Different Perspectives on Old Tea in Uji and Other Regions
There's a significant difference in how tea merchants from Uji and other regions perceive "old tea" (hine-cha). In Uji, blending old and new teas is common practice to achieve consistent quality in matcha and gyokuro every year. For example, when we received a sample from a Kyoto tea merchant, it was labeled "Tanabe Gyokuro-style Powder, with Hine (old tea)," highlighting the inclusion of aged tea as a selling point.
Conversely, when a tea merchant from Shizuoka visited our shop, he was surprised to hear us openly admit, "We blend old and new teas for our gyokuro." In Shizuoka, freshness is considered paramount, and aging tea is often seen as a negative. In fact, it's considered shameful to have last year's old tea in stock.
The Importance of Aging Tea for Consistent Quality
Tea is an agricultural product. There are good years when favorable climate conditions produce delicious tea, and bad years when adverse climate makes it difficult to produce tasty tea. This is the same throughout Japan. Moreover, it's rare to have good years continue for three years in a row; typically, the pattern goes "good, good, bad" or "bad, good, bad." Therefore, we keep good tea from good years to use during bad years. This risk-hedging approach is essential knowledge and technique necessary to provide delicious tea every year.
In regions outside Uji, the belief is that tea is at its best quality right after production, and it deteriorates over time. Therefore, they are reluctant to keep old tea. However, without aging, it's challenging to produce Uji matcha and gyokuro with the same quality each year.
Understanding the Aging Process and Its Effects
We've noticed that when opening 2- or 3-year-old high-grade tencha (the base for matcha), we sometimes find white, fluffy crystals. These are sublimated caffeine crystals. We believe that "aging" tea involves the evaporation of volatile aromatic compounds like green leaf alcohol and the reduction of caffeine through sublimation. This changes the tea's composition from when it was first processed, resulting in flavors and aromas different from new tea.
Essentially, aging tea ("letting it mature") reduces some of the freshness, grassiness, bitterness, and astringency found in new tea. However, not all teas improve with aging—only those traditionally known as "good-natured teas" develop better flavors over time.
