Uji Hojicha Jubuzan宇治焙茶 鷲峰山

Producing Hoji Tea with Deep, Lingering Aftertaste Comparable to Premium Teas Worldwide

Uji Hojicha Jubuzan is a hoji tea made from the first flush of naturally cultivated tea in Jubuzan, a mountain in Wazuka Town, Kyoto Prefecture.

Wazuka Town, along with Ujitawara Town, Minamiyamashiro Village, Kasagi Town, Tsukigase, and Asamiya, has long been known as a producer of high-quality Uji tea.

Product Details

We have produced hoji tea with a rich flavor and a long-lasting aftertaste. The tea is custom roasted from the first flush of naturally cultivated tea.

This hoji tea is of a quality that even those accustomed to high-end Chinese teas will appreciate. The deep richness and sweet aftertaste that lingers in your throat redefine the standards of hoji tea.

Unusual Quality, That is Defined by The Long Lasting Aftertaste

We wanted to create a high-quality hoji that you've never tasted before.

High-quality tea has depth of flavor, making the tea feel soft and the sweet aftertaste linger. The most important factor in achieving this flavor is the selection of raw materials. We chose Uji Sencha Jubuzan, known for its deep throat feel and excellent raw material quality.

By growing the tea slowly and without any fertilizer, the leaves contain more polyphenols and iron. The difference in fragrance and taste is evident even to those not familiar with tea.

We Paid Attention to the Roasting Process

The raw sencha was roasted using a sand-roasting method. Sand has a large surface area, allowing heat to be evenly transferred to the tea leaves, resulting in uniform roasting.

A Sweet, Toasted Flavor Similar to High-Quality Oolong Tea

Many people have tasted this tea, and most of them said, "This is not hoji tea."

It truly doesn't taste like hoji tea. It has a sweet flavor like high-quality oolong tea, an unimaginable smoothness, deep throat feel, and a lasting sweet aftertaste.

The brewed tea has an amber color and tastes and smells more like high-quality oolong tea than hoji tea.

The tea has a glossy amber color, and its potential can be sensed the moment you smell it.

Touch the brewed tea leaves. They are surprisingly soft and elastic, contrary to their appearance.

Experience the Quality Difference Through Water Quality

The higher the quality of tea, the more iron it contains, which alters the nature of the water itself.

The iron in the tea affects the water quality, making it very soft and viscous.

Uji Hojicha Jubuzan dramatically changes the water's nature. Just a small sip gives a pleasant tea high.

It has a color more like oolong tea than hoji tea.

Because of its high quality, it is also suitable to drink from small tea cups.

This product uses Uji Sencha Jubuzan as the raw material. Unlike hoji tea made from stems or coarse tea, the raw material itself is costly.

Additionally, when making hoji tea, the extra roasting process results in weight loss, which is reflected in the cost, making it slightly more expensive than sencha.

Below is an explanation of the raw material used, Uji Sencha Jubuzan.

We Focused on Natural Cultivation Without Fertilizers to Achieve Deep Throat Feel and Sweet Aftertaste

Jubuzan is a 682-meter-high mountain located between Ujitawara Town and Wazuka Town. This area used to be the bottom of Lake Biwa, which is why it contains rich clayey red soil.

When sourcing this tea, we selected naturally cultivated tea leaves from Jubuzan's ideal environment. Natural cultivation means growing the tea without fertilizers or pesticides, allowing it to grow robustly and naturally over time.

Modern agriculture often relies on fertilizers for tea production.

However, tea grown with excessive fertilizer grows excessively, accumulating large amounts of amino acids but lacking polyphenols and minerals essential for flavor and aftertaste, resulting in bland tea.

In general, Japanese tea relies heavily on amino acids, leading to a very light taste. Excessive roasting is used to enhance the tea's character, but good tea should be impressive even in its raw state.

The phrase "tea rich in theanine" often cited in books implies tea heavily fertilized with nitrogen, which, in my definition, means less tasty tea.

The difference is clear when comparing fresh leaves from various tea gardens. When planning this year's new product, we focused extensively on selecting the best raw materials before discussing the processing methods.

By sourcing excellent raw materials, we achieved delicious tea without the heavy roasting typically seen in the Japanese tea industry.

Preserving the Natural Flavor by Not Removing Stems

In Japanese tea, stems are usually removed because they are yellow and noticeable.

Modern tea production always removes stems to achieve visually appealing green leaves. However, we intentionally leave the stems. Through various experiments, we found that stems play a crucial role. Stems contain abundant minerals and have a sweet flavor and body.

Those familiar with stem tea, like Karigane, know that stem tea is very sweet!

We conducted a comparison by hand-removing stems with tweezers from some tea and leaving the stems in others.

The results were surprising; the tea with stems had a much better flavor and body. Everyone who tasted it agreed that the tea with stems was more delicious.

Removing the stems made the flavor sharper and significantly weakened the sweet, floral scent and body.

Historically, it was considered good luck to have a tea stem standing upright in your cup, known as "chabashira" in Japanese. Nowadays, stems are not included in tea, so this rarely occurs. In the past, people appreciated the sweetness of stems and habitually drank tea with them.

Today, aesthetics often take precedence over flavor and aroma, leading to the removal of stems.

