Okumidori Kabusecha (Shaded Sencha) | Single Batch Tea Lalani & Co London

Okumidori Kabusecha (Shaded Sencha) | Single Batch Tea

Exquisite single-varietal Japanese green tea from Kagoshima, with excellent umami.

This batch was grown on the Henta family’s garden in Kagoshima, in the south of Japan. Henta-san has a craft approach to tea, ideal for making individual, high quality teas on their organic garden. This tea is a Kabusecha which ranks above sencha in Japanese teas. Kabusecha is only grown in the spring season, under the shade. Shading the tea plants increases the umami in the tea, giving kabusecha its characteristic Japanese umami.

This kabusecha was picked on the 8th May after 14 days of shading. It’s a single varietal tea, picked from Okumidori varietal tea plants. They chose to keep the processing very light for this batch, giving it beautiful, long, glossy green needles. The steaming (which keeps the tea green) was a quick 30s for flavour clarity.