Kimberley's Kyusu

Kiroku Tea Garden is a fourth generation tea garden in Wazuka Japan, an area whose mountain tea fields & undulating terraced slopes thick with fog make perfect tea-growing conditions. It was founded nearly 100 years ago, before farming machines became available & their grandfather cleared their fields completely by hand. Today they are owned entirely by women, which is very rare to see, and their efforts to challenge the incredibly male dominated field of tea agriculture and production while keeping their family legacy alive should be applauded. 

Tea I have tried from Kiroku include their Single Cultivar Asanoka Matcha, 2023 Kabusecha Aracha (Single Cultivar – Gokou), Okumidori Roasted Spring Tencha Amehojicha (The Sweet Roast), Spring Hojicha (Single Cultivar Yabukita), Gokou Tencha & Okumidori Tencha. Having already dedicated an entire post to reviewing their Single Cultivar Asanoka Matcha, I won’t be including it in this post, but if you want to know more about it you can find that post here. 

The leaves of their 2023 Kabusecha Aracha (Single Cultivar Gokou) have a wonderful aroma, jam packed with notes such as creamy porridge, freshly toasted white bread with lots of butter, wilted spinach, toasted macadamia nuts, single cream, toasted white & white marshmallows.  

In texture it is light & smooth, making it incredibly easy to drink. In taste, it is grassy, perfectly sweet, nutty & creamy, with no astringency or bitterness present. The second steep is a little more savoury with some of those sweeter / creamier notes becoming lighter, but it remained well balanced throught each steep thereafter, with a lot of the notes within it’s aroma appearing throughout in each steep. 

Its finish is long lasting, and starts savoury, vegetal & grassy, but becomes sweeter and creamer as time goes on. It is both fresh & comforting making it a great choice for a morning session during the colder months. 

Their Spring Hojicha (Single Cultivar Yabukita) has been one of my favorites from Kiroku so far for a myriad of reasons. The dry leaves have an aroma that includes notes such as: caramel, café au lait candy, earthiness, strongly brewed coffee with a splash of milk, firewood & rich and aromatic roasted notes which I assume can both be attributed to the double roasting it goes through after being processed sencha style. Overall it is much sweeter in aroma than I expected it to be.

Through the session the liquor is a range of colours including: russet, amber & rich copper. Overall it reminded me of warm toned lacquered antique wood furniture. 

In taste it is woody, earthy &  sweet. Those caramel & coffee notes are still present but lighter than they were. Its overall texture from the first steep was very woody & reminded me of the way it feels when you are standing close to a freshly lit fire and you’re breathing the light smoke in via your mouth. 

The second steep was a little lighter on the woody & earthy side of things, however it did as a result taste a little sweeter & gained a juicy raisin note that was also noticeable in its texture. It remained this way for every steep after. 

Its finish is long lasting & woody with caramel sweetness & creamy coffee notes that linger.

Kiroku Tea Garden – Tencha Single Cultivar (Gokou) 

While I have been drinking matcha for a while now, I have never tried the tencha that is used to make it before, so for my first experience with it I wanted to try some gokou tencha, because gokou is my favourite cultivar for matcha. For me this particular tencha, while it did have similar notes to the gokou matcha I have tried, there were also differences & for me the best way to describe the way it tastes is that it was a perfect middle ground between a calmer sencha & a white tea. 

The tea has notes of: sweet hay, freshly made butter, subtle lily of the valley & dewy spring morning grass. There is also a light slightly oceanic minerality present.  

Tencha Single Cultivar (Okumidori)

After trying the gokou sencha I was eager to jump straight into a session with this one, meaning I had both on the same day & it was a fantastic way to closely compare the differences between them. 

This one has rich green notes with added notes of walnut & a subtle floral quality in later steeps that is reminiscent of Parma violets. It’s mellow, grassy & refreshing, with longer steeps resulting in a little more bitterness, however it doesn’t take too long to dissipate into a nice sweetness that lingers for a while after sipping. Overall, it’s an absolute pleasure to sip on & the differences in cultivar I would say are much easier to spot in tencha than they are in matcha. 

Overall my experiences with Kiroku Tea Garden have been overwhelmingly positive & it is clear that the women behind this farm care deeply about keeping their families legacy alive & that passion that drives them can be felt in each & every tea I have had the pleasure to try from their farm. I hope to have the pleasure of sipping on more of their teas in the future.

You can find out more about Koukien Tea Garden & purchase their teas over on the Yunomi website here.

Remember to use my code INFKKYU when you order from Yunomi to get ¥1000 off an order of ¥5000 or more. If you try any of the teas I mentioned in this post, let me know your thoughts on them in the comments.

Until next time, Happy Steeping – Kimberley