IV. 製造過程

There is an old saying that people who drink the tea made from tealeaves that are harvested on the eighty-eighth day after the first day of spring will stay in a perfect state of health and live longer. The tealeaves gathered on this day are the best in its quality, usually mature and contain a rich aroma and flavor. Tealeaves are harvested several times in a year. The first harvested tea is the best, called Ichi-ban-cha (No.1 tea), then followed by Ni-ban-cha (No.2 tea), San-ban-cha (No.3 tea). Tea harvested in the later part of the season is called Bancha or Aki-Bancha, Autumn-Bancha in Japanese. These Bancha is usually used by roasting it, and become roasted tea, products called Bancha or Houjicha.

In the tea fields, there are 8m tall fans all over the tea fields. Since they are in mountainous areas, the fans are blowing the warm air to the tealeaves to protect them from freezing. The temperature must be maintained above 3Ž; otherwise, the quality of tealeaves will deteriorate.

After the harvest, Japanese tea is manufactured through a 2-step process, starting with the "raw tealeaves manufacturing" and finished with the "refined tealeaves manufacturing." Tea production starts from the middle of April to May every year. Tealeaves are first harvested and brought to the factory. How MUSO treats the leaves while raw enhances their overall strength of flavor over other brands.

1. "Raw Tealeaves" 製造過程

The process begins with steaming for about 30 seconds, then cooled. As cooling down, the moisture on the surface of steamed tealeaves is removed. In order to make the quality raw tealeaves, they are crumpled 3 times during the process. After this, tealeaves are shaped, the flavor and aroma are brought out, and the amount of moisture is closely maintained at 3% throughout the leaves. After that tealeaves are dried thoroughly. These leaves are called "raw tealeaves."

2. "Refined Tealeaves" 製造過程

Raw tealeaves are first, screened, then cut, dried with heat and sorted. In the sorting process, tealeaves are separated from powder and stems. Before they are packed, the content of tealeaves is adjusted to equalize the quality.