MASASHI HARASHIMA
ERI HARASHIMA

In The Snowy Mountains

For three generations now, Harashima san’s family has dedicated their lives on the farms to grow and produce tea leaves of the highest quality. Harashima san is a Master in Sencha Tea Ceremony of the Kofu Sencha Reifu school, as well as a Nihoncha Instructor. ‍ He joined his family tea company in 1983.

Founded in 1950 by his grandfather, Chiyokichi, his tea business switched to organic and EU-regulations farming in 2008 under his direction. Today, in addition to growing and processing tea, he runs a beautiful tea shop overlooking the Yabe river with his wife Eri and their daughter who prepares delicious tea-based lunches and desserts for their customers. Harashima san explains:

« We employ a unique farming method using hand-picked fermented organic fertilizers (bokashi fertilizers) and adjusting each step according to the specific weather conditions of the season or the year, in order to achieve the highest standards. We hope to present a new way of life that brings tea into our daily life. Our vision is to create a new lifestyle with tea as we carry out workshops that teach the way of tea-making, as well as carry out farm visits for tourists to our mountainous village. » ‍

Harashima san’s mountainous village, blessed with a cool weather, is covered with snow in winter. Due to these conditions, the tea leaves on the mountains bud later than their counterparts on flat lands. Furthermore, there are less pests and the tea plants are able to grow without the use of chemicals, leading to the production of natural organic tea leaves.

Tasting Harashima san’s koucha was a true revelation for our team. We didn’t expect so much sweetness and flavor in what we thought was simply ‘black tea’. After only a couple of sips, we realized we had found one of our new favorite teas from Yame !

AWARDS

Years Of Hard Work Recognized At The Highest Level

Harashima san’s teas have won many awards over the past years:

Sencha:3 times winner of the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Awards

Koucha (benifuki):Fine Product Prize at Nihoncha Award, 5 stars at Japan Tea Festival's Premium Tea Contest

Koucha (Harunoka):Fine Product Prize at Nihoncha Award

THE YAME REGION

An Ideal Climate

The most renowned plantations in Fukuoka prefecture are located in Yame area. Yame City is in a vast expanse of plain in Chikushi Region (Chikushi Plain) in the south of Fukuoka Prefecture.

Chikushi Plain is blessed with an ideally wonderful climate and fertile soil conditions for agricultural production.

In particular, the area ranging from Chikugo River basin to Yabe River basin (called as Yame Region) has produced green tea for centuries.

Thanks to the area's particular soil, most of the green tea produced in this region has a full-bodied taste and a remarkable sweetness.

Morning mists and river fogs are very frequent. Curtains of fog wrap green tea plantations, properly blocking sunlight.

This helps generating more amino acids (including theanine, glutamic acid, arginine, etc.) within the tea leaves.

In addition, Yame enjoys an inland climate－high temperature during daytime and very low temperatures at night.

Finally, the region receives an annual rainfall of 1,600 mm to 2,400 mm. These features are ideal for green tea production.

LAND OF THE GYOKURO

Highest Grade In Japan

Yame Region is proud of its top production amount of gyokuro (Highest Quality). As much as 45% of all gyokuro available on Japanese market comes from Yame Region. That is the reason Yame is famous and known as one of the few production places of highest quality green tea in Japan.

Yame Gyokuro won Best Prize in the All Japan Green Tea Competition for 12 consecutive years from 2001 to 2012, as well as in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, Yame Green Tea won Best Prize in the sections of both Green Tea (Middle Grade) and Gyokuro Green Tea (Highest Grade).

In 2007, Yame Green Tea took the all the places from the 1st place to the 26th place in the Gyokuro Competition Section, showing its overwhelming excellence over green teas produced in other regions in Japan.

THE TEAS OF HARASHIYAMA SAN

Only The Best - A Selection For You

At 600 meters above sea level, the tea leaves of Hiroshima san are grown organically without chemical fertilizers and are picked at the 88th night since first spring, where tea-picking is at its peak.

Sencha, the classic green tea, has a fresh aroma and round flavor mixed with a well-balanced bitterness.
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Harashima san’s koucha is made from local black tea leaves grown in the mountains at 500 meters above sea level. His koucha has a firm taste and sweetness similar to that of Assam tea and also a characteristically Darjeeling flavor, and goes perfectly with sweets.