Kamairicha and Kourogi san Background Information:
Kamairicha is pan fried tea, that is not steamed at all unlike most Japanese tea. Even houjicha, roasted tea, is usually roasted from a steamed tea. Pan frying and steaming are two methods used to halt oxidisation/wilting of the tea leaves after harvest, as the high temperatures stop enzymes from breaking down the leaves. Kamairicha is not a tea that is known for umami flavour, and that is because of the processing technique of pan frying rather than steaming. Instead, you can expect fresh and floral flavours depending on the cultivar, and to extract the flavours well temperatures of 90-100 degrees are often used. The higher temperature can bring out some pleasant astringency, while using lower temperatures of 70-80 degrees taste somewhat empty in comparison. Kourogi san himself uses water just off the boil (he uses the sound of the water to know when its ready, not a thermometer!).

Kyushu is a region famous for kamairicha production, especially Miyazaki prefecture where Kourogi san is based. He is an incredibly well respected tea farmer and producer who has specialised in organic growing for over 20 years, and is a household name associated with pan fried tea for those in the industry! Before training people to use machinery to pan fry tea, he always teaches them to do it by hand first, to fully understand the process. Kourogi san is also is contracted to grow tea in Hokkaido - the most northern part of Japan - which must be very difficult due to the cold climate!

This single cultivar, takachiho, is a native cultivar to Miyazaki prefecture and has received a lot of attention in recent years. Expect a gentle with crisp astringency along with a slightly glassy aroma. Its profile is known to be very close to Taiwanese oolongcha.

We find the ichou (wilting) process to produce similar flavour profiles as those by Okutomi san in Sayama, which is not particularly surprising due to the similarity in processing method, but relatively interesting due to the massive distance between Miyazaki and Saitama, along with the terroirs being vastly different. Miyazaki is extremely mountainous and Kourogi san’s farm is at around 600m altitude and 32.5 degrees latitude, with dense low level fog in the daytime. Okutomi san’s farm is on the flatlands of Sayama at around 50-100m altitude in a more urban environment at around 36 degrees latitude. It makes sense that the cultivars chosen by Kourogi san are mainly ones with strong cold resistance, since his farm is at high altitude.