Japan Tea Cup

Grown by Farmer Shizuoka,
Nihondaira hills

This gyokuro comes from the Nihondaira hills in Shizuoka. Fog rolls off the coast in the morning and sits over the tea rows until the sun burns it off. Harvest is in early May. For the last 21 days before picking, the plants are kept under cover. No sun. The leaves respond by producing more chlorophyll and theanine, which is where the deep green and the umami come from. The farm has been doing it this way for generations.