Premium Sencha / Matcha Blend

Simply put...

A very special tea : a blend of our popular Premium Matcha from Nishi Cha & our premium Sencha Harashima from Masashi Harashima.  This is a tea that Michelle really enjoys and we hope you do too!

Below are the details of the two individual teas - we hope you enjoy drinking the tea and seeing whether you can pick out the different characteristics of the two teas and the magic that happens when they come together! 

In more depth...

Tea 1 : Premium grade matcha [Yabukita]

This tea is graded premium due to it being single cultivar [unblended], single garden, hand-picked and then stone-ground carefully to reach an average size of 9 µm

Origin and size of garden : Kirishima, in Kagoshima, 60 hectares

Tea Maker :  Organic Tencha is grown by Nishi cha en in Kagoshima in an eco-friendly way, and transformed into matcha (stone-milled) by Koga san in Yame.

Harvest Time : first harvest in May

Cultivar : Yabukita

Standard : hand picked

Processing :  the leaves are shaded 20 days before harvest. After plucking, the tencha is steamed, then the stems and veins of the leaves are removed, before shipping to the matcha manufacturer in  Yame. The leaves are stone-ground carefully to reach an average size of 9 µm, making it exceptionnally thin.

Experience : Mellow umami

Tea 2 :Sencha HARASHIMA : A single cultivar [Yabukita] sencha

Tea Maker : Mr. Masashi Harashima

Origin and size of garden : : Yame, Kyushu island, 6 hectares.

Harvest Time : First Harvest 

Cultivar : Yabukita

Standard : Open-field culture Young leaves from 1st harvest. 

Processing : 

1. [Plucking] Tea leaves are picked.

2.[Steaming] The fresh leaves are steamed and thereby the oxidase is deactivated.

3. [Primary drying] The steamed leaves are exposed to hot air while at the same time rolled and dried.

4.[Secondary drying] While exposed to warm air, the tea is rolled in order to arrange the shape of the leaves.

5.[Final rolling] The shape of the leaves are then further arranged.

6.[Tea drying] The tea leaves are then thoroughly dried, and the production of “Aracha” (crude tea) is completed.

7.[Refining] The tea then goes through a finishing process where the Aracha is sifted and cut in order to sort it according to shape and size.

8.[Packing] The tea is then finally packed into sacks or cases.

 Experience : Wonderfully sharp flavour.  Beautifully refreshing.

How to prepare [Kyusu]

Amount of tea per cup (200 ml): 2.5g 

Temperature of water: 80 C 

Infusion time: 1 - 2 minutes

Number of infusions: Up to 4*

How to enjoy: No milk, no sugar

*Possible number of times you can re-brew using the same leaves.  

This tea can be infused/brewed multiple times, just place the leaves to one side and reuse. 

More Information....

You can read more about the traditional preparation of Sencha Harashima on our blog and also by watching the video below from Kumiko's visit to Comins.  

Follow Kumiko's top tips to get the best from your tea!

Let's brew delicious tea!  Top tips from Kumiko!

• Understand the characteristics of tea
• Choose teaware suitable for the tea type.  IF you use a big teapot to brew sencha the taste will not be so good.  
• Choose the correct water.  The water is different if the country is different In japan water is soft, in the UK water is hard.  Soft water is suitable for Japanese tea.  When using mineral water please also look at the hardness of water I often use Volvic when I brew tea in Europe and can brew delicious tea.
• Boil water surely.  This is because if not skip the dissolved air in the water you can not extract the ingedients of tea well.    Boil until the bubbles and big bubbles come out, please boil thoroughly for 3-5 minutes and let it down from the fire
• Determine the amount of tea, the amount of hot water, the temperature of the hot water, the brewing time according to the tea type and number of people 
• Mawashi tsugi [pour and go around] so that the concentration of each tea cup will be the same
• Pour until the very last drop - even with black tea it is said the drop is a golden drop, pour until the very last delicious drop of Japanese tea.