NEW
Young leaves, dry wood
Umami★★☆☆ / Astringency★★☆☆
Body★★★★ / Firing★★☆☆

Tôbettô is an exceptional tea garden perched at 800 m (2600 ft) in altitude. It is located in the middle of a forest without direct road access. It is also an unpruned, “shizen-shitate” tea garden, meaning it can only be handpicked, which only occurs once a year. Another particularity of this sencha is that it was only steamed for a handful of seconds.
For 12 years, we have been refrigerating a few hundred grams of the 2014 harvest. This was the last harvest produced by Mr. Tsukiji Katsumi—Tôbettô’s founder—before his nephew Kosugi Yoshiki succeeded him.
Infusing this sencha delivers a richly sweet fragrance with woody nuances.
In the mouth, the tea has a lot of roundness and sweet grilled aromas of hazelnuts and almonds. At the same time, it keeps its woody nuances. There is also a velvety, natural, balanced umami, and no astringency. In the length in the mouth, the sweet sensation is of exceptional strength. This strength and Tôbettô’s body are what make it so special.
The multiple subsequent infusions are rounder, gain fluidity, and have more floral aromas. However, the tea always retains its presence and its strong sweet persistence in the mouth.
The 12 years of maturation have also given much more roundness to the sencha, all while preserving the tea’s unique robustness.
Does it need to be said that quantities are very limited?

Type of tea: Futsumushi sencha (normal-steamed sencha)
Origin: Tôbettô, Tamakawa area, Aoi Ward, Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture
Cultivar: Yabukita & Ômune
Harvest: May 2014, hand picked