Origin · N° 02 · Uji, Japan
Chapter · 00
Forty years
up the mountain.
A single merchant. A single hillside. Every gram of matcha poured at 43 Abbey St begins with one man's forty-year promise to a cultivar called Samidori.
Merchant · since 1984
Yoshida Shoin
Uji · 京都
Chapter · 01
The merchant who
never left the hill.
Yoshida-san is the fourth generation of his family to tend the Shirakawa hillside. He took the lease in 1984, after eight years apprenticing under his father, and has not missed a first-flush harvest since.
We met him in spring 2022. We asked for one cultivar, picked once a year, milled to order. He asked us how we planned to honour it. The conversation lasted two days. We left with a handshake — no contract.
Every kilo of Samidori we pour in Leicester was shaded, plucked, steamed, dried, sorted and stone-milled by his family. Nothing is blended. Nothing is held over a season.
"Matcha is patience." He says this the same way every time, in English, with the same small smile. It is the only English he uses without translation.
Recorded · Shirakawa, April 2024
Ledger · supply chain
Grand Cru
Origin
Shirakawa · Uji, Japan
Cultivar
Samidori · single-source
Shade
21 days beneath tana
Harvest
First flush · April
Grade
Ceremonial · Grand Cru
Stone-milled
20g per hour
Chapter · 02
Three-eighty metres,
morning fog.
Volcanic soil. A river valley that holds mist till ten. Twenty-one days under tana shade before harvest. The leaf does not know direct sun.
Ceremonial · 01
·
Colour
A vivid jade — never khaki, never olive. Shade-grown leaves drive chlorophyll up and bitterness down. You taste the colour before the flavour arrives.
Ceremonial · 02
·
Texture
Ten microns. Stone-milled at twenty grams an hour so the leaf never warms. The powder dissolves into foam, not sediment.
Ceremonial · 03
·
Taste
Umami forward, with a long, sweet finish. No astringency. Drinkable neat at 80°C, expressive enough to carry coconut, mango, raspberry, strawberry or blueberry.
From Uji
To Abbey St
7,300 km
One merchant · one cultivar
Now, taste it