SORATE BIRTHPLACE: UJI

Ujitawara, Uji, Kyoto, Japan

A LAND OF TRADITION

Sorate Tea and Matcha are grown in Ujitawara-cho, the small countryside town in Kyoto prefecture, where the farmer Nagatani Soen invented the method of manufacturing Japanese green tea in the middle of the Edo period. 

This is also the place where the first tea tree seed was planted by a Japanese Buddhist priest who imported both Zen Buddhism and green tea to Japan from China around 700 A.D.—in fact advised the priests in Uji on how to cultivate and produce the beverage. 

Today, well-organized tea plantations stretch out on the green hillsides surrounding the town.

In Uji,  our farmers still hand-pick the leaf that is softest and freshest. This method is most often used for the manufacturing of premium-grade and competition grade.

The pleasant scenery where the residences of the farmers and their tea plantations lie side by side is the typical landscape made by tea productions which they are all very proud of.

While Uji is a relatively small area of cultivation, producing only 3% of Japan’s total green tea production; it is world famous for its outstandingly fine quality Green Tea and Matcha..

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