Dear our valuable customers,

Hello everyone. It’s finally getting chilly in Kagoshima and it’s starting to feel like autumn.
As you know, Japan has four seasons, and autumn is a very comfortable season with just the right temperature.

Autumn is called “autumn of appetite” and you can enjoy a lot of delicious food.
Kagoshima is a major producer of agricultural products, and sweet potatoes are particularly famous, with the largest harvest in Japan.
Like tea, there are many different types of sweet potatoes, each with its own characteristics.
As Kagoshima boasts the largest production in Japan, there are several traditional dishes using sweet potatoes in Kagoshima. One of them is Called gane. Gane is a dish in which sweet potatoes and vegetables are shredded and coated with batter. It got its name from its resemblance to a crab (called “gane” in Kagoshima dialect).In some areas, sugar is added to the batter to make it sweet, making it a perfect snack. Kagoshima has many other wonderful, healthy and delicious dishes.
Please come and visit Kagoshima.

At this time of year, the tea fields are fallow. The leaves are cut off in preparation for the first tea harvest the following year, leaving the tea fields with prominent brown branches. Unlike the lush, green tea fields of the past, you can now see brown tea fields with a unique, slightly lonely atmosphere.

＼We are attending San Francisco International Tea Festival／

This Saturday and Sunday, we will be participating in the San Francisco International Tea Festival. We will be selling and offering tastings of our products.　Please stop by if you are in the area.　

Date of event: November 2-3 2024. @ FERRY BUILDING MARKETPLACE

Thank you for reading.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries “Our Local Cuisine”

Dear our valuable customers,

We hope you are doing well. Here in Kagoshima, the climate is still hot and humid during the day time in September. However, with cool winds in the evening or early morning, we can smell autumn season in the air gradually.

In Japan, there is an event that really makes you feel the autumn. Have you ever heard of the word “Otsukimi”? It is a traditional Japanese event that usually takes place in September or October, celebrating the autumn full moon. The kanji for “Otsukimi” is “looking at the moon”. As this says, it is an event to appreciate the beautiful full moon, but it is not just that. Originally, it was an event to give thanks for the safe harvest of autumn crops. In some regions, there is a custom of children going around the neighborhood to get sweets and other things. I remember when I was little, I would go around the neighborhood with a big bag and come home with a bag full of sweets. It is an event that is just like Halloween. We don’t wear costumes, though…

＼Adjusting the tea to the season’s taste／
You might know that people’s sense of taste changes by season. For example, in a hot season is preferred light, refreshed, crisp taste, on the other hand, cool or cold season is preferred thick, strong, roasted flavor. Kagoshima Seicha‘ｓ tea master or artisans to manufacture finished tea from Aracha (semi-finished tea), they are very careful to manage for blending and burner’s temperature for roasting not only the kind and type of tea, but also, the consumer’s sense of taste which is changed by the seasons accordingly. Moreover, they are also considering about humid and temperature of the manufacturing day. We do many assessing processes through the manufacture in our factory.

In this newsletter, we introduced Japanese seasonal event. While we appreciate nature, tea fields, tea farmers, we try to manufacture tea for adjusting the tea characteristics itself also the taste or fragrance changing by season accordingly. Thank you for reading.

Dear our valued customers,

We hope you are doing well. Here in Japan, summer vacation is finished at the end of August for school children. It will be autumn from next month according to the calendar, but still summer season is continuing with around 30℃（80℉）.
During this season, the tea will be interval of the harvest, but the farmers are struggling with weeds and insects for managing the tea fields. Especially in the hot and humid summer of Kagoshima, it should be an excellent condition for them, fortunately or unfortunately.
In organic farms, the use of chemically synthesized pesticides is prohibited, and the use of pesticides such as naturally derived pesticides must be used, so the use of pesticides is restricted. Therefore, at one of the organic farms, insects are blown away and removed by a machine that uses the wind.

Furthermore, farmers use various methods to protect their tea fields against the weeds.
One of these methods is to use steam to heat treat the fields, making it difficult for weeds to grow.

You can see this in the photo below.
Using this machine is not only very helpful in growing safe tea without relying on pesticides or chemicals, it also reduces the burden on farmers.
It is also a revolutionary method at a time when soil pollution is a concern all over the world and sustainable farming methods are being called for.
Maintaining our safety and health is of course important, but we also want to think of methods that are kind to the earth and consider the environment for the future.

This time we talked about the farmer’s efforts against insects and weeds.
Thank you very much for reading.

