For nearly two centuries, Japanese tea farmers have covered portions of their tea gardens with matting as they shade-grow their best teas such as matcha and gyokuro.
Japan’s method of growing tea under shade is unique. Since 1835, this cultivation technique has been used exclusively for exceptional (and expensive) green teas such as gyokuro and matcha. The practice produces teas that yield a soft green colour in the cup with low astringency and rich notes of umami–exactly the highlights contemporary green tea connoisseurs desire.
Sakamotoen is a small organic green tea farm in Kagoshima, Japan known for its rich volcanic soils and pristine surroundings. Tea master Shuichiro Sakamoto, whose family has grown tea for almost 100 years, grew up in this tea garden and became passionate about the health of his family and gardens 30 years ago following the deaths of his mother and sister from cancer. Master Sakamoto became convinced that healthy soil leads to healthy plants and better green tea. He set about to re-craft his gardens.
Sakamoto drastically re-engineered his gardens by digging up the existing soil and blended in minerals and organic matter to enrich the earth, making it loamy and filled with the nutrients his tea plants needed. Workers keep weeds to a minimum by spreading dried grasses between the bushes, a popular organic technique found throughout Japan. Herbicides and pesticides are neither needed nor used here.
By early April, Sakamoto’s top-grade gyokuro bushes are encased with a black mesh canopy that blocks 95 percent of the sun’s rays and slows the rate of leaf growth to a crawl. Depriving the tea plants of light for three weeks increases chlorophyll content. With diminished photosynthesis, nutrients drawn from the soil are not processed by the plant’s typical systems, thus modifying the leaves’ molecular structure.
Of utmost importance, severe shading helps create more umami flavour–a taste unique to Japan–as the plant stores additional L-theanine in the leaf. L-theanine is an amino acid that mostly develops in the roots of the tea plant. As it moves into the tea leaves, it reduces back to the previous components, which, when exposed to sunlight, help form catechins. Shading, therefore, prevents the creation of catechins that can give tea an astringent or bitter taste.
Discovered in 1949 in Japan, L-theanine is rarely seen in nature except in tea. It enhances mood by stimulating alpha brainwaves, which can induce a calmer, yet more alert, state of mind. L-theanine also helps lower the pulse rate and blood pressure while it balances and moderates the effects of caffeine, making shade-grown green tea all the more unique in the world of healthy beverages.
While most Japanese teas are mechanically harvested, Master Sakamoto continues to hand pluck the leaves that go into making his best tea grades. Throughout the short growing season, he is a busy man on a mission to keep ancient traditions alive. Unlike his tea plants, he has little time to rest in the shade.
Pick Green is honoured and privileged to sell Sakamotoen Gyokuro in Australia!
