The mornings and evenings are now getting cool here in Ujitawara, Kyoto. Curious to say, the first hints of autumn coolness indeed make the flavor and warmth of hot tea even more inviting and desirable.

Following last year, this year the lingering summer heat is the most severe in the past 5 years. For example, even the morning and evening temperatures are still a little higher than average this year. We have received plenty of rainfall in September, though the rainfall amount from July to August was much less than usual. Thanks to the rainfall, the condition of the tea trees is recovering from HAYAKE leaf scald damage or poor bud growth at our tea farms. We farmers hope a heavy crop of tea next spring.

Summer flowers have finished blooming and autumn flowers are beginning to appear. The seven autumn wild flowers, loved by tea masters for generations, are blooming. Autumn fruit trees such as persimmon are starting to produce green fruits that will soon ripen to a beautiful orange color, a symbol of autumn.
Major insects at our tea farms have been changing too. Summer insects such as spider, ladybird, mantis, and so on, decreased sharply in number, while autumn insects such as red dragonfly and brown locust have made their appearance.

In Ujitawara, Kyoto, the low temperatures have been around 63F or 70F (17C or 21C) with high temperatures of 82F or 88F (28C or 31C) this past week. Though this year's lingering summer heat has been intense, recent cool mornings and nights suddenly make us feel a desire for Kuradashi tea..

Kuradashi teas, which have been enriched in wooden boxes in the granary for 1.5 years, since last May, are almost ready. Kuradashi teas have a deepened mellow and sweet taste and enhanced subtle noble aroma. We will begin to offer these limited edition teas within the next 10 days. Please wait and see! (We are now accepting pre-orders for Kuradashi Gyokuro and Kuradashi Sencha.)

We are planning to sell three limited edition Kuradashi Gyokuro, one Kuradashi Sencha, and three Kuradashi Matcha only available mid-autumn. Please wait and see!