It will be a great chance to try our best Uji Tea available. I believe you will be delighted with its taste and aroma. For the Tea Sets, these are worth having one at your home. Best to extract Uji Tea at your home, but also best for gifts to your important person.

In 1911, the Sung dynasties, Eisai who was a master of Zen brought back tea seeds to Japanese from China and taught Japanese people about matcha tea ceremony technique. In1207, saint Myoue in Madarao kozanji temple, Kyoto sowed the seeds inherited from Eisai in the field of Uji, which was that the origin of Uji tea. In Muromachi period, the Ashikaga shogunate encouraged the people to grow Uji tea, which spread the brand name and how wonderful Uji tea is.

Uji tea is the Japanese traditional tea that produced in the south of Kyoto. And also Uji tea is defined as that 100 percent of tea leaves are produced in Kyoto. Additionally, the following tea also can be called Uji tea. It is that over 50 percent of the tea leaves is produced in Kyoto and blended with the tea leaves produced in Shiga, Nara, and Mie of Kansai region.

Shizuoka tea from Shizuoka in Kanto region and Yame tea from Fukuoka in Kyushu region also taste good, but the teas mixing with tea leaves from other areas can not be called “Uji tea”. Are you wondering why I mention about it? The Uji tea brand is really high-impact even though that tea is produced in small quantities. Therefore, fake brand-name products targeted at foreigners have increased. There are some bad people who disguise the tea from different area as Uji tea because the people who are good on geography of Japan are very few in other countries.

Since I was born in Uji, I consider I have to fight against the sad fact. “Matsusaka Suishoudo” which provides us at Akiba Mart with the Uji tea is the real Uji tea commission agent.  We are proudly introducing the real Uji tea to customer in the world through Akiba Mart.
Honestly, the price is far from cheap…. however, it is the real Uji tea I would like you to drink!!!  Please try it at Akiba Mart!!!

Genuine Uji Matcha Tea
Genuine Uji Gyokuro Tea
Genuine Uji Sencha Tea

The following picture is major production areas of Japanese tea for reference.

Major Japanese Tea Production Areas

The first season is from early-April to late-May.The tea harvested this season is called Ichiban-Cha or Shincha(first picked tea) and tastes even better than other harvest seasons.Because it contains a lot of nourishment saved from autumn(last harvest season) to spring in tea plant. Ichiban-Cha is rich in taste and flavor.

The second harvest season is from mid-June to late-July and the third harvest season is from early-August to early September.The tea quality is getting worse as fall approaches.Sweetness and taste decreases , and bitterness and astringency increase.

In Uji, tea is picked only two times a year.Uji tea made of only first picked tea and second picked tea.So the annual harvest of tea in Uji(Kyoto) is only 3% of Japan’s total harvest but Uji tea has a lot of confidence in the taste.

Table.The annual harvest of Japanese tea by prefecture of Japan in 2008