Premium Matcha Narino

Premium Matcha Narino is one of very unique tea as tea bushes were shaded from sunlight more than 50 days that is quite a long periode. Thanks to this process it has a very deep and rich tea taste.
Limited edition!

Beyond the time of 600 years.

As Ashikaga Shogunate acknowledged the good quality of Uji Tea in the Muromachi Period (1338–1573), he designated seven tea gardens in Uji which were later called Uji Shichimeien (meaning “seven distinguished tea gardens of Uji”). Most of these gardens disappeared with the urbanization and now only “Okunoyama” tea garden (owned by Horii Shichimeien) remains.

This garden used to grow more than 1500 indigenous tea plants that can be considered as the roots of Uji Tea. In 1981, however, as they did a replanting of the whole garden, they selected the tea plants that are best suited for Uji Tea to be passed down to the next generation. 53 kinds were selected first and after years of testing and research on the quality (the flavor, the fragrance, and the color of tea leaves and made tea) and the strength and the yield, they were narrowed down to 2 kinds in 1994. They then had 6 years of experimentation period in cultivation until they were sure they had the finest Uji Tea they can be proud of in the future. They applied for registration in the Registry of Plant Varieties in 2000 and Uji Tea was registered in November of 2002.

20 years after the replanting in 1981, they finally came up with the 2 kinds of tea that are truly suited for tencha. One of them was named “Narino.” Narino received the Minister’s Award from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 2010. It means Narino was recognized as the number one matcha in Japan for its rich fragrance and tasty flavor without bitterness. It is Horii Shichimeien’s original, non-blended, single-breed matcha, which is truly rare in the market. Please give it a try and I’m sure you will enjoy it!

Premium Matcha Narino is a Limited Edition product for two main reasons:
Since Premium Matcha Narino is a single origin tea, there is a limited amount of Narino tea leaves harveted each year. While for blended matcha they use different kinds of tea leaves and produce the same taste all the time, single origin is limited to just the on kind of tea leaf.
Also, Horii Shichimien decides every year, whether the Narino tea harvest of that year is good enough to produce premium tea. The quality of the harvest depends on many things - like the weather or pests - and if they decide that the quality does not reach their standards Premium Matcha Narino is not available for the year.
Thankfully, the harvest of 2018 was very good and it qualified to produce Premium Matcha Narino.

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