Dear our valued customers,

We hope you are doing well.
After the rainy season, summer is really coming to Japan. It gets extremely hot everyday here in Kagoshima. For this season, people prefer to drink something cold in Japan. With this letter, we wish to share recommended cold brew green tea and how to make it.
Actually, you can taste with a sweet and strong umami component by brewing it with cold water.

＼Why is cold brew sweet?／

The secret is the relationship between the kinds of components contained in tea and the temperature of the water. Theanine, which is for sweet, umami taste is almost the same extraction rate regardless of temperature. On the other hand, catechins and caffeine, which is for astringent and bitterness, their extraction depends on the water temperature. At high temperature they will get extracted quickly, but at lower temperature lower extraction rate. Therefore, by brewing it with water, you can taste the mild and mellow flavored tea.

Of course, taste depends on personal preference, some type of tea would be preferred brewed with high temperatures, moreover, it is said that the ideal hardness of water is 30 to 80ppm. However, by brewing with low temperature, it is also low in caffeine, so it is recommended to drink to rehydrate or taking before sleep.

＼How to make Cold Brew Tea.／

The recommended method is to make it in a large jar and brew it in the refrigerator for a long time.

1. Prepare tea leaves to a big jar, suggest for 1 litter / about 10g tea leaves.
2. Brew and keep it in a fridge for 1-2hours. Also recommended overnight which is extracted well!
3. Voila! If you stir gently, the taste will be even.

We recommend you to try not only sencha but also hojicha, and black tea, and a citrus, apple, mint will be great as a garnish.
Currently, in the tea fields, farmers are struggling with weeds and managing the tea fields even in the hot humid temperature. We would like everyone to stay hydrated, be careful of heat stroke, and be healthy. Thank you for reading.

Dear our valued customers,

I hope you are doing great.
In Kagoshima, the rainy season has begun, a time of year when rarely have sunny day.
Recently, there were several days with heavy rainfall, which made commuting to work or school very difficult.
When you hear the rainy season, it doesn’t sound like a good thing, but this rain helps us to have water sources, and the sound of the rain dripping is said to have a relaxing effect.

What happens in the tea fields at this time of year?
At this time of year, the second harvest is taking place, following the first harvest.
Harvesting takes place even in the rain. Tea leaves that are very wet from the rain and tend to stick together, so they may be dried using a dehydrator. Wet tea leaves may also have difficulty steaming, so the amount of steam and steaming time may be adjusted.
As such, tea fields require various adjustments to suit the weather at any given time, and it is thanks to the farmers’ solid response that we are able to deliver delicious tea to everyone.

During the hot and humid rainy season, why not refresh yourself with the aroma of green tea?
During this time, cold-brewed tea is also recommended, as it has a relaxing and stress-reducing effect.
Thank you for reading. We hope you have a happy rainy season with delicious tea.

Dear our valued customers,

Hello everyone. We hope you all are doing great!

Here in Kagoshima, the temperature is gradually rising, and although the sunlight is sometimes strong, it is a very pleasant season. New teas are being completed one after another and are already well received in Japan. We are doing our best to deliver delicious fresh tea.

In Japan, there are many holidays and events in May. One of these is called Golden Week, a large consecutive holiday. During this holiday, many people return home or go on trips.

There is also an event called Mother’s Day in May. This is an event that is held not only in Japan but all over the world.

Our company’s stores in Japan sold specially packaged sencha tea as a Mother’s Day gift.
We hope that every mother who got our tea could take a break and relax.

We work hard every day to bring this relief to not only mothers, but people all over the world. As you probably know, green tea is said to have a relaxing effect. Theanine, a component found in green tea, is said to have stress-reducing and healing effects.

This substance called theanine is the main component of the taste that you feel when you drink tea. In addition, theanine is more abundant in tea leaves that are exposed to less direct sunlight, and in other words, tea leaves that are grown under cover, such as Gyokuro, contain more theanine.

When you’re busy and hectic, why not take a little time and relax with hot green tea and nice music.
I’m sure you’ll be able to relax and work better afterwards!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Dear our valued customers,

Happy New Harvest!
We hope you are doing well. Finally, here in Kagoshima, it has started the New Harvest,Shincha season!

In fact, at the end of last month, the tea fields inspection tour was held to see and check how Shincha is growing. Thanks for the conversation between the farmers face to face, we were able to hear about the situation of harvesting this year’s tea. Also, it was an always great opportunity for the employee from various departments to visit and learn about tea from the farmers directly.

On the 4^th April, the 2024’s first trades for Shincha started in 2024. At the tea market, so many kinds of tea which was manufactured as Aracha semi-finished tea, is gathered from various places mainly southern part of Kagoshima prefecture.

