Yame Tea Series1

Tea approved by Robuchon, Yame Traditional Gyokuro

Yame will celebrate its 600th anniversary as a tea-producing region in 2023. This anniversary project seems to be considered to be led by people concerned with the tea of Yame city right now. It was Fukuoka in the doorway of the tea transmitted from China nearly 800 years ago. It is related to a climate that West Japan plays a key role from Yame (Fukuoka), Chiran (Kagoshima), Uji (Kyoto) to Shizuoka as the famous production center of the Japanese green tea.

It was about half a century ago when Japanese green tea began to circulate all over Japan. But the ratio of Yame tea accounts for only 2.2% of the market.

It may be natural that Yame tea became aiming for high quality-oriented blanding with an absolute few supply quantities. The Gyokuro tea of Yame was registered as one of the first articles for sales in the Geographical Indication (GI) protection system by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 2015. Yame Dentou Hon Gyokuro（八女伝統本玉露）tea was awarded the production prize at the national competitive tea exhibition for consecutive 20 years as well as the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Prize many times and it is recognized as the number one tea in Japan. Then Yame tea got the attention of Joel Robuchon who was a world-famous chef. He was not a great fan of Japanese green tea but he started handling it after he came across “Shizuku Tea” and “Out Ice Tea” of the Yame Dentou Hon Gyokuro. Unfortunately. Mr. Joel Robuchon passed away but his son, Louis Robuchon, visited Yame city last year and he released Yame Dentou Hon Gyokuro in "La Selection De Joel Robuchon" in November, 2021.

Memo:

The origin of tea is in China around 2700 BC and in Japan, it is said that the Japanese monk who studied in China brought back tea seeds from Tang during the Nara and Heian periods. Tea cultivation in Japan was carried out by Eisai Zenji monk who was the founder of the Rinzai sect completing his training in Song. He brought back tea seeds to grow tea as a medicinal herb along with many scriptures. It is said that he started cultivating tea in the garden of Reisanji temple about 800 years ago, which is the current location of Higashisefuri village, Saga prefecture.

#Japanesetradition #greentea #Yame #Robuchon