About Our Tea: The Best Japan Can Offer
Like a fine wine, high-quality tea depends on more than pretty packaging. The age of the leaves, their growing conditions, and even soil fertility all impact the final flavor. For us, how tea is grown and processed is the secret to crafting a sweet, nutritious tea like no other.
We Strive for Sweeter Soil Cultivation with the Chagusaba Method
Chagusaba (茶草場) is an ancient farming method that uses human-made and natural grasslands to enhance soil fertility. This labor-intensive process takes thousands of hours every season, but tea farmers find it worthwhile for the crop quality it produces.
Practiced by Shizuoka farmers for centuries, grasses are grown throughout tea plantations in the summer months and later cut down to form an insulating layer to prevent the ground from freezing. Sugar cane and syrup are also added to the soil to enhance its sweetness.
By enriching, protecting, and revitalizing the soil beneath each tea tree, the chagusaba method sweetens the taste of each tea leaf by keeping plant roots warm and well-nourished throughout the winter. As the mulch breaks down in the spring, it adds much-needed silicic aid to the base of each tree, enriching the soil and preventing roots from getting burned from too much nitrogen.
‘Dusty’ Tea is A Sign of High Quality, Really!
At first look, our deep steamed tea leaves appear broken down, even dusty. This is because the longer processing time breaks down the tea leaves, especially at their tips. This leads to powdery tea that many compare to ceremonial matcha in taste, texture and nutrient levels.
Drinking tea leaves directly actually enhances the nutrition for your body. However, if you’re bothered by these fragments, a specially designed fukamushi teapot provides a finer mesh to filter them out.
Our Teas Contain Better Flavor with Deep Steaming Technology
After they are picked, steaming tea leaves is necessary to stop the oxidation process. Most green tea is steamed for just 30 seconds before being rolled and dried, which creates a brew that leaves you with a bitter taste.
In contrast, the sunny, yet foggy conditions throughout the Shizuoka region where it grows creates a firmer tea leaf, which needs longer steaming to release the complex flavors contained within. This means that our tea undergoes ‘deep steaming’ (aka fukamushi method 深蒸し) for almost two minutes - four times longer than regular tea!
Only thick, sun-soaked leaves benefit from deep steaming. The proprietary steaming machine used for every batch was developed specifically for our tea after years of research and study. Today, it is the leader in steaming technology in Japan, and the world.
Longer processing leads to a bolder flavor filled with the health-enhancing amino acid theanine. Every cup provides a robust taste, a smoother mouthfeel, a subtle hint of sweetness, and far less astringency.
About Our Tea Farm: Arahataen
Japanese Green Tea Co. is the only US-based company to source tea directly from Arahataen Green Tea Farms in the Shizuoka prefecture in Japan. Shizuoka has been the center of green tea cultivation in Japan for centuries, and the region’s intense sunlight and intermittent fog give each batch of tea its distinctive flavor.
Naturally fertile soil combined with a flat landscape free from sunlight-blocking mountains also contributes to the ideal growing conditions for robust tea plants.
On the farm, each leaf is harvested when it is thicker than usual resulting in higher amounts of catechins and chlorophyll from its longer sun exposure.
Humble Beginnings and a Bright Future
Arahataen Green Tea Farms was founded in 1948 by Mr. Arahata Eizo. Today, the 17-acre farm is managed by 55 employees who handle the cultivation, processing, and packaging of their award-winning tea right onsite.
Since 1969, Arahataen has been both the founder and leader of the Fukamushi Research Group (深むし研究会 天狗会), which developed better steaming technology for enhanced taste. The farm is also the first company to introduce clean room techniques for pu-erh tea, ensuring that unwanted bacteria stay far away from the fermenting tea leaves.
Arahataen Green Tea Farms received the Japanese National Tea Award, the most prestigious award for tea in all of Japan, in 1974, 1975, 1979 and 2010. The farm has also been awarded the National Quality of Tea Award, the Shizuoka Furusato Prize, and more, earning it the distinction of being one of the oldest and most respected tea companies in the region.
Today, the Japanese Green Tea Co. is proud to be the farm’s only distributor outside of Japan.
A Lasting Passion for Better Dirt
Arahataen Farms believes that the best tea begins with high-quality dirt. Through the Chagusaba method, the farm carefully cultivates crops of thick grasses around its tea trees like a compostable blanket to provide added nutrients directly to the soil every winter. The farmers also collaborate with researchers from Shizuoka University to study soil and the impact of its sweetness on the taste of the tea it cultivates.
This labor-intensive process protects the plant's delicate roots while giving each tree the nutrition it needs to grow, ensuring that only the best leaves make it into the company's tea.
Japan’s Best-Selling Tea Online
Our tea was the #1 best-selling green tea in Japan online through Rakuten Inc. in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
Rakuten Inc. is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and ranks #14 in the world for online sales volume.
Click here to see the list of awards.
About Our Company, the Japanese Green Tea Co.
Shipped with Love from Portland, Oregon
You don’t need to travel to Japan to appreciate the world’s best green tea. Japanese Green Tea Co. allows you to enjoy premium Japanese green teas from the comfort of your home.