＼How’s the Tea Market going?／

The number of items on the market varies from day to day. It depends on the weather, the regions where comes from south to north, also kinds of tea leaves early or late variety. While the peak season the market starts from 7:30, it gathers about 1,000 to 1,500 items per a day. From among these, our purchasing teams determines the quality of tea by its color, aroma, weight, water color and taste, and then bid on the tea. After that, that tea is stored and manufactured with blending and roasting as Shiagecha, refined tea a finished tea then packed as the products.

We are looking forward to delivering our tea from Kagoshima to all over the world from now on.

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P.S. Thank you for all those who visited to Natural Product Expo West and World Tea Expo in US. It was such a great time to have tasted our tea and talk with. Thank you for reading.

Dear our valued customers,

We hope you are doing well.

In Kagoshima we have a warm mild climate weather in nowadays compared to the usual years. How about the situation in tea field? One of the serious threats especially from this season is frost. It usually forms because of the temperature difference between daytime and nighttime. Especially, new shoots are delicate, if the shoots are damaged by frost as they are growing toward the first flush tea, it will greatly affect the amount of the crops and also the quality of the harvest.

　＼How do farmers protect their tea from frost?／
In order to prevent the influence from frost, there are mainly two ways.

“Frost Protect Fan”
You might have a chance to seen the tall Mechanical fan which is 6 to 8 meters high above the tea field. It helps to bring warm air from the high level to the tea field level and keep the temperature warm not to be affected by frost.

“Sprinkler Freezing System”
This is the method that uses the heat released when water turns to ice then to keep the temperature not to below 0℃ (32°F). If watering is done on nighttime continuously, when it is predicted frost, tea leaves get covered with water and ice, which the temperature for the tea keeps about 0℃ (32°F) so that it prevents frost damage. It is told that there are many challenges such as securing large amount of water, and drainage systems but it can be seen common in Kyushu region.

Even though both ways can be automatically set machinery however, the farmers told us that they need to check whether they are working properly by their eyes even in a midnight. Thanks to the generous care of them, we will be able to receive delicious tea. We appreciate it and also look forward to seeing the first flush tea. Thank you very much for reading.

Dear our valued customers,

We hope you are doing well. In Kagoshima, it has been warmer winter than in other years. In this newsletter, we are glad to announce upcoming future events held in the US.

Kagoshima Seicha will be participating in the exhibit Natural Products EXPO WEST and World Tea EXPO!

The EXPO will be held at the following location:

◎Natural Products EXPO WEST in Anaheim
13^th to 15^th March, Booth# N1825

◎World Tea EXPO in Las Vegas
19^th to 20^th March, Booth# WT1829

We will be introducing our Smile Tea line up such as Matcha, Sencha, Hojicha, also other variety of our tea such as Kabusecha, Genmaicha, Hojicha powder etc. We are going to show how to drink delicious way, hot and cold, or any collaborates with local drink etc.

We hope that you plan on attending the EXPO. If you get any chance, please stop by, have a chat with us, and of course try some Kagoshima Seicha’s cup of tea!　We look forward to seeing you there!

These below are photos on Natural Products EXPO WEST 2023.

Thank you for your reading.

Dear our valued customers,

A Happy New Year! This is the first Newsletter in 2024. We hope you are doing well.
Kagoshima Seicha held a New Year’s greeting ceremony at the first week in January, where everyone came together exchanged New Year’s greetings directly. It was great to be able to get together and share the happiness to be able to welcome 2024 with face to face.

Now, it would be the time to make the new year’s resolutions or wishes. What did you all wish for this year? We often wish for peace, health, and happiness not only for ourselves but also for those around us, also all over the world. Health is one of the basic to bult the life happy.
During the New Year holidays, Oshogatsu in Japanese, people often get together especially among family and relatives. As for the greeting gift, tea would be a great option. This is because for Japanese, tea is often used for everyday drinking, and it is appreciated for all ages for a health. Also, at the New Year holidays season, sharing one pot of tea might be enjoyed at the cozy time to relax together at the special occasion for family gathering.

＼Let‘s stay healthy with a cup of green tea!／

While colds are going around in a winter season, green tea is said to be effective in preventing it. As you may know, the catechin is the component that gives tea bitterness and astringency. But at the same time, it has a particularly strong antioxidant effect and works to stop active oxygen in our body. Therefore, it works to maintain the body’s immunity, and told that drinking green tea is preventing the diseases such as influenza and colds.

As we begin the new year, we would be happy if we could introduce and deliver our tea in Kagoshima, with hoping of everyone’s good health and sharing the happiness through the year 2024. Thank you for reading.