A Champion of Organic Tea in Japan
In a densely packed country where every acre of arable land counts, organic agriculture isn't that common for Japanese tea growers. Tea bushes on Japanese farms are usually planted in dense rows to aid mechanical harvesting. These monocultures often rely on pesticides to keep the tea plants healthy, and the unique sweet-and-umami flavor of Japanese tea depends on intensive fertilizers with heavy doses of nitrogen.
The environmental benefits of organically grown tea are clear. Chemical fertilizers reduce soil fertility over time, as well as lead to erosion and harmful algae blooms in local waterways. While pesticide use is heavily regulated in Japan to protect consumer and worker health, the system isn't flawless, and over-reliance on pesticides can reduce tea plants' resilience while thinning out the ecosystem's biodiversity.
For these reasons and more, Yoshiharu Matsushita, the maker of our Genmaicha and Sencha Fukamushi, has been leading the charge of organic tea farming in Japan for more than half a century.
When Matsushita-san joined his family's tea farm 50 years ago, "using many pesticides and chemical fertilizers was common," he says. "I hated it. As I explored methods to avoid using pesticides, I first reduced the amount of pesticides used, then increased the number of natural predators for those pests, and finally moved to pesticide-free cultivation." His western Shizuoka farm has been pesticide-free for more than 30 years. There he makes organic matcha, gyokuro, sencha, genmaicha and black tea.
We were drawn to Matsushita-san's tea years ago both for its elegance and depth of flavor. In the past, organically grown Japanese tea usually came at the cost of bitter notes and a thin texture. Finding feasible workarounds to precisely calibrated chemical fertilizers takes greater effort, which Matsushita-san treats as an enjoyable puzzle rather than a chore. "In nature, there are times when things grow well and times when they don't," he remarks. "I think there's only a little that humans can do. The fun lies in observing both the similarities and differences, making predictions and then providing treatment. It's not always easy."
Instead of chemically derived fertilizers, Matsushita-san uses a mix of animal byproducts and plants to improve the health of his soil. Ground fish meal provides nitrogen and amino acids that are key to Japanese tea's rich flavor. He also composts mountain grasses to add a range of nutrients. While chemical fertilizers give plants components like nitrogen and potassium directly, those nutrients quickly wash away. Matsushita-san's organic fertilizers are slowly broken down by soil microbes and fungi. The digested remains from those microbes are what actually provide nutrients to the plants. The result is a richer ecosystem above and below the ground, which helps tea plants grow even when the land isn't being actively fertilized.
Matsushita-san's Sencha Fukamushi has a soft, round and sweet character with a luminous green liquor. The deep steaming of the fukamushi style makes for a tea that thrives with multiple brewing styles and water temperatures. While we recommend steeping with water between 170° and 185°F, even water just off the boil yields a refreshing green tea with minimal bitterness. A similar grade of sencha forms the base of his Genmaicha, which is filled out with roasted rice. Most genmaicha is made with a lower grade of green tea called bancha; using sencha in this version contributes a bright grassy note to the toasty, comforting grain.
Like many tea farmers in Japan, Matsushita-san has been reckoning with declining domestic demand for looseleaf tea. He estimates that there are 80% fewer tea farmers in Shizuoka now than 20 years ago. "Some people retire, but the main reason is that young people quit because they can't make a living from tea production." In recent years he's shifted more of his farming and processing to matcha, which has seen a growth of interest both within and outside of Japan. He's also made major investments in developing a line of sparkling tea drinks that are sold within the country.
Using techniques derived from sake brewing and perfume-making, Matsushita-san has created lightly alcoholic and non-alcoholic spins on sencha, black tea and matcha. The effervescent drinks are packaged in wine bottles designed to offer a sophisticated alternative to wine, beer or sake. He hopes these new formats can offer drinkers a different entryway into Japanese tea, capturing customers that are less interested in traditional hot-brewed pots of sencha and gyokuro. "We aim to create delicious tea and develop new types of tea that can be enjoyed in new ways," he says.
Despite his decades of work in the tea business, Matsushita-san isn't slowing down. "I've planted 300,000 tea seedlings over 50 years, and I plan to plant another 20,000 this year." We hope we're as active and industrious when we reach his age. Drinking his tea probably helps.