Stem and stem is not the same. Taste the taste difference of a different kind of green. A cold infusion of the youngest and freshest leaves and leaf stems that stem from shaded 1st flush: MORIMOTO SHIRAORE.
Morimoto’s organic tea garden is located in the very south of Japan, in the prefecture of Miyazaki, which is known for its wonderful sunshine. The sunshine lets grow the tea bushes very fast, but if too much sunlight touches the tea bushes, it can happen, that the bitterness in the tea gets too strong. In order to make a really great tea, Morimotos therefore use the strategy of “kabuse”, namely shading a part of their tea bushes.
During the first flush, around the half of all bushes or even more are shaded for a time of between one and two weeks. The Shiraore gets its intensity from the sunlight and its mildness from the shading “kabuse”. After harvest, Morimotos do the production of steaming, drying, kneading and rolling. Finally, the big leaves [atama] and big leave stems [ookii kuki] are separated, and then also the usually sized leaves [honcho] are separated. What stays are the very fine leave stems [komakai kuki] and the very fine leave sprouts [shinme].
This elegant elements are what MORIMOTO SHIRAORE stays for 🙂
