Japanese Green Tea, The Perfect Cup | Fuji Story ★ ONLY in JAPAN

So here we are in Fuji. This is on the base of Mount Fuji, a beautiful place called Obuchi Sasaba, one of the best places to see green tea in its natural state on this plantation here. In this episode, in this series of episodes, I'm going to be explaining to you some of the benefits of green tea, how it's grown, how it's harvested, what they do with it, the different varieties of it, how temperature can affect the taste, as well as bring you some amazing images from Mount Fuji like this. The green tea fields of Fuji City are legendary, with Mount Fuji in the background. But it's also the home of some of Japan's best green tea, produced at different elevations, with different tastes. This is the story of the amazing green tea of Fuji. We were up at the crack of dawn, departing from Shin Fuji Station on bicycle. It's the best way to go slow and see the area. And the views with Mount Fuji are spectacular. Joining me on this report is Dean Newcomb. We rented electric-assist bicycles from Fuji Area Cycling Guide, to ride up the hills of Fuji City to a green tea plantation about an hour away. You don't have to travel far from Shin Fuji Station to be among the rows of green tea hedges. This is Honda-san's family plantation, which dates back over a century. Honda-san teaches visitors about green tea at his Mount Fuji Tea Terrace. I think it's easy to understand what kind of tea it is, if you can tell people what kind of tea it is. I think this tea is the tea that has almost everything in it. He's very gentle with the tea, from the teapot called a kyusu, to pouring it into the cup. The kyusu handle is on the side, because it goes with the natural movement in pouring. There are so many little things that control the taste of the tea, including the pot and cup size. This style is used to serve guests, because it means the host must continuously give service. Omotenashi. Honda-san drinks it in quickly, like this. To me, it feels a little odd to drink from such a small cup. I'm used to larger mugs. Having the cup replenished all the time also means it stays hot. Honda-san explains about the tea he produces, which goes beyond the typical sencha. After steaming the tea, we dilute it with stone water, and it becomes matcha. Gyokuro and matcha have the same leaves. When we roast the sencha made from the same tree, it becomes hojicha. When we ferment the leaves from the same tree, it becomes koucha, or oolong tea. When we roast the oolong tea, it becomes roasted oolong tea. We make various kinds of tea from the same tree all over the world. In Japan, we use sencha the most. This bitter and bitter taste is called catechin. It is said to be good for the body. It is a component of health and beauty. It is also good for the body. I asked about the importance of the water. Is it the same in Tokyo or New York as here in Fuji when you make it? It is said that it is good to use low-altitude water called Nansui. This is a tea grown in a tea plant grown in Mt. Fuji. I think it is delicious to drink it in the water of Mt. Fuji. There is a mountain called Kirishima in Kagoshima. It is delicious to drink it in the water of that mountain. When I went to New York last year, it was delicious to drink it in the water of New York. I think it is delicious to drink it in the water of New York. I hope that people from various countries can come to experience all over Japan from various regions. We just missed the autumn flush when they harvested tea for the last time of the year, but took a look inside the factory. There was very little actual processing done to the green tea. There was a little green tea left over from the last flush in a bag. The green color is so vibrant. Well, it is December. In the winter months, they are not actually producing or manufacturing the green tea, so we have to come back in May when the mass production of green tea is really buzzing. In central Fuji City is Yamadayan, a green tea shop that has been in business since 1889. They sell some of Fuji City and Shizuoka's best green tea here. The owner is 5th generation Eiichi Watanabe, who also instructs students around Japan about green tea. He prepared three cups of tea for me, each prepared different, and he'll tell us about the benefits at the end. So, what are the main kinds of tea grown around Fuji City and Shizuoka? Do you recognize any of these? Here, I'll write them in English for you. From right to left, Sencha is the most common and popular green tea drank in Japan. It's refreshing with a green note. Fukamushi Sencha is deeply steamed Sencha. It has more depth and sweetness. Kukicha is stick tea, not leaf, which has a scent and body to the tea not found in leaf teas. Bancha is a lower grade Sencha from coarse leaves and stalk. Genmaicha is popped regular brown rice mixed with bancha, which has a heavy roasted aroma and is quite healthy with added minerals from the rice. Hojicha is roasted bancha. Many of the nutrients