Our Organic Matcha Super Premium is certified organic by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan, and is grown with only natural organic fertilizers and no agricultural chemicals or pesticides.
This is hand-picked Organic Matcha and the highest quality Organic Matcha in Japan. For many years in Japan, it was considered impossible to grow hand-picked Organic Matcha.
Japanese labor cost is relatively very high in the world. So, the labor cost for hand-picking tea in Japan has a higher proportion of price of high quality hand-picked Japanese tea, contrary to hand-picked tea grown in developing countries. So, only the highest quality tea leaves, to which the farmers have devoted much time and effort, can be hand-picked in Japan. It was believed to be impossible to grow well managed tea leaves entitled to be hand-picked without chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Our Organic Matcha Super Premium is grown by our cooperative farmer father and son team, which has a unique background. For many decades the father had been growing the highest quality conventional Matcha including Competition Grade teas. He started trying to grow high quality Organic Matcha entitled to be hand-picked in parallel. It is quite rare in Japan because to successfully grow Competition Grade tea, a farmer must devote much time and effort to the process, and growing organic tea is also a time-consuming process, thus a farmer would never try to grow both Organic and Competition Grade teas in parallel. Through his work growing Competition Grade teas, however, this farmer was fortunately able to accumulate techniques and knowledge on growing the highest grade Organic Matcha entitled to be hand-picked. During this time, his son was working as a researcher at a chemical manufacturer. The son then started to work at his father's organic tea farm, and further advanced the techniques and knowledge for the highest quality hand-picked Organic Matcha.
Generally, it is said that high grade and quality Matcha needs much fertilizer, however organic fertilizer works slowly. In contrast chemical fertilizer works quickly and efficiently in about one month and organic fertilizer works slowly for 3 to 9 months. Besides, destructive insects and plant diseases usually show a marked preference for well-fed tea leaves like those for hand-picked tea. So, the well-fed tea leaves can easily be damaged without pesticides. Our cooperative farmer father and son team overcame this problem by developing their own organic yet effective pesticides and fertilizers.
If you are an ardent lover of organic teas, we are certain that you will be delighted with the deep mellow taste, elegant aroma, and bright color of the highest quality Organic Matcha in Japan.