Okutomi’s Winter Temomicha 2023

Temomicha means hand rolled tea. The leaves were hand picked in spring time, lightly steamed and then aged (jukusei) at low temperatures for a number of months, which rounds out the flavour profile of the tea and achieves a deeper taste with less harshness. In early 2024, the tea was 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 for temomicha 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 at the chahinpyoukai!

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 5th April 2023, being hand rolled on the 28th December 2023 after the long jukusei aging period. Thank you Okutomi-san for all your hard work!

Below is the recommended brewing guide:

Hot brewing guide:
Temomicha 5 grams
Water 60ml
First infusion 60°C for 90sec
Second infusion 70°C for 60sec
Third infusion 85°C for 20sec

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.