http://cyaen.fai-system.com/ All Japanese. Maybe some of the sellers on this list may be interested in contacting him and seeing if they can distribute his tea. His site does have listings for sales, http://cyaen.fai-system.com/sub2/sub2.htm , but if I remember correctly it is a little difficult to navigate.
Dave

P.S.
I just looked around the site I linked to above and found he has a link marked 'ichiba.' if you click one of the links there it brings you to a site where you can buy. http://yamanto.jp/?pid=776660
This is the main link through which the above link can be accessed, http://yamanto.jp/ Click the link and then look on the left hand side. You will see a lot of flashing "new" marks. Click the first one that says "...(Sencha) 100g" that isn't marked with a "new" and it will take you to the first link in this "P.S."

[entropyembrace]

O-cha´s other organic senchas are very good too....have tried a few and they´re all delicious

[brlarson]

Hi Uji.

I really like Nakai's Organic Uji Sencha Superior, from Zencha. The style of the tea is beefier than other Uji sencha I have had, but it is very interesting, satisfying.

[skilfautdire]

There is a guy in the village next to mine that grows organic tea. I know he processes it in a number of styles.

It is possible to get an impression of his operation from his tea farm pictures on his Yahoo Japan page (by following link from his blog). He seems to have a good spirit towards things natural.

It is surely tempting to try some of his teas. The 'grandma style' and the hojicha would be nice. I wonder if he's willing to ship to Canada (no new postal weight restriction I think). That would have to be done by email as the shopping cart pages are not translatable to English. Do you know if he speaks/writes English ? - Thanks.

[Uji]

Great! i like to try all of them.
The small tea farm looks OK and I do not see the Japanese organic certification. The Sencha looks a bit rough looking

[teaisme]

yuukicha too (though Chip the mod has had some bad experiences, I guess I have too since I was involved in the shipments he never got)

But I still order from them and personally have never had anything but outstanding service

Standouts for me...
-many of their asa's (haven't tried Gokujo or Misakubo though)
-Magokoro
-Kagoshima Saemidori
-the kukicha (Shiraore)

Their gyokuro im kinda borderline. I've had very few gyokuro (2 in total) to draw a good comparison. The only one I had from yuuki was the Gokou, which I enjoyed a lot. Most of the time though I brewed it more like a kabusencha. Though it says asa mine was broken up more then I would like. But the price really does have me wondering whats going on...only $5 more for top priced gyo vs top priced sencha...

[togei]

Uji wrote.
The small tea farm looks OK and I do not see the Japanese organic certification. The Sencha looks a bit rough looking

I write,
I wonder if organic certification and less rough looking sencha cutting are more for image. I know this guy is a hippie-child type. He gets permission to take over fields as older farmers quit. He then goes in with his merry band and starts tending the tea. Very 1960's. He is in his 20s.


Skilfaut wrote

It is surely tempting to try some of his teas. The 'grandma style' and the hojicha would be nice. I wonder if he's willing to ship to Canada (no new postal weight restriction I think). That would have to be done by email as the shopping cart pages are not translatable to English. Do you know if he speaks/writes English ? - Thanks.

Me,
I would give it a try. He and I were in a show together at Nara Prefectural Library and that is how I know him. I occasionally see him during harvesting season driving around with his merry crew in a big truck too.
If you order please let me know what you think. I have had his tea and it was tasty.
I drink unblended Gyokuro tea I get from a different guy that tends the fields around my house.. I think it is a somewhat rough tea compared to blended tea. Unblended tea must be like smoking unblended tobacco.


I don't have any financial affiliation with the guy. Just my opinion.
Dave

[Chip]

Thanks for the info Togei ...

[skilfautdire]

I would give it a try. He and I were in a show together at Nara Prefectural Library and that is how I know him. I occasionally see him during harvesting season driving around with his merry crew in a big truck too. If you order please let me know what you think. I have had his tea and it was tasty.

I'm certainly not expecting teas that are refined and this is not what I find interesting. I'm thinking more aoyanagi, simple crude teas that has a lot of the earth (figuratively... hopefully!) in it, and that would be the beauty of it.

OK, so I do not know if he understands English, I do not know if he's willing to go to the extent of shipping abroad, but I'll ask.

Just out of curiosity, were you playing music in that show ?

[skilfautdire]

Great! i like to try all of them.
The small tea farm looks OK and I do not see the Japanese organic certification. The Sencha looks a bit rough looking

I would be surprised that there is any certification, as that would be way too expensive and probably tedious to get. I'm certainly not looking for a certification. I mean, here's a guy that is there doing that - are we always 100% certain of a Chinese organic certification ? Or absence of keltane or other additives to regular green non-certified teas from anywhere ? The outstanding thing here is that this guy is doing it and seems to do it with a certain spirit.

I wonder what the tea juice foaming down from the tea leaves processing machine (last picture of the tea farm) would taste like...

[skilfautdire]

I wonder what the tea juice foaming down from the tea leaves processing machine (last picture of the tea farm) would taste like...

That's the picture I meant from his tea farm, from the machine he's using that processes tea leaves. Tea without brewing !!

72e2.jpg (37.7 KiB) Viewed 1654 times

[Uji]

The organic certification isn't expensive. What is expensive is making sure the land is pesticide free for a period of three years I believe. A lot of time waiting is expensive.