Kuma Tea Garden FK040: Heritage Grade Yame Matcha Saemidori (20g) Kuma Tea Gardens

Highly Commended Award winner at the 2023 Leafies Awards.

Created from the handpicked leaves of a Saemidori cultivar tea field that produced 2017’s perfect score Gyokuro winning the top prize at the National Tea Competition, this matcha offers an intense green color and rich umami flavor. 

Shaded by the Kuma family (Yame Tea Kumaen) for about 40 days using labor-intensive traditional canopy shading made of scaffolding and layered straw, the high elevation of the field helps to create slow growing leaves that take the time to absorb nutrients from the soil as the develop.

At harvest time, the leaves are handpicked, then processed into tencha leaves, then aged for at least half a year in deep freeze to reduce bitterness even further. The leaves are then refined, and ground by stone mill into matcha. 

An ultra small batch, just a few kilograms of this matcha is available each year.  

Instructions for koicha

Use 3g of matcha for 30 ml of water at 80C/175F degrees. Sift the matcha into your bowl, and add the water. Kneed the matcha against the bowl until you form a thick, even syrup. If you are unfamiliar with the terms koicha and usucha, please refer to the koicha blogpost. 

Instructions for usucha

Use 2g of matcha for 100 ml of water at 80C/175F degrees. Sift the matcha into your bowl, and add the water. Whisk with a bamboo whisk into a smooth liquor. 

Product Info

• Ingredients: Green tea
• Harvest: Early May
• Total annual production: about 25kg
• Region: Yame, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan
• Notes: Shaded for about 40 days using traditional canopy shading (straw / bamboo scaffolding), handpicked, and ground by stone mill.