What is the "Izumi Phoenix Project"?

"Izumi" was created over 60 years ago as an export variety.
Before long, the era of exports came to an end, and it was forgotten without actually becoming widespread.

We revived it in 2000 by cultivating seedlings from cuttings, and in recent years it has won numerous awards at domestic and international Japanese black tea contests.
Now, it is one of the most talked-about black tea varieties, but the current production is extremely limited.

With the desire to deliver this wonderful taste to many tea lovers, in June 2019, "Yoshida Tea Garden" and "Nagano Garden", the main producers of the Sashima tea area, collected cuttings.

After 1 year and 9 months, it has finally become seedlings, and this March, we conducted a joint "planting of the Izumi variety tea seedlings" at the two tea gardens.
This is an attempt to revive the "phantom variety Izumi" created over 60 years ago through modern tea manufacturing techniques like the Phoenix.
Although it will be slow, we would like to share information about the production of black tea using "Izumi" in preparation for the harvest in 4 to 5 years.

As a starting point, "Yoshida Tea Garden" called for participation in the "Izumi Phoenix Project."
We hope that by participating in the "Izumi" seedling planting experience, you will deepen your understanding of the tea trees growing with this project and Japanese black tea.

We hope you can feel a new breeze of Japanese tea from the Sashima tea area through the Japanese black tea "Izumi" that conveys surprise and emotion.

Yoshida Tea Garden, Owner and Tea Master Masahiro Yoshida
Nagano Garden, Owner and Tea Master Mizuho Hanamizuri