In Search of the Golden Tea Garden (Japanese Tea Edition)

In the tea-growing regions, I sometimes hear a story from the older people.

"Long ago, I saw a golden tea garden." They say the tea plucked from that golden garden was so delicious that they still cannot forget its taste.

I spend two months of every year in the production areas of China and also visit the production areas in Japan often, and deep in Yunnan Province there are tea gardens that can literally be called golden.

In Japan it is extremely rare, but when natural farming, good red soil, and the best environment come together, a tea garden with yellow tea leaves is born.

Yellow-green tea trees across a hillside with pines
A lichen-covered tea branch with white flowers in the wild
A woman in a hat and red jacket plucking a tea leaf

The photos above show tea trees grown by an ethnic minority in Yunnan Province, China, with completely natural cultivation.

It was a magnificent scene, exactly what the words "golden tea garden" describe.

Wild mountain plants that grow naturally are, as a rule, short of nitrogen. There is not that much nitrogen in nature, so wild plants grow slowly over a long time and become healthy plants rich in minerals and in polyphenols, which are their defense substances.

The photo below shows a tree in nature, taken in summer. Wild mountain plants in sunny spots are yellowish green all over!

Sunlit shrubs and young pines growing thickly on a slope

In modern farming, nitrogen fertilizers such as nitrates are used heavily for tea production. When nitrogen fertilizer is applied, the tea plant concentrates on its own growth.

The leaves turn deep green and gleam as if they had been coated with wax.

In a sense, it is the same situation as a person who eats nothing but meat and tends toward metabolic syndrome. On the other hand, tea leaves grown almost the same way as natural plants are small and yellow, and the tea trees look whitish.

If you have the chance, go out into nature and look at the color of the plants. Plants growing naturally are yellowish green. Conversely, plants growing in fertilized fields are deep green.

A hand resting above dense, glossy dark green tea leaves
Tea grown with nitrogen fertilizer

The tea leaves are very large, with folds, and dark green.

Trimmed tea bushes growing in neat rows
A typical tea garden

Growing tea this way increases the harvest the following year. The leaves are deep green all over, in contrast to the photo of the wild mountain plants above.

Close-up of tea bush leaves with yellow-green new growth

Naturally grown tea in Japan: in autumn the height is evened out, but only the tips are cut off slightly. The leaves are all small, tinged with yellow, and springy. Even when you put a grown leaf like the one in the photo into your mouth, there is almost no astringency, and you can feel a sweetness in the throat.

Two piles of dried green tea leaves side by side

Please look at the two tea leaf photos above.

Most people would probably think the tea on the left is of better quality. Tea grown without any nitrogen fertilizer has yellow leaves, and the color of the tea itself is yellowish green.

The one on the right looks at first glance like oxidized tea, but naturally grown tea is yellow like this from the moment it is made. This tea has a strong aftertaste and you can feel its sweetness. It is just like the sweetness of wild taranome (angelica tree buds).

Two white cups each holding opened tea leaves side by side

On the left is tea generally regarded as good, and on the right is the naturally grown tea that HOJO selects. Its feature is the same yellow color as natural plants.