Okutomi’s Temomicha 2023

Temomicha means hand rolled tea. The leaves were hand picked in spring time, lightly steamed and then rolled by hand for almost 7 consecutive hours - this laborious process is done by machine for the vast, vast majority of steamed Japanese teas. The rolling process is done on a table covered in washi (Japanese paper), with charcoal underneath to heat the table, though sometimes an electric heater is used instead of charcoal. The final tea is incredibly needle like in appearance and when steeped over multiple infusions, you can watch the leaves gradually unfurl in a reversal of the rolling process. This is how all steamed tea was processed in the distant past, but now it is, understandably, one of the rarest forms of tea production. Tea farmers using machines to roll their tea can produce substantially higher volumes of tea from each harvest. Thanks to a small amount of tea producers, through their hard work and dedication to preserve this technique, we can share a rare experience of brewing and drinking temomicha. There are regional and national temomicha competitions held annually, which are separate from the annual chahinpyoukai that you would have heard us talk about in the past, of which temomicha is not a category. In terms of the winning bids for the highest ranking temomicha, the price paid per gram is much higher than even the highest ranking gyokuro or tencha!

This tea is a single cultivar Yabukita, grown and produced by Okutomi-san, based in Sayama city, in Saitama prefecture. It was hand picked on the 19th and 21st April 2023 and with the total harvest resulting in 300g of finished tea, it is incredibly rare - each 3g pack represents 1% of the entire harvest! Submitted to the 31st National Temomicha competition 2023, this tea was one of the listed winners. In fact, it was Okutomi-san’s highest score to date, at 193/200, placing 10th out of 114 submissions from 15 prefectures. The score breakdown is as follows:

Leaf shape: 50 out of 50
Leaf colour: 30 out of 30
Smell: 38 out of 40
Liquid colour: 38 out of 40
Taste: 37 out of 40
Total: 193 out of 200

The entire 2023 production of this tea was 300g, and each individual pack is 3g, meaning each pack is 1% of the year’s harvest! We are so proud and honoured to have been able to reserve 15 packs to share with our guests. Thank you Okutomi-san!

Below is the recommended brewing guide:

Hot brewing guide:
Temomicha 3 grams
Water 30ml
First infusion 60°C for 90sec
Second infusion 70°C for 60sec
Third infusion 85°C for 20sec
(Fourth infusion 85°C for 20sec) - mainly for preparing the leaves to eat as they may be too firm otherwise. The more infusions the softer the leaves, but each infusion also takes flavour out of the leaves.

High quality tea leaves like these can be consumed after the final infusion. We usually serve tea leaves with yuzu ponzu, but sea salt, rice, or all of the aforementioned together can be a great way to fully savour this tea.

Storage:
Store in a cold environment (6-10°C). Keeping the tea away from light, air, humidity and strong smells is good practice but as each 3g pack is one serving, the main factor to consider for storage is temperature.