From 7-time Minister's Award Winning, 15th generation tea farmer Masahiro Okutomi (Okutomi Tea Garden, Sayama, Saitama), a single cultivar sencha green tea that has been withered slightly for a few hours to impart a floral aroma.
This type of tea is known as ichoucha - "withered tea" - and the processing technique is borrowed from oolong tea processing. During withering (a few hours between harvest and before steaming), the leaves undergo a very slight amount enzymatic oxidization, the same process used to create oolong and black teas. Doing this adds floral notes to the leaf.
Ingredients: Green tea
Cultivar: Yume Wakaba
Harvest: Spring
Region: Sayama, Saitama
The Cultivar - Yume Wakaba
The Yume Wakaba cultivar was registered in 2006, a cross of Yabukita and an unnamed cultivar with the designation Saitama #9. The cultivar is recognized for having a strong floral aroma after withering, and a strong umami flavor making it suitable for gyokuro as well.
