Aug 2025 Tea Subscription

In Fukuoka, the most famous and largest tea producing region is in Yame City (八女市) in the Chikugo (筑後) area of Fukuoka prefecture in northern Kyushu. As the tea capital of Kyushu, Yame is the 6th largest tea producing region in Japan and is home to around 1,500 growers. The tea field have been nurtured by Yabu River which has flooded repeated throughout history and brought nutrients to the tea region. Further, its daily temperature has a high diurnal range with high day temperatures and cold night temperatures. Fogs and mists form naturally when sun falls, blanketing the tea plants till early morning. The cool moist air prolongs the budding of the tea plant at night and reduces direct sunlight during the day, brewing up the characteristic intense umami and sweetness in Yame tea. For the most part of Yame's history, the tea seeds mainly in circulation were those of "Sencha". About 1904, Gyokuro production began in earnest in Hoshino village (星野村) in Yame city, and spread to the semi-mountainous areas thereafter. Yame traditional gyokuro 'Yame dentou hon gyokuro' (八女伝統本玉露) has the honour of being the first tea in Japan registered under the national Geographical Indication Protection System in 2015, covering Fukuoka city, Kurume city and Yame city. It is a taste born from 500 years of history, and Yame hon gyokuro is the only tea in the gyokuro category in Japan to receive Geographical Indication certification. Ranked first for 21 consecutive years at the Japan National Fair of Tea, this is a recognition of their consistent and excellent quality.

Before the Meiji era, this area used to be called Tsukushi Province (筑紫国) where the north is called Chikuzen (筑前) and the south is called Chikugo (筑後). The Fukuoka region has been inhabited earlier than the rest of Japan since ancient times, given its proximity to Korea and China, and her friendlier climate being at the southern tip of temperate Japan. It was said that the first tea seeds planted in 1191 at Sefuri Mountain (1,100 m) located between Fukuoka and Saga prefectures were brought back by Myōan Eisai. In 1423, another monk Eirin Shuzui (荣林周瑞) brought back more tea seeds when returning from Zen Buddhist studies in Ling Yan Monastery (灵岩寺) in Suzhou China. He travelled throughout Japan to preach Buddhism and when he reached Yame, he was struck by the resemblance of her beautiful mountains to where he was trained in China. At Kurogimachi Kasahara (黒木町笠原), he built a temple and named it Reiganji Temple (霊巌寺), the same name as the monastery he studied in Suzhou China. He planted tea around the temple which grew well thanks to its excellent environment. Since then, Reiganji Temple is recognised as the birthplace of Yame tea.

Sencha has been widely cultivated during the Meiji period but was worth little. Yame farmers wanted to create a tea that is superior and experimented with other methods of making tea, e.g. not pruning and allowing the shrub to grow naturally, using shading made of a natural material, etc. Such methods begin to spread, and this new method of cultivation began in earnest mostly in mountainous areas. Called gyokuro in Kanji, it is the same word as the same tea in Chinese (玉露, pronounced Yu4 Lv4), translating to Jade Dew. This name arises from the green hue in its brew, resulting from the shading of the leaves before harvest, and which imparts to it a mellow and rich flavour. Even the leftover tea leaves after brewing are highly prized, and are eaten with ponzu or soy sauce as a delicacy.

In the 1970s, mechanised harvesting was introduced to deal with the increasing demand. Although so, Yame retains the original methods, including harvesting by hand. As such, dentou hon gyokuro was born, 'dentou' meaning traditional and 'hon' meaning root or origin. Other significant differences include the initiation time for shading, with hon gyokuro being shaded earlier - when the buds start to open and the adjacent leaf half open. Shading is common at 16 days and above for all gyokuro cultivation, but with the shading initiated earlier for hon gyokuro, the umami flavour is better retained and astringency better controlled, on a milder and mellower profile. Hon gyokuro has 95% shading as compared to 90% shading for other gyokuro. Shading is made using Honzu (woven from rice straw and Sumaki) in hon gyokuro, while gyokuro could employ synthetic shades. Shading makes the leaves dark green, while an unshaded tea grows more yellowish leaves. This is one method to differentiate between real matcha or sencha (unshaded tea) powder.

Our tea is from Hoshino Seicha En (星野製茶園) located in Hoshino village, and is one of the best recognised tea farms in the entire Japan. Japan tea masters are ranked based on their performance in tea judging competitions, with 10-dan (十段) being the highest rank. Hoshino Seicha En has two 10-dan tea masters -  Shinya Yamaguchi (山口真也) and Yosuke Yamaguchi (山口洋介). Their matcha is endorsed by all the tea lineages and sects since cha-no-yu (茶の湯) inception mid 16th century. In so saying, their matcha is truly ceremonial. Even their common grade matcha tastes exceptionally refined and complex comparable to or even exceeding other ceremonial grade teas. 'Hoshinotsuyu' is the second ranked matcha at Hoshino Seicha En.