Sourcing Tea from Completely Natural Cultivation Gardens to Provide Sweet, Lingering Aftertaste

The moment you swallow this tea, you will be amazed at how different it feels from ordinary tea.

The tea smoothly flows down your throat, leaving a pleasant sweetness from the root of your tongue to the back of your throat.

This is a characteristic of high-quality tea. Although this product would command a high price overseas, the unique standards of Japanese quality allowed us to offer it at a realistic price.

Simply put, the definition of good tea is "rich flavor." Richness refers to the deep, satisfying taste felt in the back of your throat.

Using more tea leaves for cheaper tea increases bitterness but does not enhance the richness. Uji Sencha Jubuzan meets this definition of richness. Even with a small amount of tea leaves, it makes the water taste rich, providing deep satisfaction. It's similar to how high-quality kombu requires only a light touch in water to impart its flavor.

Unlike typical Japanese tea with a strong amino acid flavor, this tea has a refreshing, clean scent, similar to oolong tea. It is perfect for those who enjoy oolong tea.

The Blind Spot of Organic Cultivation

There is a common belief that organic cultivation equals healthy and delicious. While organic cultivation is safe from a pesticide perspective, it does not necessarily mean the tea is delicious or healthy.

To produce delicious vegetables, fruits, and tea, it is essential to grow the plants slowly to develop high cell density leaves, rich in polyphenols and minerals, resulting in a flavorful, rich sweetness.

I have tasted many organically grown teas, but many of them were indistinguishable from regular tea in terms of quality.

This largely depends on the fertilizers used and the cultivation methods. Even organic fertilizers like compost act similarly to chemical fertilizers like nitrates.

Nitrogen stimulates vigorous growth, causing large cell growth, which results in fewer polyphenols and minerals, producing bland tea.

My family grows apples, and when nitrogen fertilizer is applied, the leaves turn deep green and the apples grow larger. However, the apples taste bland and watery.

Regardless of organic or inorganic, growing tea naturally — like wild vegetables, slowly and robustly — is crucial for producing high-quality tea.

Tea grown under harsh conditions over time reflects its struggle in its quality.

Tea tree beside animal manure. The leaves are large and deep green, unlike typical tea trees. Tea made from such leaves will have a bland taste and little throat feel.

Deep Pruning

The more deeply a tea tree is pruned, the more vigorously it grows the following year.

"Vigorous growth" means larger cells with fewer minerals, resulting in lower-quality tea.

Deep pruning is common in high-production areas like Shizuoka and Kagoshima. By providing nitrogen and deep pruning, growth is accelerated, leaf size increases, and production volume rises.

High quality typically means lower production and rarity. It's unrealistic to expect both high quality and high production.

As with highland vegetables or delicious apples, slow growth results in high-density cells, producing flavorful food.

This applies not only to vegetables but also to fish. Farmed fish grown quickly and naturally grown fish grown slowly have similar differences.

Pruned tea leaves produce vigorous young branches and large green leaves.

The More You Drink, the Sleepier You Get

This is not an issue with Uji Sencha Jubuzan. On the contrary, it is perfect for those seeking deep sleep.

High-mineral tea, which is considered "premium tea" in overseas markets, warms the body and makes you sleepy.

While tea contains caffeine, known to prevent sleep if consumed excessively, high-quality tea's increased mineral content improves circulation, leading to sleepiness.

Uji Sencha Jubuzan contains abundant minerals, sometimes causing a light tea high, similar to the relaxation felt after drinking premium brandy, whiskey, or wine.

This is not a psychological effect; continued drinking will make your face flush and feel relaxed and mellow.

Although Japanese law prohibits specifying health benefits, foods that improve circulation also aid in relaxation, digestion, and sleep.

Experience it for yourself by drinking it.

About Jubuzan

Uji Hojicha Jubuzan is grown in Jubuzan, a mountain in Wazuka Town, Kyoto Prefecture.

Wazuka Town, along with Ujitawara Town, Minamiyamashiro Village, Kasagi Town, Tsukigase, and Asamiya, has long been known as a producer of high-quality Uji tea.

The area, once the bottom of Lake Biwa, was uplifted, and subsequent erosion by the Nabari River created unique river terraces characteristic of Tsukigase.

The former lakebed contains extremely high-quality, fine-grained red soil.

However, not all areas along the Nabari River have red soil; it is found only in tea gardens located at the top of mountains, untouched by erosion.

Conversely, areas shaped by river erosion contain more sand, producing ordinary Japanese tea with little throat feel.

Surroundings of Jubuzan: This area is covered with rich clayey red soil abundant in iron.

Uji tea region: The unique environment of mountains and valleys creates significant temperature differences between day and night, producing high-quality tea.

The following diagram explains why red soil layers are found only at high altitudes. Erosion by the river has washed away the soil from the mountains, leaving the red soil layers in limited areas.

Made from Rare Native Varieties of Sencha

Uji Sencha Jubuzan is made from Zairai tea.

Zairai are often thought of as indigenous or original species native to Japan, but they are grown from seeds, resulting in diverse shapes, sizes, colors, aromas, and flavors within the same tea garden.

Many high-quality teas in China are made from native varieties, often referred to as mixed varieties. Famous teas like Longjing are made from mixed varieties for high-quality products.

The following video introduces the tea-making of Tsukigase.