The Tea

One field, one harvest, one tea.

Organic first-flush leaf from the shaded fields of Kagoshima, stone-milled and held to a single standard. Whisk it in a bowl or shake it in a bottle — it is the same two grams.

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The Leaf

A Single Degree

Single Degree

Premium Ceremonial Organic Matcha

One tea only, and it is the top of the tree: organic ichibancha, the first flush, picked once a year and never cut with a later harvest. There is no second tier beneath it because we do not sell one.

It comes from one grower — Kagoshima Horiguchi Seicha, in Shibushi at the southern end of Japan, where the season opens weeks before the rest of the country and the fields are worked without pesticides. Meet the grower

Grower: Kagoshima Horiguchi Seicha
Harvest: Ichibancha — first flush, once a year
Cultivation: Organic, shade-grown, IPM
Milling: Granite stone, 30 g per hour
Certificate: TKC-0001

Why the first flush

Sunlight turns theanine — the amino acid behind matcha's sweetness and its steady calm — into the catechins that taste bitter. A bush spends the winter dormant, storing theanine up. The first cut takes that store away with it; every later cut grows under a stronger sun on a plant with less left to give.

First flush · late April

Ichibancha Ours

The winter’s store, cut once. Highest in theanine, lowest in bitterness. This is the only harvest we buy.
Second flush · June

Nibancha

The regrowth, under a stronger sun. More catechin, less theanine — brisker, sharper, and cheaper.
Third flush · July

Sanbancha

Thinner again. Usually bound for blends, bottled tea and everyday grades.
Late leaf and stem

Bancha

What is left when the season is spent. An honest daily tea — but not a ceremonial one.

How To Use

Three Ways

Good matcha has a reputation for being fussy. It is not: two grams, water, and fifteen seconds of shaking will do it. The long way is here too, for when the long way is the point.

Cold

15 seconds · no tools

Ceremonial matcha in a water bottle. This is not a compromise — cold water draws less bitterness out of the leaf than hot.

Pour 注ぐ

Empty one 2 g sachet into a 33 cl bottle of cold water. No sieve, no bowl, no whisk.
Shake 振る

Cap it and shake hard for about fifteen seconds — until nothing clings to the walls and the water has turned an even jade green.
Drink 飲む

Straight from the bottle. Cold brewing is the forgiving way: there is no temperature to get wrong.

Keeps a day in the fridge — shake again, the leaf settles

Hot

15 seconds · a thermos

The same gesture with hot water. One rule only: not boiling.

Fill 湯を注ぐ

About 33 cl of hot water into an insulated bottle, near 80 °C. Boiling water scorches the leaf and turns it bitter. Leave a few centimetres of air.
Shake 振る

Add one 2 g sachet, close it, hold the cap down and shake about fifteen seconds. Same test as the cold way.
Drink 飲む

Warm, from the bottle. Insulated it stays drinkable for hours, so it travels as well as the cold one.

Best within the hour

Ceremony

Fifteen minutes · chawan and chasen

The long way, when there is time for it. Nothing here improves the tea — it improves the half hour around it.

Warm the bowl 碗を温める

Hot water is poured into the chawan and turned once, then discarded. A cold bowl steals the first heat from the tea and flattens the aroma before it arrives.
Sift 篩う

Two grams through a fine sieve into the warmed bowl. Stone-milled leaf clings to itself; sifting stands between a smooth surface and a bowl of small bitter knots.
Whisk 点てる

Seventy millilitres at eighty degrees. The chasen moves in a brisk W, wrist loose, until a fine even foam rises and the surface holds its own light.
Serve 供する

The bowl is turned so its face meets the guest, and drunk without delay. Within a minute the foam falls and the tea begins to describe a different afternoon.