小山園茶舗

Koyamaen Chaho

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小山園茶舗は、およそ160年の歴史を持つ、静岡市でもっとも古い茶商です。扱うのは静岡市の本山茶。なかでも今回は、聖一国師が静岡で初めて茶の種を蒔いたとされる発祥の地、足久保のお茶を選びました。

仕入れは早朝から始まります。農家が前日に刈り、夜中に荒茶へと加工したお茶が、朝3時半に届く。それを一本ずつ見極め、その足で茶市場へ向かう。良いお茶は誰の目にも良く映るからこそ、朝が早くなっていきました。

強みは、日ごとに仕入れたお茶を単品で仕上げることです。お茶は毎日違います。その日の特徴に合わせて番号を細かく分け、火入れの温度を1度単位で調整する。この細かな仕分けと合組の技術があるからこそ、甘み、渋み、色、香り、どんな好みにも応えることができます。

Koyamaen Chaho is the oldest tea merchant in Shizuoka City, with roughly 160 years of history behind it. We deal in Honyama tea from the mountains of Shizuoka. For this selection we chose tea from Ashikubo — the valley where the monk Shoichi Kokushi is said to have first sown tea seeds in Shizuoka.

Our buying starts before dawn. Growers harvest one afternoon, process the leaf into aracha through the night, and deliver it to us at half past three in the morning. We assess each lot, then head straight to the tea market. Good tea looks good to everyone, so the mornings only get earlier.

Our strength lies in finishing each day's purchase as a single lot. Tea changes daily. We sort each intake by its own character and adjust the firing temperature one degree at a time. That precision, combined with our blending, lets us meet almost any preference — sweetness, astringency, color, aroma.

A Single Degree Changes Everything

Most merchants blend first and finish afterward. We do the opposite: every lot we buy is finished on its own, according to what that particular tea needs on that particular day. Tea is never the same twice — leaf bought yesterday and leaf bought today will respond completely differently to the fire.

We can set the firing temperature to a single degree: 110, 120, 130. One degree changes the tea more than anyone would believe. Learning to read that takes years. But because we sort this finely, and because we know how to bring lots together afterward, we can build a tea around almost any preference — more sweetness, more body, a clearer color, a fuller aroma.

There's something else we've learned from customers abroad. In Japan, many people like their tea cloudy — the darker, the better, they think. But customers in China and France tell us the opposite: cloudy tea isn't tea, they say, it should be clear. And they're right in a way we've come to appreciate. The people who brew tea most often, who drink it every day, tend to find that a clear infusion carries more depth, not less. Brewed at 70 to 80 degrees, Honyama tea gives you aroma, body, astringency and sweetness layered together — that's where its character lives.

To Tea Lovers Around the World

A Message from the Maker

For this selection we chose Ashikubo, and we were asked not to blend — a single origin, from one valley. The result is a flavor you won't find elsewhere, and I'd like people to know it exists.
And if you ever have the chance, please come to Shizuoka. Walk up into the mountains and see the tea fields clinging to those steep slopes. There's a particular kind of astonishment in standing there and realizing that tea like this comes from a place like that.

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