Kagoshima in Your Cup
By Tanya Falvo & Stef Skerry
The brilliant light of the afternoon sun casts cool shadows through the canopy of trees that line the walking path. The air is thick and humid, heavy with the floral scent of spring, citrus, and something that reminds us of cloves. We are hiking over hundreds of mossy stone steps to reach the Shiroyama scenic overlook in Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture. Gravel crunches underneath our feet as we reach the top. The view is almost too picturesque to be true, even for the trip of a lifetime.
Perched at the top of the hill, my gaze was fixed on Mt. Sakurajima, a colossal active stratovolcano. In all its grandeur, it appeared to be staring back at me.
-Tanya
The name Sakurajima literally means “Cherry Island,” because when the volcano erupts, it launches ash into the air and the billowing smoke’s appearance is reminiscent of a cherry blossom tree in full bloom. More than just a tourist destination, Mt. Sakurajima is celebrated as a beloved symbol of the prefecture and an important part of Kagoshima’s tea story. Its weekly eruptions rain a thin layer of ash over the peninsula, which has embraced this pervasive blanket of natural debris. When ash mixes with earth, it provides minerals and nutrients that boost the fertility of the soil. It also contributes to excellent drainage, working hand-in-hand with the subtropical climate’s ample rain to provide the right environment for crops to flourish. In short, Mt. Sakurajima’s eruptions foster the ideal ecosystem to support agriculture.
Tea is distilled from nature. Drinking green tea is like drinking the essence of life.
-Stef
Tea isn’t Kagoshima’s only crop that is renowned worldwide. The region is also known for the cultivation of outstanding fruits and vegetables such as daikon radishes, sweet potatoes, and citrus. In the 19th century, the British became fond of Kagoshima’s oranges. They became a profitable export, known to the world by the now defunct province name “Satsuma,” which today is a part of western Kagoshima.
During a morning walk, a big black bird swooped in front of me and landed on a nearby streetlight. He had something in his mouth. When I got closer, I realized that it was a small orange. I had seen the citrus trees during our tour, but it struck me as uncommon and remarkable that this thickly settled city is so full of nature.
-Stef
While crops in Kagoshima are grown yearround, the spring season is highly valued by the tea industry because it is the optimum time to pluck the highest quality leaves. This spring, two of Upton Tea Imports’ avid tea lovers went on an unforgettable adventure to explore the origins of Japanese green tea. During the harvest we were charmed by Kagoshima, a locale where tea is at the heart of everyday life.
Kagoshima is a tea lover’s classroom.
-Tanya
Though many varieties of tea are processed here, Kagoshima is primarily known for sencha. With its unique umami flavor and vibrant green color, sencha is enjoyed hot or iced from morning to night in homes, offices and restaurants across Japan. In fact, sencha accounts for eighty percent of all Japanese tea production.
When we first caught sight of tea fields, we were in awe at the beautiful greenery of even rows of tea plants which stretched to the horizon. It was bizarre to imagine that each of these million little leaves would travel across the world to be steeped in a teacup. Once they were plucked, the dark, withered leaves were soft and shone with health. Everyone knows that tea is an agricultural product but, if you drink tea every day, you may occasionally forget that it was once alive. Every morning in the office when we enjoy our little cups of sunshine, we vowed to remember that tea comes from beautiful places like this. Tanya was grinning from ear to ear. She chuckled with disbelief, shaking her head. “I can’t believe that this is our life.”
Kagoshima boasts a notable tea history dating back to the 14th century. It is the widely held belief that a Buddhist monk, traveling from Kyoto, cultivated his first Camellia sinensis plant at his temple in Yoshimatsu, Kagoshima. At that time, tea in Japan was largely associated with Zen Buddhism, and it was not widely consumed in the home. After gaining popularity with nobility, the cultivation of tea was encouraged throughout the prefecture during the 17th century Edo period.
Around the same time, sencha tea started to gain popularity with Kagoshima’s farmers because it was easier to process than tea that required milling and grinding, but tea in Kagoshima wouldn’t gain notoriety for many years to come. Inexperienced farming and cultivation practices yielded tea that was viewed as less than favorable, and the tea was mostly consumed within the region. In the 1950s, however, an enterprising group of local tea farmers traveled as apprentices to Shizuoka prefecture, returning with the knowledge of advanced cultivation practices and the now famed Yabukita cultivar.
By the mid 1970s, Kagoshima began to produce bulk green leaf to supply to large tea companies in major cities like Kyoto and Tokyo. Though this endeavor was successful, Kagoshima’s reputation for tea still needed improvement. The government of Kagoshima invested time and effort in developing the brand of Kagoshima green tea. As a result, present day tea farming and manufacturing in Kagoshima have vastly improved.
New technology allows Kagoshima’s farmers to harvest five times per year, while most other prefectures see only two or three harvests. Botanists have developed new cultivars to achieve the ideal aroma and taste that have increased demand for tea grown in the region. All of Kagoshima’s advances, combined with its remarkable growing conditions, have resulted in this prefecture climbing to the position of Japan’s second highest producer of green tea, responsible for about 25% of the annual total output of finished tea exports. The future of Japanese green tea is Kagoshima. Today’s processing facilities boast cutting edge equipment and processing methods to support the higher yield, with expert tea artisans overseeing the machinery to keep things running smoothly.
While touring the facilities where Kagoshima sencha tea is processed, we were amazed by the balance the tea industry has achieved between machinery and humanity. At each large machine that was processing the tea was an experienced technician monitoring the process. During the sorting phase, we even saw experienced staff members sorting the tea by hand and picking out the stems to achieve uniformity in leaf shape and size. This dedication to detail and artistic eye is what makes Japanese green tea so special.
As we flew home, we were surprised at how much we missed the “tea people” we met in Japan. Company employees, machinery operators, tea farmers and salespeople toured us around, drank tea with us, and connected with us. Isn’t it remarkable that a simple cup of tea can form relationships between people who live across the world? When you sip a cup of Japanese sencha, you may be drinking leaves grown in the fields shielded by Mt. Sakurajima, nurtured by soil that was fed with ash from the volcano, and watered by sweet mountain rain. The leaves were selectively harvested and processed by dozens of special people who love tea and drink it every day, carefully hand sorting to ensure that your cup of tea is the best cup possible. When you sip a cup of Japanese sencha, you are transported to the tea farms of Japan, and the land of Kagoshima in your cup
We invite you to experience a cup of Kagoshima green tea, listed on page 52.