Kuma Tea Garden FK031: 2023 Saemidori Imperial Mountain-Grown Yame Sencha 奥八女上陽茶さえみどり Kuma Tea Gardens

Kuma Tea Gardens’ award winning saemidori sencha is a tea which will make you pleasantly realize that Japanese tea can indeed be sweet. This tea is their hatsu-tsumi sencha, which is their “First picking” or the tea farmer’s very first harvest of the spring season. The saemidori cultivar is known for its brilliant color and brilliant green is exactly what you get with this leaf when steeping at hotter temperatures. Besides the pleasant color, the surprising amount of umami flavor despite zero shading (i.e., it is a sencha) is a testament to Kuma-san’s soil development and care for his tea bushes. This saemidori sencha received the gold medal (Prix D’OR) in the Japanese Tea Selection Paris 2020. 

A note from Kuma-san (tea farmer):

A tea which is representative of Yame-cha (Yame, Fukuoka’s tea) with a mellow taste and rounded sweetness. We are proud to present you with this sencha that can be characterized by a soft but rich condensed taste and a refreshing flavor, which we hope will make your heart content! When brewed with ice, the rich umami and sweetness that this tea produces will make you mistake it for a gyokuro… The refreshing aroma of this tea upon opening this tea package is exquisite and inviting. We will be delighted if you may enjoy this authentic tea from Yame!

Steeping notes

We find that this tea is so delicate, you can have a lot of fun steeping it like a gyokuro.

• 1st steeping – Tea: 3g. Time: 3 min. Water: 40C/104F, 30 ml.
• 2nd steeping – Time: 20 sec. Water: 90C/194F, 200 ml.
• 3rd steeping – Time: 60 sec. Water: 90C/194F, 200 ml.
• Remember, these are just guidelines (and may differ on our label). You can and should adjust according to your preference. More tea / less water / longer time for a stronger flavor; lower temperature for more sweetness / hotter temperature for more bitterness.

Flavor Profile 

• Sweetness：★★★★★
• Richness：★★★★☆
• Honestness：★★★★★
• Beauty：★★★★★

Product Info

• Ingredients: Green tea
• Cultivar: Saemidori
• Harvest: April 14th 2021
• Region: Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
• Steaming: A long chumushi (regular) but not quite fukamushi (deep steamed) creating leaf that is largely powdery but retains some shape and a tea liquor that is deep green and opaque when steeped at a hot temperature.

About the Farm

Japanese tea instructor Kazumi Nakatani manages Kuma Tea Gardens as a brand representing her tea farmer uncles and cousins, and uses her expert palette to design exquisite sencha and gyokuro teas from the leaves farmed by her extended family. Cousin Masahiro Kuma is quickly becoming a legend in Japan, having won the top prize (Minister’s Award) for the gyokuro tea category at the 2017 National Tea Competition. Learn more about the family here.