Izumi
Izumi is a Japanese black tea (wakoucha) cultivar developed in Japan and associated with the craft of domestic black tea production. It is prized among Japanese black teas for a naturally sweet character and unusually gentle astringency, qualities that make it well suited to gentle steeping and to no- and low-alcohol beverage service.
Usage in beverages
Used as a loose-leaf tea infused in hot water, drunk on its own as a naturally caffeinated but alcohol-free beverage. Its natural sweetness and low astringency make it suitable for drinking without sugar or milk, for iced tea, and as an aromatic base in tea-forward mocktails and blended soft drinks.
In depth
A green-tea heritage and the place of infused leaf tea in Japan
Tea reached Japan from China more than a millennium ago and, over the centuries, developed into a culture centered almost entirely on green tea. The most widely consumed style is sencha, an infused whole-leaf tea made by pouring hot water over leaves that have first been steamed to halt oxidation, then rolled and dried. This steaming step gives Japanese green teas their bright, vegetal, sometimes grassy character and sets them apart from the pan-fired green teas of China. Sencha alone accounts for roughly four-fifths of Japan's tea output, and the water temperature at which it is brewed noticeably shifts the balance between mellow sweetness and astringency. Izumi belongs to this same plant and tradition of infused leaf tea, though it is worked into a black rather than a green style.[1]
Powdered and whisked tea: the other Japanese path
Alongside infused leaf teas, Japan preserved a second way of drinking tea that had faded in its Chinese homeland: finely ground powder whisked into hot water. This method, brought back by Zen Buddhist monks who studied in Song-dynasty China around the end of the twelfth century, became matcha, the tea at the heart of the Japanese tea ceremony. Where matcha suspends the powdered leaf directly in water, teas such as sencha and, by extension, black cultivars like Izumi are prepared by steeping and then discarding the leaf. This distinction between whisked and infused preparation frames the whole landscape of Japanese no-alcohol tea drinking into which Izumi arrives as a comparatively modern, oxidized specialty.[2]
Izumi as a Japanese black tea cultivar
Izumi is a black tea cultivar produced in Japan, part of the country's small domestic black tea (wakoucha) movement that developed later than its green tea tradition. It is grown from the same species used for Japanese green teas but is fully oxidized rather than steamed, yielding a tea whose defining traits are a pronounced natural sweetness and markedly low astringency. Because it lacks the sharp tannic edge of many imported black teas, Izumi is typically infused in hot water and drunk plain, without the sugar or milk often added to more astringent black teas. Its softness also lends itself to iced preparation and to use as a gentle, aromatic base in alcohol-free tea drinks.[1]
Low- and non-alcoholic fermented rice drinks as a Japanese context
Japan's beverage culture also includes sweet, low- and non-alcoholic drinks made from fermented rice, most notably amazake, which dates back well over a thousand years. Amazake is produced by adding koji mold to cooked rice, whose enzymes break the starches down into simple sugars, developing sweetness naturally without added sugar; a lighter version can also be made from sake lees. It is traditionally served warm, often with a pinch of grated ginger, at teahouses, festivals, and shrines, especially around the New Year, and outside Japan it is sold both as a drink and a natural sweetener. Such warm, naturally sweet, essentially non-alcoholic drinks share shelf and cultural space with gentle, sweet infused teas like Izumi in the modern no- and low-alcohol category.[3]
Contemporary use in no- and low-alcohol beverages
Today Izumi is served much as any specialty single-cultivar black tea: brewed hot as a caffeinated but alcohol-free drink whose sweetness and low astringency make it forgiving to steep and pleasant to drink unadorned. The same qualities suit it to iced tea and to tea-forward soft drinks and mocktails, where a mellow, naturally sweet infusion can stand in for more tannic or bittering elements. As Japanese tea gains attention abroad and interest in domestic black teas grows, cultivars like Izumi contribute to a widening repertoire of caffeinated, zero-alcohol Japanese beverages beyond the familiar green teas.[1]
Part of Camellia Sinensis