Satsuki - Loose Leaf Green Tea

ABOUT:
With so many famous tea growing regions in Japan from Shizuoka (静岡, near Mount
Fuji) to Uji (宇治, outside of the country’s ancient capital of Kyoto) and all the way down
to Yame (八女, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu), we’re grateful to have
established relationships with farms and tea producers all over the country. Like wine in
France, the terroir — or the soil, climate, and elevation — in every region in Japan
produces different teas with their own unique qualities. When guests come into our Tea
Master Green Tea Shop in Los Angeles, we enjoy chatting about what each tea offers
from the regions we carry at any given time. One thing we’ve noticed over the years, is
that time and time again, our guests absolutely love our teas from Yame from one of our
favorite producers, Hoshino Tea Garden, and Satsuki is their most tried-and-true
sencha.
Founded in 1946, the year after World War II had devastated Japan, Hoshino Tea
Garden (星野製茶園) spent decades perfecting the Yame region’s most famous tea type
(Gyokuro (玉露), a less-astringent, more savory connoisseur-grade green tea) before
turning to Matcha (抹茶) and Sencha (煎茶) production. It turned out, the terroir that had
produced so many award-winning Gyokuro teas that people drank for special
occasions, could also be turned into phenomenal Sencha that they could enjoy on a
more regular basis. Satsuki is the flagship sencha from Hoshino Tea Garden and it
offers a light but energetic umami taste and an arresting freshness.
The name Satsuki (さつき) is an artful homage to a native Japanese cultivar of azalea
flowers that bloom in the fifth month of the lunar calendar (from May to June) when this
tea is plucked. Satsuki azaleas are a common bonsai plant and Satsuki is a common
name for many notable characters in Japanese stories over time — including the
intrepid Satsuki Kusakabe, from Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved My Neighbor Totoro. Some
of our guests who gravitate toward Satsuki Sencha love it as a daily drinker, others
brew it as more occasionally as a special treat. No matter how you it’s served, Satsuki is
a deeply relaxing tea with a vivid color that Hoshino’s producers blend to a consistent
sweet taste year-in-and-year out. It’s true representation of Yame sencha.
PREPARATION:
Please enjoy our guide “How To Make Loose-Leaf Green Tea” which features simple
instructions and a straightforward description for how to best prepare our Satsuki
Sencha traditionally.
Our guests have found that our Satsuki is a classic sencha in that it’s best when brewed
twice. We’ve found that a first brew of about 90 seconds and a second at half that time
(45 seconds) produces two distinct but delicious infusions. For cold options, we’ve

found that cold-brewing or pouring over ice are both great options, but if you choose the
latter, just brew for about double the time on each infusion. As with all our sencha teas,
we do not recommend adding anything (sweetener or milk) to it.
We believe every tea is an invitation to enjoy, explore, and educate. We invite
you to be a Tea Master, no matter where you are on your tea journey, and
discover a way to prepare this tea that works for you and your tea guests.
TASTING HAIKU:
Boundless pond
Skimming on summer’s bloom
A noble float
FLAVOR PROFILE:
Richness: 3/5
Bite: 2/5
Aroma: 3/5
Vibrancy: 4/5
Umami: 4/5
ORIGIN:
Yame 八女
Fukuoka Prefecture 福岡県
Kyushu Region 九州
Japan日本
DETAILS:
Size:
100 grams (makes 10-20 teapots)
Packaging:
Sealed aluminum can with re-sealable top.