Description
Description | 詳細
Yamazoe Kumano Bancha is harvested in early June and consists of late spring shoots as well as full-grown tea leaves that escaped the early spring harvest in May. The mature Bancha material is slightly coarser in character compared to the finer Kamairicha teas from the May harvest. But Yamazoe Kumano Bancha is still a tea of excellent quality; rich in sweetness and warmth from the final roasting with natural notes of ripe stone fruits, cacao, and mild tobacco.
The body sensation is gently calming and warm, making Yamazoe Bancha enjoyable during late evenings as well – in fact, ‘Bancha’ is commonly written in the Kumano region (of which the Yamazoe area is a part) with the characters「晩茶」 bancha, that is, ‘evening tea’, instead of the more conventional spelling「番 茶 」 which refers primarily to the mature nature of the leaves.
As with the other Kamairicha teas from Mitocha Nōen, the tea leaves are harvested from tea trees grown by natural farming methods (自然 農 法 shizen nōhō) without any use of pesticides and fertilizers. After an initial ‘kill-green’ (殺青 sassei) step, the tea leaves are carefully rolled, sun-dried, and finally pan-fried (kamairi) – a traditional and today rare form of semi-oxidized Japanese tea from the Kumano region which in its processing method resembles certain forms of Chinese and Taiwanese oolongs.
Tea trees | 茶樹
Cultivar: Yabukita
Age: unknown
Elevation: 300-400 masl
Shade: none
Fertilisation: none
Cultivation method: natural farming (read more about organic and natural farming here)
Harvest: June 2026
Production method | 製茶方法
Drying: two days in sunny weather
Producer | 生産者
Mr and Mrs Kayashita
Origin | 産地
Yamazoe in Nara, Japan
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