Umegashima Hand-Picked Green Tea, Kuragura Aged Loose Leaf Tea

Experience a sip of history with green tea hand-picked in Umegashima, a mountain region located at the northern tip of Shizuoka City. Available in a 30g package of loose leaf tea, these carefully harvested leaves undergo a traditional maturation process. After being picked in early summer, the tea is stored in a cool mountain warehouse at Dainichi Pass in Ikawa to age until autumn. This patient process enriches the tea, giving it a deep, mellow flavor and a smooth, captivating aroma.

This unique method follows a practice cherished by the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu. In his time, early summer tea was sealed in caddies and transported to the cool heights of the Ikawa mountains. When autumn arrived, the aged tea was brought down to Sunpu Castle in a grand procession for the shogun to enjoy. Today, that historic storehouse tradition is recreated near the original site, offering tea lovers around the world a taste of Japanese heritage.