Harvesting Green Tea in Japan — 10 Surprising Harvesting Things You Didn’t Know
The mysterious metamorphic tea leaf. Timing in the harvesting of any plant is critical. Fruits, vegetables, grains and other crops must be taken at the right growth stage to insure quality. Timing in the harvesting of tea in Japan doesn’t just affect quality – it can actually change what product results from it, from Shincha and Spring Bancha, or early spring tea, to Gyokuro and Matcha, harvested later in the season.
The amount of exposure to sunlight also affects the end product, so farmers use Kanreisha, a kind of curtain, to block direct sunlight and provide partial shade. The type of shading used dramatically affects the properties of tea made from the leaves. Shading usually begins a month or so before harvest, and the lack of sunlight produces tea with fewer tannins, which means less bitterness, giving teas like Gyokuro and Matcha a more pleasant aroma. It also produces a sweeter taste and gives the tea its light green color. There are two types of shading: Tana, a kind of canopy, and Jikagise, which is more like a tent. Traditionally they were made of natural materials like straw and sticks, but those have been replaced by more modern equivalents.
The tea tradition in Japan is ancient and ubiquitous, starting almost a thousand years ago. Every facet, from tending and harvesting the trees and leaves to processing the leaves after harvesting, to storage and shipment, brewing and sipping, is important to the proper enjoyment of the liquid tea. Even the teapots and cups themselves are significant, with different types of pots used for different types of tea. Large and detailed books have been written about the process, and the Japanese tea ceremony. We’ll let you peruse those at your leisure, and will instead in this article concentrate on a few interesting tidbits you may not know about the harvesting process and how it affects the end result.
- The earlier the better. Ichibancha, (the first tea) is the tea derived from the first harvest. Depending on the region, this happens in April through June. It’s generally agreed that picking this early provides the best tea, and the fullest body. The trees hibernate during the winter, collecting and storing nutrients. The leaves also grow more slowly than leaves from the later, warmer harvests, and contain significantly more L-theanine (the source of sweetness in tea) than leaves picked later in the harvest.
- Not too big, not too little. The best time to pick the leaves is when there are from three to five sprouts and the leaves are exactly the right size. Harvesting too early means lesser yield; harvesting too late affects the resulting tea’s quality. Timing of the harvest is crucial, since it takes only a few days for a bud to appear, open up, and grow into a large leaf.
- What to wear. The traditional tea picker’s garment is light enough to be comfortable, yet full enough to withstand the heat of the sun. It’s called a Chamusume, or Tea Daughter.
- Four harvests, four teas. There are four harvest seasons in Japan. Ichibancha (first tea}, Nibancha (second tea), Sanbancha (third tea), and Yonbancha (fourth tea). Each period produces a different type of tea. Ichibancha, because it is gathered in the spring when the land is most fertile, has the best flavor. Immediately after this first harvest, the trees are pruned, either deeply – giving them a chance to rest – or lightly, in preparation for Nibancha, the second harvest. Teas from this second harvest are less smooth, with a stronger aroma and taste that those from the first harvest. This process continues throughout the growing season until the last harvest, when trees are pruned to prepare for next year’s crop.
- Reacting to climate change. Tea growers are already beginning to react to the effects of climate change by choosing higher elevations for their tea estates.
- By hand or by machine: which is better? Tea trees are grown differently, depending on the picking method. When picked by machine, fresh sprouts grow out of the stubble left by the process. When hand picked, sprouts grow from existing forks, giving a much mellower flavor and a more delicate scent.
- How much tea can a tea picker pick? An experienced, skilled harvester can pick only about 6-8 kilograms, or 13-17 pounds of leaves per day. Since the period from their appearance until the time the sprouts grow too large to harvest is only a few days, it’s a very labor intensive process.
- Only one place in the world. The highest grade teas — Gyokuro, Sencha, and Matcha – are very precious because they are hand picked and grown in small amounts in only place in the world — a small area of land in Uji, Japan.
- Aracha: Final stage of the harvest. In a process created by Sohen Nagatani in 1738, the just harvested tea leaves are steamed, kneaded, shaped, and dried by the farmer on the same day they are harvested. After processing, the tea leaves, or “Aracha” are about one-fifth the weight of unprocessed leaves, with a moisture content of only 5 percent, as opposed to 80 percent in fresh leaves.
- Where it all started. Eisai, a Buddhist monk, began the tea tradition in Japan in 1191, bringing green tea seeds back from a trip to China and writing a book titled “Drinking Green Tea for Health.” He also used green tea to cure the illness of a notable Shogun. Soon farmers began growing tea leaves in Uji in Kyoto – the birthplace of Japan’s green tea industry.
Many from one: the amazing Camellia Sinensis tree. Part of the evergreen family, this shrub-like tree has glossy green leaves with serrated edges and small white flowers with yellow stamens. Depending on the location in which it’s grown, the amount of rainfall and sunlight, the time of the year when it is harvested, the way in which it is harvested, and the way it is processed afterward, this one plant can produce hundreds of different types of tea. No other plant, like the coffee bean or the grape, is as versatile as the mysterious metamorphic tea leaf.
