Wakoucha Tasting, Tea N°2: Nearai Karabeni, 2nd Flush, 2017, Thés du Japon

During the final quarter of the 19th century the Japanese government sent Tada Motokichi to China and India to study the production process of black tea so export from Japan to the USA could be boosted; in a later article we will talk about his trips. One of the problems for Japan was that their cultivars, ideal for green tea, had difficulties in oxydizing in the right way and it proved almost impossible to make the black teas the export market wanted with them. Mr Motokichi came back with seeds from Assam and Darjeeling but also from China and planted these in the regions deemed fit. In the 20th century Research Centres developed these into new cultivars fit for black tea, and most of them have 'beni' in their name, 'beni' standing for black.

This tea is made with Karabeni, a cultivar developed out of seeds from Hubei in China. Is it a coincidence that Hubei is the only place in China where tea is steamed, like in Japan ? As I don't know when the Chinese started doing this in this region I can't tell you, but I guess there is a link. Karabeni was not used a lot, by the time it was approved for planting and production the market had collapsed, but there is still some around. It is reported to be very different from most other wakocha-cultivars.

Nearai Karabeni 2017, 2nd Flush, Thés du Japon:


11,43 euro for 100 gram. Good until april 2024. Tea garden in het forested part of Kita-ku Ward, where the Miyakoda river enters the Hamana Lake. It is a part of Hamamatsu, the biggest town in Shizuoka, in the west of the prefecture. Subtropical climate. Organic agriculture.

28 july 2019, a root day. 150ml, 98°C, 2minutes, 3 grams of tea, in a kyusu. Quite a special smell for the dry leaves, with a sharp almost acidic twang. Very fragmented material, some stems and a little bit of tip. The aroma of the wet leaves is a bit strange but with a faint whiff of berry-jam. The infusion is bright red. Very subdued aroma with some honey in the background, changing into old musty beeswax. The taste was light and sweet, then a small astringency developed. The finish was creamy with a touch of that berry jam. A very quiet tea. 😊😊😊

We don't know a lot about this tea, but the fragmented material and some of the characteristics gave the impression that it tried to copy an Indian black tea. There are two reasons why Japan should not do this. First, even if 11.43 euro is cheap for a good Wakoucha it is way more expensive than Indian teas, and second, as a wakoucha the quality fails. Luckily an exception in the Thés du Japon range...

Florent Weugue, the owner of Thés du Japon, confirmed me later that this was a 2nd flush.