10｜ENJOY KYOTO Issue 22

ENJOY KYOTO Issue 22｜11

Kyotology

G e n ui n e U j i - m at c h a i s j us t l i ke " foi e g ras of f ar m"

Matcha is now popular all over the world, especially popular for the people highly interested in health.
As a matter of fact, Starbucks Matcha Green Tea Latte is loved around the world and even in the Hollywood movie, we
get to see the character drinking matcha insted of coffee.
In Begin Again(2014), Dave, who is one of main characters, says "That's maccha tea. Gotta like 4 million antioxidants init. I like it. Samurai used to drink it before they went out to battle." , drinking a cup of matcha insted of coffee. Moreover, we can see Japanese tea shop succeed in Paris and even in London whose people love drinking tea, matcha isgetting good reputation. We can say that in addition to Asia, acknowledgement about matcha has been established.
From now on, the time has come when the taste and quality should be more strictly evaluated.
As mathca become popular around the world, on the other hand the qulity of matcha ranges very widely from
low to high. There is the case where low quality matcha is sold but it is not possible to call this matcha in terms of in
credibly low quality.
We can't always buy 100% pure mathca made in Japan everywhere around the world. In addition, talking of matcha
made in best matcha farm and by special method, it becomes more difficult to get because annual production of match
like this is very less, resulting in very rare products.
It's Uji, Kyoto that produces matcha described before, that is to say, special and precious. We Japanese allknow that Uji is famous for "tea producing".
But we hardly know the fact that there are 3 types of tea farms, which are respectively for sencha, gyokuro, andtencha.
Matcha is the powder made of tencha processed carefully and wholeheartedly and then ground.
The color of high quality matcha of course is bright and fresh like color of living leaves.
KIYOHARU TSUJIKI is the master of tea production. He manages the tea farm in Uji and the tencha made by
him has best quality even in Uji famous for tea producing.
He is the 5th generation since his ancestors came to live here Uji and he has kept producing match this place. In 2016,
his endeavor and innovation led to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Award for tencha, which is firstprize, at national tea competitive exhibition. Which means that his attitude toward producing matcha was highly evalu
ated and it was confirmed his matcha had best quality in Japan.
So, what makes tea leaves cultivated by Tsuji so special ?
Whether you can cultivate good tea leaves or not depends largely on climate and soil. Although there aremany parts beyond control, Tsuji's method of soil and tea leaves cultivation can be said to be scientific.
This is because he does try and error many times and get data through this experiment. He adapts to changing climatebased on data and intuition.
Tsuji says "Although I've been producing tea for as long as 27 years, every year I am freshman because the the same
climate condition never come again" "People come here from distant place to learn how to produce
matcha by me but honestly speaking, there is nothing I can tell to them because what you need to do changes
every year and my method is not useful to different types of soil."
There are many reasons which make tea made by Tsuji best.
First, they harvest all the burgeon by hand.
Handpicking is less efficent compared to mechanical picking.
But there is the specific reason Tsuji choose this method in spite of low efficiency. When harvestingby mechanical picking, cut surface spreads as if it was cut by blade, which leads to rapid oxidation. On theother hand, handpicking leads to small cut surface area and slow oxidation.
Ryokucha with much less oxidation is genuinely ryokucha because ryokucha is said to have high anti-oxidation effect.
This is the reason Tsuji love handpicking.
Second, it's about a large amount of inclusion of nutrition. Harvesting by mechanical picking means you
harvest all of leaves including what are not burgeons but when you choose handpicking, you can only harvest
burgeons. So, handpicking makes it possible to retain high nutrient density.

