SENCHA ZAIRAI BIO

-Organic Japanese Green Tea-

The most natural sencha
 

Harvested in May 2024
Kagoshima, Japan

We were very keen to include this tea in our already extensive catalog of high-quality online Japanese teas because Sencha Zairai is truly special. It represents an ancient and original taste of how green teas used to be, how they were cultivated and processed.
Because Zairai 在来 means native or indigenous, the plants of this tea are not crossed with cuttings as has been done for years to obtain certain cultivars (e.g., Yabukita, Saemidori, etc.). The plants of Sencha Zairai come from seeds and not cuttings, which is the most natural and ancient propagation method.
The fact that a plant grows from a seed rather than a cutting results in greater strength and vigor. Plants from cuttings are somewhat like clones because the genetic material does not cross, so they are always the same. This has many advantages for growers: you already have all the information about when the leaves will be ready for harvest, which will occur at one time, with a single flavor and well-defined characteristics.
Additionally, a tea plant that grows from seeds will produce fewer leaves; cultivar selection often chooses those that yield more product.

For this reason, it is very rare to find Sencha Zairai. Cultivating and drinking Sencha Zairai means being a great lover of camellia sinensis.

Plants that come from seeds are much more anarchic, they follow Nature, making them relatively unpredictable but also stronger and more vigorous against insects, requiring fewer treatments. Their roots are deeper, and the taste of different harvests will always be slightly different because the information contained in the seeds evolves the genetic material.

Organic Sencha Zairai is a tea with vibrant energy, a good balance between Umami, caffeine, and tannins, an ancient and healthy taste that green tea lovers must try to have an important point of reference.