Hayashi Family – Kirishima

 

Family Hayashi ́s tea garden is located in the very south of Japan, on Kyushu, next to the Kirishima-volcano-group. Shûtarô Hayashi belongs already to the fifth generation of the family tea garden, and works mainly together with his father Osamu and Osamu ́s brother, but also the other family members are engaged in the family business. The conversion from conventional agriculture to organic agriculture was pushed forward in the generation of Shûtarô ́s father.

 

One specialty of family Hayashi is that they do not only produce one or two sencha varieties from the first flush, but an impressing range of first flush sencha-sorts in different grades. Most of these-sorts are produced using single bush varieties like Asatsuyu, Yabukita or Kanaya Midori. A really brilliant example of Hayashi family ́s first flush qualities in this Kirishima Tennen Gyokuro, which consists of 100% tea leaves of the tea bush variety Asatsuyu, which were shaded around two weeks before harvest.