We are the only U.S. distributor of green teas grown from Arahataen Green Tea Farms. We provide the only tea produced with the Chagusaba method from the Shizuoka region of Japan. All our tea comes directly from Arahataen Green Tea Farms and undergoes stringent quality control, ensuring only the best makes it to you.
High-Quality Nutrition in Every Cup
Our tea is rich in vitamin C, high in catechins, and free from cholesterol and sodium, all while containing less caffeine than most green tea.
All our teas are non-GMO, single-origin cultivar teas.
Bringing the Best from Japan Directly to You
While Japan is the eighth-largest tea producer in the world, just 3 percent of its tea ever leaves the country.
When you order green tea directly from a Japanese company online, it can take over a month to make it through customs and into your cupboard. Worst of all, you’ll pay a hefty transaction fee to make it happen.
At Japanese Green Tea Co., we are revolutionizing the process of buying Japanese green tea by partnering directly with Arahataen Green Tea Farms. Because they grow, process, and package their tea onsite, we get shipments to you much faster, usually within one to five days!
By cutting out the middle-men, you get your tea faster, fresher, and without fees.
For US Shipment, our tea is shipped using USPS from Portland, Oregon, so you don't need to worry about the hassle of dealing with signing for packaging and customs duties. (For other countries, please see this page.)
You get your tea in two to three days in the USA. (Click here to check when you will get your tea if you order today.)
Try our tea for yourself, and you’ll understand our 99 percent satisfaction rate from previous customers. If for any reason you are left unhappy, we have a money-back guarantee for every product we sell.
How We Give Back
As a company, we care about the greater community. For every purchase, we donate 10 percent of our profits to One Child Matters, a worldwide organization working to lift children out of poverty.
Featured
Japanese Green Tea Co. has been featured in multiple media in the past. Please click here for media kit (press kit).
About Our Founder: Kei Nishida
Kei Nishida is a Japanese green tea enthusiast, a writer, and the founder and CEO of Japanese Green Tea Co. His passion for introducing America to the tea of his homeland was the catalyst for creating the only company that brings high-quality tea from Arahataen Green Tea Farms to the rest of the world.
Having spent his early years in Japan, Kei Nishida has been fervent about green tea throughout his life. He credits his first career as a software engineer at Hewlett Packard (HP) for his interest in science, research, and writing that influences his drive to source the best green tea for a wider audience today. He is also drawn to the research-driven approach by Arahataen farm to utilize the best technology for every batch.
Today, you can find his published work in Fresh Cup Magazine, Yoga Digest Magazine, T-Ching and more. He is also the author of four published books.
Kei Nishida's Published Books:
Kei Nishida is regular author for:
A Note from Kei Nishida:
Though I’ve lived in the US for over 20 years, every time I visit Japan, I make it a priority to bring Japanese green tea back with me. Finding quality green tea outside Japan is difficult, and the mass-produced teas available in the states just don’t taste like ones I used to drink back home.
Little wonder. Just 7 percent of Japanese green tea is exported from Japan.
I’m not the only one who’s noticed what difference high-quality tea can make. Every time I went back to Japan, people asked me to bring them the same tea back, Arahataen’s Tea. Once they tried this tea, going back to other options was unbearable.
Truly, Arahataen tea takes different than any other I’ve tried. The farm uses sugarcane in their soil to make the tea taste sweeter while reducing its astringency (a deal breaker for many would-be tea drinkers).
Unfortunately for my newly-addicted friends, Arahataen didn’t export their tea outside of Japan. Suddenly, I knew there was a market ready to enjoy their tea, and I contacted Arahataen to see if I could distribute their tea outside of Japan. Thankfully, they said yes!
That is how our journey began.
Now, I’m happy to report that I can interact with tea lovers online and in person. Additionally, I feel fortunate and proud to bring one of the best Japanese teas into the greater world. The taste of Chagusaba method tea is loved by many tea specialists now, and our tea blend won the Global Tea Championship in 2017, 2018 & 2019. (Since 2020, the championship has been halted due to COVID.)
Our customers just keep coming back, and from the first sip, you’ll understand why. If you’re afraid to commit, we offer sample sizes for most of our products so that you can give them a try.
With Japanese Green Tea Co., I hope that you enjoy the best of what Japan can offer; green tea harvested with care and love.
Sincerely,
Kei Nishida
Founder and CEO
Check out These teas!
It is said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. But imitation through loyal customers is the way we gauge our favorite Japanese green teas from The Japanese Green Tea Co.
Our loyal customers have chosen their Japanese green tea favorites. Those favorites are now offered through our “bestsellers” line-up. Find in this bestsellers line-up our quality select Japanese green teas and customer “fan favorites”. These bestsellers include varieties of our finest Japanese green tea matcha, sencha, infusions, and pyramid-shaped sachet bags.
If you’re new to our Japanese green teas, this list of quality Japanese green teas might be a great place to start. This line-up of our bestsellers includes our award-winning 2017 Global Tea Champion Premium green tea sencha and our 2018 Global Tea Champion Ceremonial green tea matcha.
These collections are truly the best-selling creations and merchandise products available from The Japanese Green Tea Co. So don’t miss out on these Japanese green teas at affordable prices.
All our products are vegan, gluten-free, GMO-free, and of single origin.
If you are not sure which tea to get, please watch the video we created below:
