Tasting profile
Primary tasting notes
- Steamed SpinachThat classic Shincha flavor profile of sumptuous veggies.
- OrchidDelicate florals keep the tea from ever getting overly soupy.
- ButterNot as a heaviness, but as a soft, round sort of sensation in the mouth, smoothing out the tea.
About Yakushima Island Tea
Yakushima sits about 60 kilometers south of Kyushu, far enough into the Pacific to exist in its own climate entirely. The island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized for its ancient cedar forests — some of the trees are over a thousand years old — and for an ecosystem shaped by extraordinary rainfall. The mountains at the island's center receive more than 4,000 millimeters of rain annually, making Yakushima one of the wettest places in Japan. Mist moves through the forests most of the year, and the air carries a constant humidity that softens everything — light, temperature, and the slow rhythm of life on the island. It is a place defined by abundance and age, where the natural world has been left largely to its own pace.
The same conditions that shaped Yakushima's ancient forests also make it an exceptional place to grow tea. The high rainfall keeps the soil consistently moist and well-mineralized, while the island's elevation and persistent cloud cover slow photosynthesis — which causes the tea plant to accumulate theanine rather than converting it to catechins. The result is a leaf with naturally high sweetness and a softer, rounder character than teas grown in more exposed, sunlit conditions. The cool temperatures at elevation also slow bud development, compressing the harvest window and concentrating flavor in each leaf.
About Yutaka Midori
Yutaka Midori — literally "abundant green" — is a cultivar developed in Kagoshima Prefecture, the southernmost region of Kyushu, and it has become one of the most prized varieties grown in southern Japan. It is known for producing leaves with an unusually vivid green color, a quality that carries through from the dry leaf into the brewed cup. Flavor-wise, Yutaka Midori tends toward sweetness and umami with a clean, light body — characteristics that make it particularly well-suited to shincha, where freshness and delicacy are the point. The cultivar buds early and yields generously, but what it's valued for is quality rather than volume: a leaf that is consistently expressive, with a clarity of flavor that stands on its own without any intervention in processing.
