Horii Shichimeien Agata no Mori Sencha

Agata no Mori brews a beautiful pale yellow liquor. The first thing you notice is how smooth and balanced it is. It's vegetal with a light sweetness and mellow umami, a touch of crispness, and a sweet finish. A really wonderful sencha, and one we highly recommend.

This is an Uji sencha from Horii Shichimeien, made the traditional way. Horii says it balances aroma, umami and a little astringency, and they suggest it for anyone who isn't sure which sencha to pick. It's also the tea they pour for guests in their shop, which sits right in front of Agata Shrine in Uji. The tea is named for the shrine.

Horii dates the business to 1879, when Fusakichi Horii, the second generation, entered one of his teas in Japan's first tea competition in Yokohama. The family also tends Okunoyama, the last surviving garden of the Uji Shichimeien, the seven celebrated tea gardens of the Muromachi period. In 1924, the third generation, Chojiro Horii, built a dryer for tencha (the leaf that becomes matcha) and shared the design with other producers. Horii says the tencha dryers used in Japan today are based on it.