leave in the roasting process, but the aroma is intoxicatingly good and contains little to no caffeine. Let's learn the basics of making tea with Watanabe-san. The difference in the quality of the tea depends on when you pick it up. In the same tea garden, if you pick it up with a mill, you can get good quality tea. If you pick it up a little later, the leaves of the tea will get bigger and bigger, making it scary. The quality of the tea will decrease, but the price will be cheaper. In the case of good quality tea, the first step is very important. The first step is to add a little water. Basically, the first step should be done at a lower temperature than 70 degrees. If you put it at a lower temperature, it will take a long time to brew. In the case of water, wait 2-3 minutes. Temperature is an important key to brewing green tea. It controls the color, taste, sweetness, chemicals that are extracted from the tea leaves, which changes the benefits to the drinkers. Now we have 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000. The difference in taste is that the first one is sweet teanine, the second one is astringent catechin, and the third one is bitter caffeine. Teanine is for stress relief, catechin is for sterilization, and caffeine is for drowsiness. I think the characteristic of Japanese tea is that it has a clear difference between the sweetness, astringency, and bitterness of the same type of tea. The bitter taste of green tea is attributed to caffeine and catechins, and the temperature of the water used can control this and amino acids that add sweetness. Using warm water between 50 to 60 degrees Celsius releases the amino acids, increasing sweetness, but don't release the caffeine and catechins, so it's not very bitter. Hot water at 70 degrees Celsius is the norm and has a good balance between sweetness and bitterness. Boiling water at 100 degrees Celsius brings all three in higher proportions, very bitter and a greater aroma. All have great health benefits, so try using different temperatures. Although it's a green tea shop, it's hard not to enjoy Watanabe-san's hospitality, and he has a lot of tea artifacts, including a train set. But we still had a little more bicycling left. I have a theory. If I didn't come to Japan, I wouldn't be drinking any green tea at all. Yeah, absolutely. You and me both. I actually think the first time that I tried green tea might have been in Japan. Really? Yeah. So growing up in England, obviously green tea is not really an option. If you go into a shop or something, you might get it in a restaurant, but I never really saw green tea like this in a bottle, and I definitely didn't get it out of a vending machine, right? The 23 years that I grew up in the U.S. before I came here, never had it once. Never saw it. It wasn't an option. I can believe it. When I came here, I remember getting it from the vending machine and going, why isn't this stuff sweetened? Because everything from a vending machine, the value was part of the sweetness of it, right? But I've gotten used to the unsweetened taste. It's actually refreshing. And now that I know a lot more of the benefits of drinking green tea from Honda-san and Watanabe-san, I think I'm going to be making that switch from coffee to more tea in my diet. Would you? Or have you switched from coffee to green tea? Or drink both? Or none? Let me know your thoughts in the video comments. That's the thing, right? When you think about the health benefits of doing it. I mean, I have been resistant a little bit to green tea, and I would always ask for water until this trip, and I think now you've helped me convert to be a green tea drinker. And we've been living here for a long time. It took me a decade, you know? Yeah. This is Sano-san, a professional bicycle rider in Chizuoka, who has made a course for touring the city, an area including the green tea plantations. There are green tea plantations on both sides of the road under the blue sky, and there is a tea shop that you can go to when you get a little tired. I think that's a great course, too. I don't think there are many places like that in Japan. In Japan, there are a lot of plants, so I think it's everywhere in the mountains. I don't think there are many places like that in Japan. I think the tea plantations in Chizuoka are especially beautiful. Yes, the tea plantations in Fuji. Riding offers lovely meandering roads with long views to Fuji on clear days. He took us to one more stop in Fuji City that had very little to do with green tea, except for the waterfall view from Mount Fuji, which the hedges drink up. That's right, bungee, ending on a high note that echoes through the valley as a scream. My apologies to the wildlife. If the caffeine didn't wake me up, the fall sure did. There's power in every cup of Fuji's green tea. Just an hour away from Tokyo, it's certainly an adventure worth the trip. If you liked it, hit that subscribe button and join me on another adventure around Japan. See you later.