Chiran-cha, the tea from Minami-Kyushu
One of the earliest Ichibancha of the year!
You may have heard of this city if you like Yakiimo - or baked sweet potato. Yes, the Minami-Kyushu are it is famous for tea, but it also boasts the highest sweet potato output in Japan!
Overview of Chiran-cha
Chiran-cha is the name of the tea produced in Minami-Kyushu city, the southern-most city of Kyushu Island in Japan.
The Chiran-cha also falls under the umbrella of the broader "Kagoshima-cha," as Minami-Kyushu city is in the Kagoshima prefecture.
Chiran-cha is very famous throughout Japan for its scale of tea production. Minami-Kyushu city is known for being the city or town with the most significant output of Japanese green tea in Japan!
It's not only the quantity which makes it famous.
Chiran-cha is also a regular winner of the "Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries award" in Japan's Annual National Tea Competition.
It has won a whopping 33 times in the past! By doing so, it has established itself as a brand for having one of the best quality tea in Japan.
The secret to the quality is said to be the naturally gifted fertile soil. The ashes from Sakurajima, a nearby active volcano, are said to gift suitable land for tea to grow.
The good part about this tea is the high accessibility even outside Japan. You can see they are widely available in Singapore. I found two types of Chiran-cha just by stopping by DonDonDonki, a supermarket you can find in several parts of Singapore.
Chiran-cha Tea Types
The primary production of Chiran-cha is Sencha and Fukamushi-Sencha.
They also use a lot of their Ichibancha, or the tea leaves from the first harvesting session of the year, to produce high-quality Kabuse-cha.
If you prefer the taste of fresh Sencha over the thick but muddiness of the Fukamushi-sencha, you might want to be cautious. A high percentage of Chiran-cha is Fukamushi-sencha, which may be the case even if it says Sencha on the package.
Similar to other Kagoshima-cha, the tea trees used in the area are highly diverse.
Interestingly, Yabukita, the most common cultivar in Japan by a wide margin, is not the most common breed! It's only the second at 28.4% of the share, while Yutakamidori, the number one cultivar for Chiran-cha, accounts for 42.1% of the total production.
Yutakamidori is a breed of tea tree which is relatively weak to cold; therefore, the Kyushu area is the primary producer of this tea. It produces excellent umami, especially when shaded or steamed well. These characteristics make it an ideal tea plant for producing teas such as Kabuse-cha or Fukamushi.
Other cultivars common in the area includes Saemidori, Asatsuyu, Asanoka, Kanayamidori, and Okumidori. A wide variety of types are available for different tastes and agricultural benefits.
Being the southern-most area, the timing for plucking Ichibancha is exceptionally early for the Chiran-cha. We expect the year's first tea production around late March, and this tea is specially named the "Hashiri-Shincha".
In contrast, the Ichibancha tea leaves in the Kyoto area are plucked early May. This harvesting timing is a stark difference!
Chiran-cha is one of the first teas circulated annually in Japan.
(Yambaru-cha of Okinawa is one type of tea that is produced earlier, but it is scarce as the production volume is small)
Eicha and Kawanabe-cha
In Kagoshima prefecture, there used to be two other famous brands, the Eicha and the Kawanabe-cha. In 2017, these were consolidated into the Chiran-cha brand.
