Understory
Shade-grown green tea · Uji, Kyoto

Grown where the light
can't reach.

Every leaf we sell spends its last weeks before harvest under a woven canopy. Scroll to step into the shade.

Kabuse · the covering

Twenty days in the dark.

In late April, growers draw straw and black cloth over the bushes. The plants reach for sun that never comes, and the young leaves turn soft, thin and deep green.

20days shaded
90%light blocked
What the shade keeps

Less bitterness. More sweetness.

Without sunlight, the leaf stops turning its L-theanine into bitter catechins. That amino acid stays in the cup as a savory, brothy sweetness the Japanese call umami.

2×L-theanine vs. sencha
1stflush only
Hand-plucked · May harvest

Then we open the canopy.

Only the top two leaves and a bud are picked, steamed within hours, and rolled. What reaches you is a tea that spent its whole life hiding.

Scroll
The 2026 first flush

Three teas, three depths of shade.

The longer a bush stays covered, the sweeter and greener the leaf. The bar under each tea shows how many of the 20 shading days it received.

Kabusecha

Lightly covered. Bright and grassy with a sweet finish. The easy daily cup.

Shading7 days
80 g tin¥1,800

Gyokuro

Our flagship. Thick and savory, almost like broth, with notes of seaweed and sweet pea.

Shading20 days
50 g tin¥3,600

Stone-ground matcha

Shaded leaf, veins removed, milled on granite at 40 g an hour. Vivid, creamy, ceremonial.

Shading21+ days
30 g tin¥3,200
Brewing gyokuro

Cool water. Small cup. Patience.

Boiling water pulls out the bitterness the shade worked so hard to hold back. Treat it gently.

You can steep the same leaves three times. Raise the water about 10 °C and shorten the time for each round.

  1. 5 gleaf

    Measure the leaf

    About two teaspoons into a small kyusu pot, for two small cups.

  2. 60 °Cwater

    Cool the water

    Pour boiled water into the cups, then into a pitcher. Each pour drops it roughly 10 °C.

  3. 60 mlvolume

    Pour just enough

    Gyokuro is served in sips. Barely cover the leaves.

  4. 90 ssteep

    Wait, then pour to the last drop

    Alternate between cups so each gets the same strength. The final drops are the richest.

Harvest letter

Hear when the canopy comes off.

One email a year, in May, when the first flush is picked and ready to ship.