Mr Sakamoto's Gyokuro [Okumidori]

Mr Sakamoto: ‘Our family has 80 years of history in tea, as our grandfather used to grow tea to sell to customers in the local town [....] When we took over we decided to reduce the size to concentrate on making high-quality tea [...] The land is better for sweeter teas [...] We continue to work in tea because we want to drink better tea and make healthy tea [...] We use machines to pick our tea and make only gyokuro, but also gyokuro powdered tea and gyokuro matcha [...]

‘Our tea is organic. We make our own bokashi fertilizer on the farm from sesame fibre, rapeseed oil cake, mineral from rocks, silica and a mixture of fermented fish stock and black vinegar [...] We pick only once a year, as more picking will take too much from the plants. After picking we prune the bushes by around 30 centimetres, and these cuttings are left on the ground as compost to feed the good bacteria and promote the soil' [...]

Rob : When you drink Mr Sakamoto’s tea you taste all of the above. That umami flavour is magnified, so it rolls around your mouth, zapping your jaw and continues to change in the aftertaste for a long time. Every decision he takes is to create that moment for his drinkers......

Want to learn more?  Theres so much more to this story but you will have to come and see us, taste Mr Sakamoto's tea or read the book Tales of the tea trade to get further inspired by Mr Sakamoto.