New Years 2023: Memories of Visiting Japanese Tea Farms in 2022

Matcha Nōto (抹茶ノート) is Ooika's monthly newsletter. Join here free to learn more behind-the-scenes about high-grade Matcha. This edition was sent out January 1st, 2023.

Dear reader,

The small team at Ooika wanted to reach out to you personally to wish you a wonderful upcoming new year. 2022 has been, in many ways, the birth of Ooika and we are so deeply humbled for the support from people like you. How can we thank you enough?

Unforgettable Stories

Over the past few months, some of the Ooika team members have been in Japan. This has been a humbling trip. Many producers have taken so much of their time and energy to meet with us, to show us their craft, and give us a deeper understanding of Japanese tea, so that we may share it with you, and others.

Driving Along the Wazuka Tea Mountains

We’ll never forget the exhilaration of the cool and confident tea farmer Ryo-san driving us on the very slippery/muddy mountains of Wazuka to get to his old bush Zairai tea fields. It was terrifying but majestic! (By the way, you can follow some of our adventures on Instagram, if you haven’t already!)

Boars and Tea in Shizuoka

Or the excitement of visiting Hattori-san’s (4th generational tea farmer) hidden mountainside farmland where he would play along as a child—and where a feral boar launched at us from the nearby trees.

A 90+ Year Old Tencha Factory

Or the mystery of walking through one of Japan’s oldest Tencha factories belonging to Kurazumi-san. As a 2017 National Tea Competition winner, he is among the top producer in all of Japan for his teas. (And, Matcha we will fresh-mill his Matcha and sell it in early 2023 as part of our Matcha Mill Club. Join the waitlist here to not miss out!) 

We laughed together when he read the silver plaque on the 90-year-old factory machine which proudly proclaimed the machine was brand-new and state-of-the-art!

These are drops in the bucket of the stories, and experiences from our time in Japan (which will continue throughout January.) In time, Ooika will share these memories with you, in the form of fresh-milled Matcha from the most historic and prized tea terroirs and producers in the country.

Looking Forward to 2023

Over the past year, Ooika has had the opportunity to better understand our mission, and our why. It would be so much easier (and more affordable) to buy pre-ground Matcha from large distributors—but we don’t.

Why mill Matcha fresh, using authentic stone mills? Why source directly from celebrated farmers? Why focus on hand-picked, and traditionally shaded tea that takes 8x the labor of the same amount of farmland to grow?

The short answer is this: Ooika is committed to preserving the traditional production methods of Matcha across the historic terroirs of Japan, including Tezumi picking and Honzusaibai Kabuse. We hope to provide our customers with a deeper level of clarity and appreciation for fine Japanese tea.

Over the Next Year

In our mission to celebrate Japan’s priceless heritage of Matcha, Ooika is looking forward to opening our first physical location in Central New Jersey where we will Mill Matcha fresh every day.

We’ll be offering Matcha from a wider range of farmers, from across the country of Japan, including multiple 1st place winners of the famed annual Japanese National Tea Competition.

We’ve launched Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube to share more about Japanese Matcha and inspire more to discover its richness.

And we’ve partnered with Tea Drunk, home of China’s most authentic, rare, and exquisite loose-leaf teas to offer a historic recreation of Mo Cha, the pre-cursor to Matcha which will become a permanent addition to our roster of teas in 2023.

ありがとうございます

So once again, thank you for everything, ありがとうございます. Your support will allow Ooika to continue keeping the most difficult and rewarded components of the Japanese tea tradition strong. 

There are many challenges for us to meet in 2023, though I hope we can all remember to set some time aside to share a bowl of Matcha and reflect on all that we’ve accomplished, and all the good we’re capable of.

Sincerely,

The Ooika team