About Our Tea: The Best that Japan Can Offer

Like a fine wine, high-quality tea depends on more than pretty packaging. The age of the leaves, their growing conditions, and even soil fertility all impact the final flavor. For us, how tea is grown and the way it’s processed is the secret for crafting a sweet, nutritious tea like no other.

We Strive for Sweeter Soil Cultivation with the Chagusaba Method

Chagusaba (茶草場) is an ancient farming method that relies on tending both man-made and natural grasslands to enhance soil fertility. This labor-intensive process takes thousands of man hours every season, but tea farmers find it worthwhile for the crop quality it produces.

Practiced by Shizuoka farmers for centuries, grasses are grown throughout tea plantations in the summer months, later to be cut down to form an insulating layer to prevent the ground from freezing. Sugar cane and sugar syrup are also added to the soil to enhance its sweetness.

By enriching, protecting, and revitalizing the soil beneath each tea tree, the chagusaba method sweetens the taste of each tea leave by keeping plant roots warm and well-nourished throughout the winter. As the mulch breaks down in the spring, it adds much-needed silicic aid to the base of each tree, enriching the soil and preventing roots from getting burned from too much nitrogen.

‘Dusty’ Tea is A Sign of High Quality, Really!

At first look, our deep steamed tea leaves appear broken down, even dusty. This is because the longer processing time breaks down the tea leaves, especially at their tips. This leads to powdery tea that many compare to ceremonial matcha in taste, texture and nutrient levels.

Drinking tea leaves directly actually enhances the nutrition for your body. However, if you’re bothered by these fragments, a specially-designed fukamushi teapot provides a finer mesh to filter them out.

Our Teas Contain Better Flavor with Deep Steaming Technology

After they are picked, steaming tea leaves is necessary to stop the oxidation process. Most green tea is steamed for just 30 seconds before being rolled and dried, which creates a brew that leaves you with a bitter taste.

In contrast, the sunny, yet foggy conditions throughout the Shizuoka region where it grows creates a firmer tea leaf, which needs longer steaming to release the complex flavors contained within. This means that our tea undergoes ‘deep steaming’ (aka fukamushi method 深蒸し) for almost two minutes - four times longer than regular tea!

Only thick, sun-soaked leaves benefit from deep steaming. The proprietary steaming machine used for every batch was developed specifically for our tea after years of research and study. Today, it is the leader in the steaming technology in Japan, and the world.

Longer processing leads to a bolder flavor filled with the health-enhancing amino acid Theanine. Every cup provides robust taste, smoother mouthfeel, and a subtle hint of sweetness and far less astringency.

Green Tea Deep Steaming

About Our Tea Farm: Arahataen

Japanese Green Tea Company is the only India-based company to source tea directly from Arahataen Green Tea Farms in the Shizuoka prefecture in Japan. Shizuoka has been the center of green tea cultivation in Japan for centuries, and the region’s intense sunlight and intermittent fog gives each batch of tea its distinctive flavor.

Naturally fertile soil combined with a flat landscape that’s free from sunlight-blocking mountains also contributes to the ideal growing conditions for robust tea plants.

On the farm, each leaf is harvested thicker than usual, which creates higher amounts of catechins and chlorophyll from its longer sun exposure.

Humble Beginnings and a Bright Future

Arahataen Green Tea Farms was founded in 1948 by Mr. Arahata Eizo. Today, the 17-acre farm is managed by 55 employees who handle the cultivation, processing, and packaging of their award-winning tea right onsite.

Since 1969, Arahataen has been both the founder and leader of the Fukamushi Research Group (深むし研究会 天狗会) that developed better steaming technology for enhanced taste. The farm is also the first company to introduce clean room techniques for pu-erh tea, ensuring that unwanted bacteria stayed far away from the fermenting tea leaves.

Throughout the years, Arahataen Green Tea Farms has received the Japanese National tea award, the most prestigious award for tea in all Japan, in 1974, 1975, 1979 and 2010. The farm has also been awarded the National Quality of Tea Award, 1st place for the Shizuoka Furusato Prize, and more, earning it the distinction of being one of the oldest and most respected tea companies in the region.

Today, Japanese Green Tea Company is proud to be the farm’s only distributor outside of Japan.

A Lasting Passion for Better Dirt

Arahataen Farms believes that the best tea begins with high-quality dirt. Through the Chagusaba method, the farm carefully cultivates crops of thick grasses around their tea trees so that they provide added nutrients directly to the soil as a compostable blanket every winter. The farmers also collaborate with researchers from Shizuoka University to study soil and the impacts that its sweetness has on the taste of the tea it cultivates.

This labor-intensive process protects plant delicate roots while giving each tree the nutrition it needs to grow, ensuring that only the best leaves make it into their tea.

Japan’s Best-Selling Tea Online

Our tea was the #1 Best Selling Green Tea in Japan online through Rakuten Inc. in 2016 and 2017. Rakuten Inc. is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and ranks #14 in the world for online sales volume (as of Feb 2018).

Japanese Green Tea In Awards
Tamilnadu, India

About Our Company, Japanese Green Tea Company

Shipped with Love from Tamilnadu, India

You don’t need to travel to Japan to appreciate the world’s best green tea. Japanese Green Tea Company is giving you the chance to enjoy premium green teas from the comfort of your home.

