Organic tea is produced without the input of chemical fertilizers or pesticides and herbicides. Unfortunately the yield per acre is lower and quite often quality can suffer compared to when fertilizers and others inputs are utilized. Nevertheless with good manufacturing techniques the cup characteristics can be maintained at a very high level – such is the case with this tea.
This tea is a top quality Green Tea with good ‘green tea’ taste properties – slightly vegetative and fruity, but refreshing and clean; typical of Japanese manufacturing techniques.
Tea was introduced to Japan from China in the 7th and 8th century. Records indicate that Japan’s Emperor Kammu gave visiting monks an imperial gift of powdered green tea. Emperor Kammu created a government post called ‘Supervisor of Tea and Tea Gardens’ as Japan had begun to cultivate it’s own tea. That this post was in the medical bureau of the government indicates that even then, there was tremendous respect for the health aspects of tea.
From 800 to the 1200AD Japan relied heavily on China for it’s tea supply. Because tea arrived in limited quantities from China tea became a luxury used for medicinal and spiritual purposes. A Zen Buddhist, Eisai Myoan returned from China (from what is now known as Jiangxi) with tea seeds and planted them at his temple. He soon realized that the quality was superior to any tea currently grown in Japan.
These seeds formed the basis of Japan’s tea industry in the centuries to come. Further evidence of the known correlation between health and tea was found in a small book that Eisai wrote, entitled (translated), Tea Drinking is Good for Health. In this book he wrote that tea drinking confers many benefits including curing lack of appetite, diseases caused by poor quality drinking water, and beriberi (a vitamin B deficiency).