MMC 04/23: Shimizuさん Samidori (さみど) Kageyama Matcha

Matcha Mill Club is our monthly Matcha membership, where we stone-mill a new single-cultivar Matcha and ship it out within 24 hours of milling every month. This article details the Matcha we shipped for April 2023!

Dear reader,

We have many exciting topics to cover today, with this joyous Samidori Matcha from Kageyama, Uji Kyoto. First, let’s talk about what’s happening in Uji and how the tea industry has changed in the past few decades!

How Uji Has Changed 

The landscape of Uji has dramatically changed over the past few decades. Highways and public roads have bisected through tea fields, reducing the availability of land and reducing the annual yield of tea grown in Uji.

In fact, here is a photo of Shizumiさん. A highway cuts through his tea field, with the green fence separating them. Before the highway was installed, this was all one field instead of two smaller fields.

The economics of tea have changed dramatically as well with fewer farmers using traditional cultivation techniques. In fact, today there are less than 10 farmers in the whole city of Uji that still do bamboo and rice straw shading, known as Honzusaibai (ほんずさいばい.)

Foreign interest in Organic farming is just starting to take root in Uji—with two farmers in Uji doing something never done before: organic Matcha which is 100% handpicked, known as Tezumi (てずみ.)

Shimizu Family

Luckily for the 9th generation Shimizuさん, his two sons will continue the family’s centuries-old tradition of growing tea in Uji. In the photo below, we can see the 10th, 9th, and 8th (in the picture frame) tea masters together, photographed just outside Uji’s train station, in Uji City, Kyoto.

Tasting Notes

This Samidori is texturally profound, with a simple and clean spring-like flavor. In regards to fine tea, the excellent texture should hold more consideration than flavor or aroma as texture is harder to achieve than taste. Samidori is known for its round, soft texture that is comfortable. Good, but rarely great—we trade the (rare) possibility of sublimity for reliability. This month’s Samidori broke all my textural expectations.

Here is the texture of an alchemist flask (rather than the expected rounded sphere)—a thin, narrow astringency on the tongue that greatly widens on the base at the back of the tongue. Notes and sharp points a rounded as if the Matcha was draped in silk. The body has a backward weight, as if bitter stone sits at the base, pulling the smooth draped silk backward over it. 

After-taste leaves noticeable effervescence on the tongue similar to Sichuan peppercorn. Expect a lingering sweetness on your lips well after the Matcha has been consumed. These invigorating after-tastes and textures are worth the value of the Matcha alone.

Share your Experience

We covered here my tasting notes and experiences, which may or may not be similar to your own! I’d love to hear what you think.

Either reply to this email directly with some of your own notes or share your Matcha and tag us on Instagram at @ooika.co.

As always, thank you for your support! See you at the Live tasting.

Sincerely,

Marc
Ooika’s Miller

Ochairinikki (御茶入日記)

Category Green tea (お茶)	Subcategory Kabusecha (かぶせ茶)	Grade Indigo (Beyond Ceremonial)
Terroir Kageyama, Uji, Kyoto, Japan	Vintage 2022	Cultivar Samidori (さみど)
Harvest Method 100% handpicked (手摘み, Tezumi)	Shading Style Kanreisha Tana	Shading Duration 45 days
Milling Ishi-Usu (石臼) Stone-Milled by Ooika	Packaging Cold-stored, oxygen-free bag	Use Usucha, Koicha