We are the only India distributor of green teas grown from Arahataen Green Tea Farms, meaning that we provide the only tea produced with the Chagusaba method from the Shizuoka region of Japan. All our tea comes directly from Arahataen Green Tea Farms and undergoes stringent quality controls, ensuring only the best makes it to you.

High-Quality Nutrition in Every Cup

Our tea is rich in vitamin C, high in catechins, and free from cholesterol and sodium, all while containing less caffeine than most green tea.

Bringing the Best from Japan Directly to You

While Japan is the eighth largest tea producer in the world, just three percent of this tea ever leaves the country.

When you order green tea online directly from a Japanese company, it can take longer than a month for it to make it through customs and into your cupboard. Worst of all, you’ll pay a hefty transaction fee and custom duty to make it happen.

At Japanese Green Tea Company, we are revolutionizing the process of buying Japanese green tea by partnering directly with Arahataen Farms. Because they grow, process and package their tea on site, we get shipments to you much faster- usually just one to five days!

By cutting out the middle-men, you get your tea faster, fresher, and without fees.

Your tea is shipped using trusted India Post via Speed Post Service from Tamilnadu, India, so you don't need to worry about hassle of dealing with signing for package and custom duty.

Your get your tea in 2-3 days in India. (Click here to check when you will get your tea if you order today.)

India Post

Try our tea for yourself, and you’ll understand our 99 percent satisfaction rate from previous customers. If for any reason you are left unhappy, we have a money-back guarantee for every product we sell.

How We Give Back

As a company, we care about the greater community. For every purchase, we donate ten percent of our profits to One Child Matters, a worldwide organization working to lift children out of poverty.

Giving Back

About Our Founder: Kei Nishida

Kei Nishida

Kei Nishida is a Japanese green tea enthusiast, a writer, and the founder and CEO of Japanese Green Tea Company. His passion for introducing India to the tea of his homeland was the catalyst for creating the only company that brings high-quality tea from Arahataen Green Tea Farms to the rest of the world.

Having spent his early years in Japan, Kei Nishida has been fervent about green tea throughout his life. He credits his first career as a software engineer at Hewlett Packard (HP) for his interest in science, research, and writing that influences his drive to source the best green tea for a wider audience today. He is also drawn to the research-driven approach by Arahataen farm to utilize the best technology for every batch.

Today, you can find his published work in Fresh Cup Magazine, Yoga Digest Magazine, T-Ching and more. He is also the author of books related to matcha and green tea.

Kei Nishida's Published Books:

Kei Nishida is regular author for:

About Our CEO: Arunachalam Ramanathan

Arunachalam Ramanathan

Arunachalam (AR) Ramanathan is the CEO of Chinnaminor Enterprises, importers representing as sole agency of JapaneseGreenTea.In operation in India. AR has been a first-class marketing professional since 1981. He brings rich experience from his previous job in which he promoted industrial products like Grinding Wheels and Abrasives. Because of his past work experience, he is fluent in areas such as Marketing & Sales. He has worked in Mumbai, Pune, Punjab, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Chennai most recently.

About Our COO: Kalathinathan Ramanathan

Kalathinathan Ramanathan

Kalathinathan (Kalathi) Ramanathan is COO of Chinnaminor Enterprises, importers representing as sole agency of JapaneseGreenTea.In operation in India. Kalathi is the younger son of AR Ramanathan and handles the operations of Japanese Green Tea Company.. India. Kalathi brings his international vision and expertise from his study abroad period in the USA at Bemidji State University and East Tennessee State University.

A Note from Kei Nishida:

I love India.

I was born and raised in Japan and have been living in the US for the past 20 years; but, when I first visited India through my work at Hewlett Packard (HP), it opened my eyes.

I love the Indian lifestyle and how people deeply connect in daily life in India. India always makes me feel like I am in a movie, and I love the feeling of waking up every day and not knowing what could happen. Life is always full of surprises, joy, and happiness to me living in India.

Since then, I’ve had multiple opportunities to work for months in India. During one of my stays in India, I was once asked to order good Japanese green tea from Japan. The man told me that he visited Japan and tried the green tea there and loved it but could not find such quality green tea in India.

That evening, I tried to order from Japan online and found that it was not possible because Japanese websites deny credit cards used in India. Later, I found out that even if I were successful in ordering online from Japan, custom duty handling was extremely complex and costly.

I then realized that Indian people had no way of even trying quality Japanese green tea.

For a long time, I knew about Arahataen’s good quality Japanese green tea. Every time I went back to Japan, I always brought their tea back to the USA and it was very popular among American friends.

The farm uses sugarcane in its soil to make the tea taste sweeter while reducing its astringency (a deal breaker for many would-be tea drinkers).

Unfortunately, at the time, Arahataen didn’t export their tea outside of Japan. So, I contacted Arahataen to see if I could distribute their tea outside of Japan… thankfully, they said yes!

That is how our journey began.

Now, I’m happy to report that I can interact with tea lovers online and in person. Additionally, I feel fortunate and proud to bring one of the best Japanese teas to the greater world. The taste of Chagusaba method tea is loved by many tea specialists now, and our tea blend won the Global Tea Championship in 2017 & 2018.

Our customers just keep coming back, and from the first sip, you’ll understand why. If you’re afraid to commit, we offer sample sizes for most of our products so that you can give them a try.

With Japanese Green Tea Company., I hope that you enjoy the best of what Japan can offer: green tea harvested with care and love.

Sincerely,
Kei Nishida
Founder and CEO