Kyoto Prefectural Tea Industry Laboratory

Dry aroma. Slightly fruity. A bit of umami. For some reason, some of these higher-class Japanese green teas also remind me of frozen parmesan. A bit of marine in the undertones too.
Powder Appearance: Vibrant green. Smooth to the touch. Spread nicely under the finger.
The froth is not as good as I was hoping but that could also be due to my lack of skills and letting the water sit for too long while I was smelling the matcha.
Mouthfeel: Smooth. I thought with my lack of skills and forgetting to sieve it that the siltiness would be bad but this is very nice!
Flavor: Umami. Veggies. Starts with slight marine notes but ends quite high.

Not far from the middle of Uji is the Kyoto Prefectural Tea Industry Laboratory. Here they conduct research on camellia sinensis. The institute has a three-way focus. First is innovative research. We toured the facility thanks to the Global Japanese Tea Association and we were able to see some new and innovative machines that are exciting for the tea industry. Second is developing new cultivars, which they have two new ones so far. Third is the creation of new tea farmers. They do this in two different ways: 1. They educate the children of tea farmers in a one-year program. 2. An entrepreneurial two-year program.

I’m not sure if this place is open to the public as there is a lot going on there that is hush hush and honestly if it were me working there I wouldn’t want to deal with the public while researching… Anyway… call before going.