Moreover, Tsuji uses manily organic fertilizer like canola oil at best timing. When canola oil is mixed with soil, it get
more acid and causes a lot of ammonia. The more tea get ammonia, the much better it tastes. This machanisim wasclarified just recent 10 years but the fertilizer of Uji-cha has been always conaola oil. "We
can say tea is just like foie gras of farm. The more fertilizer we use, the more it absorbs. We continue
using a lot of fertilizer and giving it stomach medicine.
We make trees feel great pain but it turns out to be Umami. The much better tea teastes, the more fertilizer
it absorbs. " says Tsuji. In order to produce mild taste tea, what is needed is to decrease catechin causing
bitter taste. Catechin is produced, when amino acid of tea is exposed to sunlight. "Characteristic of Uji tea isthe mild taste, which mean it doesn't taste bitter, so, we cultivate by cutting off the sunlight and providing
much canola oil as a fertilizer."

The average shade rating of tea farms of Uji is about 80%. But Tsuji provides twice as much fertilizer as otherfarms and shade rating of the Tsuji's farm is 95%.
Cover culture decreases the production because cover culture is the method which both increases mild taste and nutri
ent density and inhibit growth at the same time. So production of Tsuji tea farm is equal to 60% of other typical farms.
This method using a lot of fertilizer and high shade rating cover culture is originally invented by Tsuji but a tiny and little
mis-decision making leads to big loss.

When Tsuji was 3-year-producer with curiosity and ambition, he tried this method next to the maximum level. But unfor
tunately, he reached the maximum and exceeded that level. As a result, he ruined 10 are farm.
It was fortunate he could harvest burgeons but all trees blasted. It takes five years to harvest since trees areplanted. That is to say, he couldn't harvest anything from that 10 are for as long as five years.

Tsuji says "I'm very lucky to experience this when I was younger. I learnt the maximum level because of blasting."

Trees are provided with too much nutrition like foie gras , being exhausted, and getting them maximum level
where trees can narrowly live and then he harvests burgeons which nearly blast. This is how he produced
ultimate tencha and which tencha is the best masterpiece this year.

That big river called Uji river is near farm is rational for producing best tea. The most dangerous risk for tea
trees is frost because harvest season is May.
Uji river makes natural situation where it doesn't frost by airstream.
This means river help avoid frost. Uji's nature condition is best for producing tea and theancestor who choosed this area to produce tea knew that this is the best place for tea production eventhough
they had no data. Tsuji is respectful for and appriciates the wisdom of ancestors.

Soil is as important as climate for agricultural crops.
What is essentail for producing high quality tea is high acid soil and good drainage. Some specific area evenin the same Uji area can produce special taste tea owing to soil effect like wine. This has similarity in the sense thatthe farm of Romanee Conti is dozens times more expensive ( or hundreds times?) than other farms
even though Pinot Noir is produced and vinified in Bourgogne. The mineral and drainage of Bourgogone seems totallydifferent from any other farms there.
The Tsuji farm has the place similar to Romanee Conti.
That place has different stuffs like nutrient and can produce the most ultimate tea of other ultimate tea.

When Tsuji invited me to that special farm, he asked me "Do you know there is color difference between
morning and early evening even in the same leaves?"
Of course, I didn't know that. "Tea production is a kind of communication with nature. So, we can't make a concreteplan.
I recognize whether or not fertilizer is effective when I see the color of leaves in the morning and likewise recoginze
whether or not management is good by seeing the color of leaves in the early evening."

He says he checks the color of leaves every morning and early evening and thinking about how to produce
better tea every 365 days.
This dedication pushed him forward. Tsuji was born at tea farm in Uji best for produing tea and has been always withtea. He decided to grow up to be tea producer when he was a child.

"I think producing tea is my vocation. I'm very glad when the people who can appreciate the real things
evaluate tea produced by me very much. And my mission is to produce the tea consumers say excellent." says Tsuji.

Now there are many tea farmers who don't want their child to succeed their job and that causes the situationof super aging of agriculture, resulting in scarcity of successor and sharp decline.
"What is important is for parents to tell their child how interesting and exciting agriculture is, which leads tothe many successor. When the parents tell how to manage successfully as a business, young farmers getto advance." Tsuji believes.

The best season for harvesting tea leaves is only once a year, just May.
Tsuji spends intense 11 months every year for this one month.