Handpicking allows harvesters to carefully select only the youngest, most tender leaves and buds, one by one. Older leaves are left behind to allow the tea plants to recover after the harvest.

This gives greater control over the quality of the spring leaves selected for tencha, as opposed to machine harvesting, which cannot differentiate the young from old leaves.

Stone-milled slowly in small quantities, tencha is ground into matcha at a pace of just 30g per hour. This deliberate, slow pace minimises heat, preserving the delicate flavours, aroma and vibrant green colour of our matcha.

In contrast, modern bead mills can process matcha more quickly, increasing the friction heat and reducing the quality of matcha.

Before the harvest, our tea plants are traditionally shaded beneath tana, a raised shading structure that allows the plants to grow freely beneath the canopy.

Rather than placing netting directly over the bushes, tana creates space above the plants while gradually reducing sunlight in the weeks leading up to harvest. This encourages the development of L-theanine and Chlorophyll, contributing to the deep green colour, natural sweetness and rich umami prized in high quality matcha.

It is a more considered and labour intensive approach to shading, but a traditional method our heritage farms continue to preserve.

Picked just once each spring, our first harvest tencha creates a sweeter matcha with rich umami and low astringency, while allowing the tea plants a full year to recover naturally until the next spring harvest.

Our heritage farms prioritise harvesting the highest quality tencha once a year rather than having multiple harvests.