Obubu KY001: 2023 Kabuse Sencha, Shaded Spring Green Tea Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms

Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm’s most premium green tea, Kabuse Sencha is shaded for 2 weeks to create a rich, syrupy tea because the leaves are so delicate. 

Obubu’s most premium green tea, Kabuse Sencha (かぶせ煎茶) is a kabusecha or shaded tea, and can be steeped into a rich syrupy tea using a warm water steeping technique because the leaves are so delicate and tender. Using a standard boiling water steeping method, and the taste is delicate and sweet.Grown by covering the tea plants just after new leaves begin to sprout in early May, the shade reduces sunlight by as much as 85% to encourage the plants to produce wide, tender, chlorophyll-rich tea leaves. Two weeks later they are harvested and processed ready for shipping by the end of the month. Obubu’s Kabuse Sencha is grown at a relatively high altitude for the region (500 m or 1640 ft) on southeast facing slopes providing good exposure to the sun (an important combination for shaded tea!).

FLAVOR GUIDE

• SWEETNESS: ★★★★★
• BITTERNESS: ★★★
• FRAGRANCE: Luxurious
• BREWED LEAVES: ★★★★★ – Deliciously tender

HEALTH INFO

• Catechin: ★★
• Theanine: ★★★★★
• Caffeine: ★★★★★
• Vitamin C: ★★★
• Chlorophyll: ★★★★★

The above info are relative estimations based on cultivation and processing methods. They may also be affected by the steeping technique used, by storage conditions, etc.

PRODUCT INFO

• Ingredients: Green Tea
• Cultivar: Yabukita plants, about 35 years old
• Harvest: mid-May
• Cultivation notes: Shaded for about 14 days before harvest using a plastic tarp that reduces sunlight by about 85%
• Processing notes: Light steaming (asamushi)
• Produced by Akihiro Kita, President, Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms