Organic Tezumi Tencha Mimoto

A very limited handpicked organic tencha known as Mimoto coming from currently the only specialist organically certified tencha plantation in Kyoto!

Mimoto refers to the heavier parts of leaf material (such as the petiole and midrib part of the leaves, veiny heavier leaves, and a few stems) that are sorted out during the production stage of tencha because they’re not suitable for grinding into matcha. However, those parts of the leaf are actually highly nutritious and very rich in theanine, so growers happily make up a loose leaf green tea from it, and enjoy drinking it with their family and friends, or in some cases it is bought by tea shops in Kyoto with the intention of secretly blending it into their teas e.g. into gyokuro karigane.

This Mimoto we’re offering here is made out of a variety of cultivars that are used to make the highest grades of tencha in Kyoto. This year’s blend is mainly saemidori which is used to make the very highest grade of matcha! Along with a smaller percentage of goko, samidori, yamanoibuki, and asahi. It’s important to understand that all of these cultivars are growing at genuine tana covered plantations (oishita-chaen) with the tea bushes growing in the, now very rare, traditionally tailored natural upright style (shizen-shitate), and always handpicked (tezumi). This is the highest standard of tencha production in Kyoto which nowadays is only maintained by a select few specialist growers. In addition, being handpicked, rather than machine harvested like most Japanese green tea, means there is actually only a very small portion of this mimoto from these plantations because handpicked leaf is precisely picked by skilled hands which of course results in very little sorted out leaf material.

The taste, well what can we say, it’s absolutely wonderful, pure, clean, smooth, sweet, and soothingly theanine-rich, with a really stimulating ooika aroma from the tana coverage that is very green and authentically aonori-like. The liquor is a brilliant crystal clear, shiny, transparent yellow-green.

If you’re a purist who loves an aromatic theanine-rich high quality tasting cup of green tea like no other, we think you’d love the cuppa that this Mimoto conjures up!