This is a matcha to treat yourself with, like a small celebration or a gentle gift to yourself when you want a true indulgence. It’s not for every day but for special moments, alone or with the people you love. It will surprise you with unexpected flavours and awaken the explorer in you, eager to discover every new nuance.

Every OMMA tin holds a memory from the farm. It’s the story of one farmer, his craft and his love for the land.

On this label, we captured the shared work of a community we were lucky to be part of this year. Tender leaves in open palms. Neighbours, friends and family gathered together to create a unique tea with their own hands. Soft rays of sunlight filtering through the shade, and straw hats peeking out among the tea bushes.

That memory of warm hands picking every leaf together is what we kept on this label.

Samidori (さみどり) means “fresh young green”. It was selected in Uji from local tea bushes and officially registered in the mid-20th century. It covers only 0.7% of Japan’s tea fields, roughly one bush in every 140. Samidori is traditionally grown in the shade for tencha and gyokuro. Its leaves are tender and hold a lot of moisture, and its taste is soft and naturally sweet, with deep umami and almost no bitterness. It’s often called the taste of classic Kyoto matcha.

Where it grows:

Kyoto: the main region. According to the Furukawa farm, Samidori is the most widely grown cultivar for hand-picked tencha in Uji. It grows in Uji, Ujitawara, Wazuka and Kyotanabe, mostly for premium matcha and gyokuro.

Elsewhere: there are small plantings in Kagoshima, where your Yabukita Samidori comes from, and in a few other southern regions, but they’re the exception.

Feeding the soil. All year round, the farm takes special care of its soil. To grow rich umami the organic way, the land is fed with seaweed, fish bones, sesame and plant matter from the tea fields.

Indirect shading. 3–4 weeks before harvest, shade nets are hung high above the bushes, leaving plenty of space between the leaves and the cover. The bushes can breathe freely, and the leaves become softer, vivid green and rich in umami.

Harvest. The whole village comes together for the harvest: friends, neighbours and tea lovers. Over two weeks they pick the leaves by hand, using a special method that takes only the most tender, palest leaves. The leaves are gathered in baskets, weighed every two hours and sent to the factory.

Steaming. Right after picking, the leaves are steamed to stop oxidation and keep their colour and freshness.

Drying. The leaves are dried flat, without rolling as for sencha. This makes tencha, the base for matcha.

Refining. Smart sorting machines remove the stems and veins, leaving only the pure leaf.

“The tea sleeps”. The tencha is sealed in airtight bags and rested in cold rooms for 7–8 months. This is where the magic happens: the flavour slowly matures, gaining depth and complexity and revealing its special character.

Milling. The tencha is slowly ground on traditional stone mills, only about 40 g an hour.