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Honyama Tea: Shizuoka's Oldest Tea Valley, Named in 1917

Honyama Tea: Shizuoka's Oldest Tea Valley, Named in 1917

Honyama tea comes from the Abe and Warashina valleys running through Shizuoka City, the oldest tea district in Shizuoka, named by one farmer in Taisho 6, 1917.

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Tenryu Tea: Shizuoka's Wildest Mountain Region

Tenryu Tea: Shizuoka's Wildest Mountain Region

Tenryu tea is light-steamed sencha from Tenryu Ward, Hamamatsu: 91 percent forest, one of Japan's latest harvests, and tea gardens going back to the trees.

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Kawane Tea: Shizuoka's Mountain Sencha Region

Kawane Tea: Shizuoka's Mountain Sencha Region

Kawane tea grows on the Oi River's steep banks in Shizuoka. By local record, Kawanehon-cho's 5,341 people took Japanese tea's first Emperor's Cup in 1964.

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Asahina Gyokuro: Shizuoka's Hidden Tea Valley

Asahina Gyokuro: Shizuoka's Hidden Tea Valley

Asahina gyokuro comes from a small valley in Okabe, Fujieda. Shizuoka made just 12 t of gyokuro in 2008, the last year MAFF reported the crop separately.

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Ise-Cha: Inside Mie, Japan's Third-Largest Tea Region

Ise-Cha: Inside Mie, Japan's Third-Largest Tea Region

Mie is Japan's third-largest tea region and its top kabuse-cha producer. A buyer's guide to Ise-cha, the Hokusei and Chunansei areas, and how it tastes.

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Nishio Matcha: Japan's Most Matcha-Focused Region

Nishio Matcha: Japan's Most Matcha-Focused Region

Nishio, Aichi grows 334 tonnes of tencha a year, about 5% of Japan's total. It isn't the country's biggest matcha region. It is by far the most concentrated.

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Sayama Tea: Japan's Northernmost Major Tea Region

Sayama Tea: Japan's Northernmost Major Tea Region

Sayama tea comes from Iruma, Tokorozawa and Sayama, Saitama. Two harvests a year instead of four, 11 cold-bred cultivars, and a 90-minute finishing fire.

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Koju: The Unregistered Tea Cultivar That Smells of Grapes

Koju: The Unregistered Tea Cultivar That Smells of Grapes

Koju is an unregistered Japanese tea cultivar found growing wild in a field corner in Honyama, Shizuoka. One farm makes it: withered, pan-fired, semi-fermented.

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Yamatomidori: Nara's Only Cultivar and the Meiryoku Mistake

Yamatomidori: Nara's Only Cultivar and the Meiryoku Mistake

Yamatomidori is Nara's only bred tea cultivar, registered 1953. It is not a parent of Meiryoku: the register says Yabukita x Z1. Here is what it really made.

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