Nissaka Deep Steamed Sencha

Originally, Deep Steamed Sencha was developed in order to savor low quality crops that was grown at lower altitude tea gardens or plucked later in the season. These tea leaves always give a bitter and astringent taste. The longer steaming process causes more destruction to the tea leaf and oxidation of poly phenol will take place. As a result, longer steaming process makes tea taste less bitter and less astringent, yet with much thicker taste.

Compared to ordinary Sencha, Deep Steamed Sencha has a deeper vibrant green color, and it gives a thicker taste with fuller body. However, Hojo particularly selects the Deep Steamed Sencha from Nissaka that is located on the slope of mountain situated in Kikugawa. We deliberately select the material that is plucked earliest in the spring. The tea leaf is tender and soft, and moreover that particular tea garden is situated on the slope of mountain. Unlike ordinary commercial grade deep steamed sencha, the tea leaf we selected for our Deep Steamed Sencha is originally not bitter and not astringent at all. Such same quality tea leaf is also used in making Asamushi Sencha. Since our material is of superior quality, we did not have to conduct steaming process for too long, although the steaming time is still longer than normal sencha.

Nissaka Deep Steamed Sencha is produced from Yabukita cultivar. Starting from the end of April until the beginning of May, the first flush is plucked based on the criteria of one bud and two leaves. Hojo selects the first flush, in particularly the earliest batch. The reason is that soon after this period, the raining season begins and tea plants grow very fast and this will cause the taste of tea becomes thinner.

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