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Asahi Matcha - Shimizuさん Kageyama Uji. 10g
About this Matcha
Experience Shimizuさん (a 9th-generation Uji tea farmer) Asahi cultivar. Asahi is one of Japan’s most prized tea varieties. An excellent Matcha from an legacy farmer.
The 2022 vintage has been cold-aged (known as Jukusei) since 2022. This will be the final milling, and service, of this exceptional cultivar.
As unground Matcha (known as Tencha) has unbroken cell walls, unlike other teas, Matcha can be aged. The aging process rounds and deepens the tea, while dulling and “raw” notes.
In the past, aging was done for a maximum of 6 months. Modern air-tight vacuum sealing and cold-storage technologies allow for long durations for aging.
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Shimizuさん and his two sons have been helping preserve Uji tea culture, where they maintain multiple fields across the township. The family participates in traditional cultivation techniques such as hand-picking and rice-straw shading.
These techniques are becoming increasingly rare. Ooika is thrilled to continue supporting this family, and Uji as a whole, by milling their single-origin Matcha fresh in the United States.
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To make a fresh and smooth bowl of Usucha or Koicha, follow our brewing instructions.
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Long-term Storage: Store unopened Ooika Matcha in the refrigerator. Consume within 6 months.
Room-Temp Short-term Storage: Store opened Ooika Matcha in a cool, dark place away from sunlight. Consume within 3 months.
Refrigerator Short-term Storage: Opened Matcha can be stored in the refrigerator to help maintain freshness, however, the Matcha is at risk of condensation when cooler than ambient air. For this reason, if you choose to store an opened Matcha in the refrigerator, be sure to take the Matcha you need and then immediately place it back in the refrigerator to minimize exposure to the warm air.
Ochairinikki (御茶入日記)
Category Green tea (お茶) |
Subcategory OISHITACHA (おおいしたちゃ) |
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 |
Producer Details
Shimizuさん
With over 24 generations in Uji, and 9 generations of tea Farmers, Shimizuさん is one of the most well regarded farmers in the country.
Cultivar Details
ASAHI (あさひ)
An exceptional Tencha cultivar, renowned for its exceptional taste, color, and captivating aroma.
Mr. Jinnojo Hirano selected it from a seed-grown field in Kyoto Prefecture in the early 1930s. The Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute released it in 1954. Despite its remarkable qualities, it has never been officially registered as a cultivar. Nonetheless, it has earned the nickname King of Matcha, and it is often showcased in competition teas.
Notoriously challenging to cultivate, it has an upright shape, creating a low volume of leaves that adds to its low yield. Asahi performs exceptionally well under shading, with bright green, thin, and long leaves.
Honzu shading and meticulous hand-picking result in an exceptional Tencha. Its low-yield characteristics pose a challenge to the tea pickers, the Chazumi, who are paid by weight.
According to Sakataさん, 1 kg of freshly picked tea leaves “probably” creates less than 60 grams of final Matcha.
Region Details
Kageyama, Uji, Kyoto, Japan
The rich tea tradition of Kyoto Prefecture has its roots in the Kamakura period, with origins that extend even further back in history. Since then, the prefecture has embraced and woven tea into its core identity, spreading its cultivation to many areas. Over the centuries, tea has lived in zen monasteries and ritual offerings to tea guessing games known as Tocha 闘茶 and crystallizing in the now-known Japanese tea ceremony for both Matcha and Sencha, whose production happened in Uji, south of the at-the-time capital of Japan, Kyoto.
The fame of Uji tea spread out from the Muromachi period, with its many cultural developments, which set the framework of what would become the foundations of the Japanese tea ceremony. Uji City is located in the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture, in the Yamashiro region, an area known for its temperature swings between day and night. This temperature gradient is in part responsible for the aroma development of the tea plant, with other famous tea-producing regions sharing traits with those of some of Uji's terroirs.
Kageyama, part of Uji City, is located east of Ogura, which was home until the 1930s to the largest freshwater body of the prefecture. Kageyama, just in between the Ogura Lake and the Uji River, benefited from the aforementioned temperature swings, with beneficial mists originating from those water bodies, which also play a key role as temperature regulators and keeping frost at bay in many cases. The ever-shining available land in Uji makes tea cultivation in Kageyama extremely rare. Shimizu-san, with its fields at the heart of Kageyama, keeps the traditional rice straw cultivation alive just next door to much of the infrastructure of Uji City. A unique terroir still connects to tradition and the taste of the once-sprawling tea cultivation in the area.
Matcha Safety
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
As one of the healthiest nations in the world, Japan enforces exceptionally strict standards for radioactive substances, heavy metals, and pesticide residues in all food products, including matcha. Routine monitoring and targeted inspections ensure compliance with Japan's notoriously rigorous food safety regulations. Distribution of food items that exceed any limit are prohibited. You can learn more about these regulations from Japan’s Codex Alimentarius and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW)’s website.
Shimizuさん
Shimizuさん: 9th-generation Uji farmer, and one of his 10th-generation sons holding a framed photo of the late 8th generation.
Visiting Kageyama, Uji (蔭山)
The available land in Uji shrinks every decade, as more public roads and infrastructure increases.
We can see two of Shimizuさん’s fields from above, bisected by a new road.
To the west, his rice straw-covered Asahi. To the west, Kanreisha's black tarp covered Samidori.
