Organic Tea Farming - Kazuto Mukazima

The Mukazima tea garden is hidden in the mountainous area of Fujieda. The tea garden/factory is owned and operated by Kazuto Mukazima. He is a young and ambitious tea farmer, who wants to produce tea in harmony with nature. His vision is to let tea grow in its natural way, without the use of any pesticides or fertilizers. After his father passed away, he took over the garden at age 18. He is now operating the tea garden for 6 years (Kazuto is 24 yrs). For him, “organic is a way of life”. His family has been producing organic teas for the past 28 years. Organic teas account for less than 10% of Japans green tea production.

Kazuto’s garden employs 5 people all year round; during growing season he employs 8 people. He is able to produce approx. 30,000 kg of organic tea per year. You require approx. 5 kg of fresh tea leaves to produce 1 kg of refined tea. That means he is processing approx. 150,000 kg of fresh tea leaves every year. Approximately 5% moisture remains in the leaves by the time the tea has been refined. 70% of his teas are consumed in Japan, with only 30% being exported. 

During our meeting with Kazuto, we were enjoying some of his teas – one being Hojicha, one blend of Hojicha with Peppermint (yum) and his Matcha Genmaicha (yummy). I was especially fond of the Matcha Genmaicha – it is a fairly thick liquid due to the fact that he is grinding the tea leaves and the rice. Kazuto decided to make Matcha Genmaicha since it is easy to drink (no straining of leaves is necessary). One reason he gave us for why his teas tastes so good, was that he used fresh rainwater for our tea (it was pouring all day). His garden is currently producing Sencha, Genmaicha, Bancha, Hojicha and Matcha.