We’ve just received a new picture of one of Aiya’s tea fields straight from Nishio!
Nishio tea plants destined to become Alya’s 2013 Matcha harvest are coated in frost.
This winter in Japan is currently on track to be one of the coldest on record while parts of Japan are already being blanketed in snow. As you can see in the photo above, it’s getting cold enough in the tea fields of Nishio that the plants are covered in a layer of frost during the night. Although one’s initial reaction might be that this is bad news, it isn’t! It is said that colder winters actually make for better tea; the tea plant can spend a lot of time in “hibernation,” resulting in even better quality tea come the spring harvest. So even though one might feel bad for these freezing plants already in “cold storage,” our farmers have great expectations for May’s harvest!
