Wazuka in Uji is the most prestigious site of sencha production in Kyoto. Okumidori premium green tea is carefully grown to produce a brew with a distinctive fresh aroma and refined, gentle sweetness, free of harsh edges.

This quality is especially evident in the crisp aftertaste. With a very clean flavor, the tea pairs well with food, making it suitable for a wide range of uses, including served with tea cakes or sweets, as hot tea go with a meal, or as a cold drink served over ice. Enjoy the taste of refined green tea from Kyoto, with a rich umami and restrained astringent and bitter notes.

The Wazuka River runs through the center of Wazuka, and a hilly area spreads out around the town at an elevation ranging between 200 and 400 meters. Everywhere you look, green tea estates stretch out from the foot of the hills to their peaks. Their orderly appearance makes it readily clear that skilled production methods are alive and well here. Among the tea-producing sites in the region, Wazuka is well-known for its regular pruning regimen throughout the year, which aids the harvest and keeps crops in peak condition

Uji is the oldest tea-producing region in Japan; most major production techniques developed here first. In particular, the development of unparalleled methods for steamed tea production here helped Japanese green teas – sencha, gyokuro, matcha, and other varieties – yield their unique flavors. Ishitera is the site in Wazuka most famous for their green tea production.

This excellent varietal is obtained by crossing the yabukita varietal with Shizuoka native strain no. 16, a variety of green tea plant carefully designated from within Shizuoka’s range of native tea varieties. It offers a bold, bright color and mildly sweet flavor, with little bitterness and astringency and no strong aftertaste. These features make it a high-grade sencha tea, but it is also used widely for matcha, gyokuro, and other preparations.(Many farmers count on the cultivar as the Yabukita second.)

The high grade of green teas produced in Wazuka comes from the corresponding high level of skill with which the tea is cultivated through all steps of the process, from planting to processing. This begins with careful management of the plants’ growth, shade-growing before the harvest, gentle pruning of the leaves with fine scissors, and the final drying process. For that final step, several drying vessels are used and the leaves are dried with the bare minimum of heat, thereby retaining their fresh aroma and flavor.