Special features in location, cultivation & processing
The region surrounding Mount Ishizuchi in Ehime is among the most spiritually charged landscapes in Japan. As the highest peak in western Japan and one of the country’s “Seven Sacred Mountains”, for centuries it has been a destination for pilgrims, monks and practitioners of ascetic mountain rituals. In this remote setting, shaped by dense, untouched nature, a distinct and deeply local tea culture has evolved, far removed from the major centres such as Uji or Shizuoka.
Cultivation follows a deliberately restrained rhythm: harvesting takes place only once a year, between early June and mid-August. The leaves are not machine-picked, but carefully cut by hand using garden shears – often as entire branches, just as has been practised for generations. The cultivar used is Yabukita, grown at elevations of around 200 to 300 metres, where warm days and cooler nights encourage slow maturation and a robust leaf structure.
The uniqueness of Kurocha particularly lies in its processing. After harvesting, the leaves are first steamed together with the branches – often for over an hour – before being separated from the stems and stored in wooden vessels. There, the first stage of fermentation begins: an aerobic maturation driven by natural microorganisms, which forms the tea’s foundational aromatic profile. In the next step, the leaves are broken up (traditionally on washboards) to deliberately damage the cell structure. This enables the second fermentation: a weeks-long anaerobic phase in the absence of air, during which lactic acid bacteria develop and impart the tea’s characteristic, lively acidity. The process concludes with sun-drying, which stabilises the tea and gently rounds out its flavours.
Single Origin
This tea comes exclusively from the above-mentioned tea fields in Ehime, sourced directly from the farmer.
