Usually in Japan, organic green tea is considered a little bitter than normal Japanese green tea. However, our organic green tea has a natural tea sweetness and a vegetative flavor that may taste even better than those normal Japanese green tea. That difference comes from simply the quality difference of the tea leaf, and the difference of tea leaf comes from the difference of the tea farms and farmers.Today I would like to give a simple introduction about our farmer, Mr. Taruwaki, that makes our teas difference from others.He is now over 60 years old and have been making teas for over 40 years. He has started organic plantation around 25 years ago and took him 5 years to make the very first small batch of organic green tea. It took another 5 years to go completely organic on this plantation.
Mr. Taruwaki’s tea farm is located in the remote Kawane region of Shizuoka Prefecture, which takes over 4-5 hours of driving from Tokyo. Due to its high elevation(2,000 feet), you will need to drive up the zig zag mountain roads to get to this place. This region is committed to pesticide-free plantation and not only teas but also other plantations such as vegetables are pesticide-free too.
Mr. Taruwaki’s farm is pesticide-free and does not even use organic pesticides. He had gone through many trial and errors with organic pesticides but came to a conclusion that it is the best not to use any pesticides at all. The key was to build a habitat on the farm in which not only pests can live but also insects that feed on the pests can thrive. Easy to say but it took him many many years to get reach to this conclusion and build this habitat!! He makes his own organic fertilizer from scratch with rice bran, fish scrap, kelp, crab shells, and chicken feces. Also for water, Mr. Taruwaki brings spring water all the way from a nearby mountain due to its rich minerals.
