The Japanese tea Nadeshiko – riding the border between a Black Tea and a Pu Er

We discovered a tea in Nadeshiko back in 2012 in its experimental phase. Passing through the "airlock" between the tea processing room and the fungus inoculation chamber, we knew that we had found another great project!

What is this tea? Basically a black tea with a controlled. microbiological fermentation. The leaves are from a garden on Haruno Mountain in Shizuoka Prefecture. Gardens, which do not use pesticides or herbicides. The tea follows an unusual series of transformation techniques... withering, rolling, kneading and sterilization.

Then, in a controlled chamber, a single spore of Aspergillus awamori is introduced. The leaves are then stabilized by drying and sorted. The result: a tea with a very distinct flavour profile, closer to a black tea than a Pu Er.

Developed as a healthy tea here in Japan, the leaves contains more citric and gallic acid, and catechins, than most green teas. The transformation process also creates large amounts of polyphenols called Teadenol A and Teadenol B. Current research at the Universities of Shizuoka and Saga seeks to do more research into the properties of Nadeshiko Tea and this new process.

While we wait to learn about these benefits , let's just loose ourselves in this fascinating flavour profile!