Kinpouen Seicha

Kinpoen Seicha is a small family run tea farm located in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture.
Situated in Oi Town, surrounded by abundant nature with views of Mt. Daisen on the shores of Lake Nakaumi, Chisato Notsu runs the farm with her father, Kimio, and younger sister, Yuri. They are a full-time tea producer that uses spring water from "Menui," the first of Shimane's 100 Famous Waters, to produce tea in their own tea factory.

A note from the farmer; Chisato Notsu

Shortly after the end of the war, my grandfather cleared an area on the side of a mountain and
planted some tea trees; he built our tea processing factory in 1955.


Helping out on the farm and at the factory was an integral part of my childhood, and I grew to love the tea we made on our farm. I worked awhile in the private sector, but the call of tea proved too strong to resist. I was still in my early twenties when I returned to oversee the farm.


This is the land on which I was raised, and these are the smells and flavours I grew up with. Drinking my grandfather’s tea comforted me and calmed me, and I wish to share these feelings with others through our tea.

At Kinpouen, we do not want our teas to be saved for special occasions; rather, we aspire to cultivate teas for daily consumption; teas that imbue the everyday with a warmth and calmness.

Terroir

Oi-cho is blessed with an abundance of spring water and, as autumn slides into winter, mists
hover over our farm and the air grows heavy with wet. Snow falls deeply in the winter and
blankets our tea trees with a silence characteristic of the San-in region.

Temperatures here are lower than on the Pacific coast, and winds that have grown fat with moisture over the Japan Sea condense as they make landfall, resulting in a profusion of rain and a paucity of sunlight.


As a result, tea trees grow slowly here; the leaves remain soft, giving rise to the gentle umami, warm aromas, and pleasing astringency that typify our teas.