Hōjicha

South of Kyoto, where the river slows and the valley holds its mist long into the morning, the conditions for growing exceptional tea are unreasonably good. Uji has been producing tea for over eight centuries — the geography here is precise in its gifts: the Uji River moderates temperature, the surrounding hills trap moisture, and the slow release of morning fog diffuses light across the fields in a way that changes the character of everything that grows beneath it.

Japan received tea from China in the 9th century and, over the following centuries, made it entirely its own. Uji was at the centre of that transformation, and it was here that the practice of shading tea plants was refined — covering the fields with reed screens to slow growth, deepen colour, and concentrate the amino acids that give gyokuro and matcha their characteristic sweetness and depth. It was here, too, that the charcoal-roasting techniques behind hojicha were developed, and where sencha cultivation was brought to its highest expression.