Provenance & Sourcing
Production Philosophy
Honzu-grown source. According to Royal Blue Tea, King of Green KOICHIRO Imperial is made from tea grown in a honzu (本簀) tea garden carrying a tradition of over 400 years. Honzu is a traditional shading method in which reed screens (yoshizu) are woven on shelves built above the tea plants and combined with straw (wara). The producer states that the technique maintains humidity within the garden and allows fine adjustment of the shading rate, creating an environment intended for high-quality tea.[1]
Historical lineage of the method. Royal Blue Tea traces the honzu cultivation technique back at least 400 years, citing missionary João Rodrigues' "History of the Church of Japan," which described it in detail as a method to protect tea buds from frost during the Azuchi-Momoyama period.[1]