Kinpaku Competition Asahi Matcha 2023 - Tsujiさん Shirakawa Uji (Presale)
TASTING NOTES
To Be Determined.
Exceedingly rare, hand-harvested and hand-tailored Hinpyōkai ひんぴょうかい (Competition) Matcha, laced with 24K Gold.
Presale: The Kinpaku Competition Asahi Matcha 2023 Matcha will be milled and sent on January 1st, 2025.
🏆 Emperor Award
Recipient of the highly prestigious Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Prize (農林水産大臣賞.)
The only Recipient of the Emperor Award for Matcha in Japan's History.
Stone-Milled: Fresh ground in Lawrenceville, NJ
TASTING NOTES
To Be Determined.
Exceedingly rare, hand-harvested and hand-tailored Hinpyōkai ひんぴょうかい (Competition) Matcha, laced with 24K Gold.
Presale: The Kinpaku Competition Asahi Matcha 2023 Matcha will be milled and sent on January 1st, 2025.
🏆 Emperor Award
Recipient of the highly prestigious Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Prize (農林水産大臣賞.)
The only Recipient of the Emperor Award for Matcha in Japan's History.
Stone-Milled: Fresh ground in Lawrenceville, NJ
TASTING NOTES
To Be Determined.
Exceedingly rare, hand-harvested and hand-tailored Hinpyōkai ひんぴょうかい (Competition) Matcha, laced with 24K Gold.
Presale: The Kinpaku Competition Asahi Matcha 2023 Matcha will be milled and sent on January 1st, 2025.
🏆 Emperor Award
Recipient of the highly prestigious Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Prize (農林水産大臣賞.)
The only Recipient of the Emperor Award for Matcha in Japan's History.
Stone-Milled: Fresh ground in Lawrenceville, NJ
About this Matcha
In the spirit of the upcoming Year of the Snake, Ooika is thrilled to announce perhaps the world’s most luxurious Matcha ever made.
The Asahi cultivar, from the hands of the legendary Tsujiさん of Shirakawa, Uji, Kyoto, Japan. Asahi is regarded as one of the finer cultivars in Japanese tea. It’s deep, rich, and decadent—though notoriously challenging to cultivate.
Ooika commissioned the Tencha (unground Matcha) to go through the painstaking process of hand-sorting every individual leaf with chopsticks. This produces “Hinpyōkai ひんぴょうかい,” or “competition” worthy material.
This process takes days to weeks to execute and is typically engaged in to submit entries into Japan's Annual National Tea Competition (全国茶品評会).
Some tea companies in Japan celebrate the New Year by including 24K gold leaf, known as Kinpaku, in the actual Matcha powder. When whisked, bright gold flakes disperse along the surface of the tea, creating an exuberant Matcha.
As if this wasn’t enough, the Matcha is ground fresh in-house by Ooika using authentic stone mills. It is without hesitation or exaggeration to say this is Matcha: perfected. Indeed, a once-a-year, if not once-in-a-lifetime, experience to partake in.
To better make this Matcha affordable, Ooika is producing (for the first time) 4-gram sample bags, which will make two bowls of Usucha or one spectacular bowl of Koicha.
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To make a fresh and smooth bowl of Usucha or Koicha, follow our whisking 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) |
Cultivar Asahi (あさひ) |
Producer Tsujiさん |
Terroir Shirakawa, Uji, Kyoto, Japan |
Vintage 2023 |
Harvest Time Single Spring Harvest (一番茶) |
Harvest Method 100% Handpicked (手摘み, Tezumi) |
Shading Style Kanreisha (寒冷紗) |
Shading Duration 58 days |
Milling Ishi-Usu (石臼) Stone-Milled by Ooika |
Packaging Cold-stored, oxygen-free bag |
Visit the Farm
OOIKA MATCHA leads the industry with the most precise souring details and transparency. Let’s visit Tsujiさん’s farm and see where this Matcha comes from.
Awards
Tsujiさん had won Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries award for tencha as many as 6 times. He won 56th Prime Minister Award which is one of Emperor's three awards and awarded at Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Festival. Below is a selected, and non-exhaustive list.
Prime Minister Award, Japanese Emperor Award, at Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Festival.
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Award
Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association Chairman Award
National Tea Producers Association Chairman Award
National Tea Commerce and Industry Association President Award
Japanese Tea Science and Technology Chairman Award
Sourcing Details
Cultivar Details
Asahi (あさひ)
One of the most fine cultivars for the production of quality Matcha, Asahi is notoriously difficult to cultivate.
Excellent Matcha is made from unground tea leaves that can survive heavy shading while remaining thin and soft. Asahi fits the bill on all three counts.
However, the bush has a shallow root structure and low volume potential, making it a fickle cultivar to harvest and keep healthy.
Tea pickers, known as Chazumi, are paid by weight. Due to the low volume of the Asahi bush, this can be challenging.
According to Sakataさん, 1 kg of freshly picked tea leaves “probably” creates less than 60 grams of final Matcha.
Producer Details
Tsujiさん
Tsujiさん holds multiple tea awards including the highly coveted Prime Minister’s Award for Agriculture in 2017.
Tsujiさん’s expertise has resulted in his teas having the highest level of L-Theanine among any of the producers in the country.
L-Theanine is an amino acid that contributes both to the savory taste in Matcha, as well as many of the calm-inducing psychoactive effects.
Region Details
Shirakawa, uji, kyoto, japan
For Matcha, no Terroir in the world exceeds Uji. Despite having worldwide recognition, the actual quantity of tea from Uji is impossibly small, and shrinking every year as development continues.
And in fact, the total demand for Uji Matcha far exceeds the supply, by orders of magnitude. Most Matcha labeled as being from “Uji” is not grown in Uji, but rather packaged there.
A subtle distinction is made in Japan by saying “Cha No Uji (茶の宇治)” versus “Ujicha (宇治茶.)” Cha No Uji (茶の宇治) literally translates as “Tea from/of Uji”, versus just “Uji tea.” This Competition Ujihikari is grown in Uji. It is exceptionally rare Cha No Uji (茶の宇治.)