Gyokuro and matcha are both made from tea plants that undergo the same cultivation and shading. After harvesting, they undergo different processes to make them either into gyokuro or matcha. As such, the ingredients to make matcha and gyokuro are the same.

We are brewing this tea in our Parchmen Glass Gaiwan, with 3g of tea to 60 ml of 50°C distilled water, and whisked with a chasen. The matcha colour is dark green, evident of its shading. The brew is also an intense jade green. The first impression is that of umami - loaded with theanine, it offers generous savoury notes, and also complex aroma of seaweed, nuts and flowers, with a smooth mouthfeel, without any bitterness or astringency. Sometimes there are hints of roasted pineapple, other times baked nutty notes of pistachios and roasted walnuts. When it cools, there is even pleasant vibrant acidity, which indicates it is loaded with life giving amino and other acids. An intense drink yet balanced and pleasant, complete with a vibrant and pleasant afterflavour, it is truly ceremonial.


The last tea of this month - Cockroach's Wings (蟑螂翅) - has a shocking name but a delicate flavour. It is so named because the tea leaves are thin and translucent, spreading out the leaves on the same nodes on either sides of the stem looking like the wings of roaches. When leaves are old, they remain flat and do not curl up, retaining the 'style' of cockroach's wings. The 300-year-old mother tree grows at 990m at the south of Shi Tou Jiao Village (狮头脚村) of Wudong Mountain (乌岽山). A rare cultivar that has since been replanted in the vicinity, our tea is from Zi Mao Village (字矛村), at 800m on the foothills of Wudong Mountain from trees which are around 85 years old.

The Chaozhou region in eastern Guangdong, bordering Fujian, has been producing Dancong (单丛) oolong tea for more than nine centuries, particularly in the Phoenix Mountain range, where mineral-rich volcanic soils yield teas with a thick, syrupy character. Long overshadowed by Fujian’s famed “Bohea” teas from Wuyi Mountain (known in English as “Bohea Mountain”), Guangdong tea appeared in 19th-century export records as “Canton Bohea” under the British East India Company, with “Canton” being the old name for Guangdong. The term “Dancong,” meaning “single bush,” is thought to have originated in the Qing dynasty, attributed to General Wu Liu Qi, who first harvested exceptionally aromatic leaves from individual tea bushes. Today, Fenghuang Dancong teas are celebrated for their wide spectrum of aromas, shaped by the region’s rich biodiversity and refined through selective cloning from distinguished mother bushes. Cultivar names range from elegantly poetic to amusingly eccentric, mirroring Chaozhou’s straightforward character. Tea cultivation remains traditional and almost primitive, with ancient, overgrown, and unpruned tea trees harvested by elderly women perched atop tall ladders.

In June 2025, we visited one young tea farmer Chen Shao Bo (陈少波) in Chazozhou. A second generation tea farmer (茶二代), he inherited the family farms in addition to the other tea farms which has been abandoned or left unattended by owners who have pursued other interests. A graduate in marketing, he gave up a marketing job with a Dutch company in Guangzhou and moved to 4th-tier city Chaozhou to continue his family business. He now owns 5 outlets in Chaozhou under the brand of Fenghuang Tea Factory (凤凰茶厂). He is a certified Tea Master (评茶师) under the Chinese national tea certification system. He has multiple awards under his belt, the most recent being Gold Award (一等奖) for his Almond Fragrance (杏仁香) and Bronze Award (三等奖) for his Single Tree Harvest (古树单株) in June 2025.

A tea master’s craftsmanship is evident in his roasting technique. He first begins with a modern convection tea oven and finishing with a traditional charcoal roast. Machine roasting cleans up the aroma by expelling undesirable notes, while also increasing roasting efficiency. Traditional charcoal roasting is done at a higher temperature to increase mouthfeel and sweetness. 

We are brewing all these teas in our Parchmen Glass Gaiwan, with 4g of tea in 120m of 90-92°C low TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) water for 10-15 sec each. This differs from the Chaozhou gongfu tea method which employs 100°C for brewing at a similar duration. The 1st brew often looks foamy, due to the high levels of healthy tea saponin (茶皂素) present. Each Dancong presents its characteristic aroma - while the honey note dominates the Honey Orchid and almond note for Almond Fragrance, the Daphne odora (瑞香花) features promptly in Cockroach's Wings. The tea can be brewed numerous times, with developing sweetness and aroma complexity from the 2nd brew onwards, giving us woody and almond nutty notes alongside the floral note, and a developing caramel sweetness. There is coherence of aroma from nose to the brew, a mark of good 'greens' (tea leaves) and good roasting. Indeed, the roasting has smoothened the mouthfeel such that slightly longer brew times do yield sweetness rather than astringency or bitterness. Teaching us about life, this elegant tea is forgiving to the brewer. 


Enjoy your teas of Aug 2025!

Thank you for coming onboard Parchmen & Co and travel with us to savour our world in a cup!