The umami story

This is the story of umami – the story of a special taste. Japan is one of the oldest tea growing regions in the world along with China and here at its origin in Eastern Asia, it is mainly green tea that is drunk. Japan is the only tea growing country in the world which solely produces green tea.

This fact is unique among tea growing countries and has led to the production of the very best and highest quality green teas. Characteristic of Japanese green tea is its fresh, intense, green flavor which is increasingly recognized as the genuine tea flavor and warmly appreciated by tea experts and enthusiasts throughout the world.

• Look – the color of the tea leaf and the cup.
• Listen – the boiling of the water, the breathing of the tea while it is steeped, the gurgling of the tea pot when we pour the tea into a cup.
• Smell – the tea leaf, the steeped tea leaf and the tea itself provide a unique aroma.
• Touch – tea experts take tea in their hand to feel if it is hard, soft, rough or silky.
• Taste – flavour remains central. In order to taste tea properly tea tasters are trained for decades. But fortunately the principles of the art of tea tasting can be learnt quickly by tea fans.

Now we come to umami. High quality Japanese teas can be recognized by a further taste: the fifth taste besides sweet, salty, sour and bitter – in Japanese this taste is called umami. Umami literally translates as “pleasant taste”. Umami is the pleasant taste that stems from the amino acids in the tea.

The higher the quality of the Japanese Tea the richer it is in amino acid content. To experience umami let a high-quality Japanese Tea steep at low temperature (50 degrees celsius) for about 3 minutes. Then taste. The full, sweet taste you experience on your tongue is umami.