Hello from Kagoshima, the paradise for tea buyers!!

We are KAGOTEAM!

We provide the premium quality of Kagoshima tea directly from our farms at a reasonable price.

Due to COVID-19 impact, we are unable to invite our buyers from overseas this year.

So we want to make sure that our buyers are well informed about our products and the stories behind the farmers.

We visited Kawasaki Kiko Co., Ltd. on June 16th, 2020.

Kawasaki Kiko was established in 1905. They have been developing coarse tea processing equipment.
Currently, they provide facilities for general tea production as well.

Their headquarter is located in Shizuoka, Japan.
We visited their Kyushu branch.
Kyushu branch is the only branch that involves research and development other than the headquarter.

On their website, they explain Japanese tea as below.

The varieties, degree of fermentation, processing method, and serving methods and the number of potential combinations of these that are part of the individuality of tea still have many hidden possibilities and give it extremely great appeal as a product of taste and leisure.

Kawasaki Kiko Co.,Ltd.

and we met a guy who strongly believes in those hidden possibilities and making innovation happen in Japanese tea industry.

This is Mr. Satoh,  Tea Industry Technical Advisor.

One day, I caught Mr. Komaki, one of our farmers calling him “God of Tea.”
Mr. Komaki told me that whenever he is not sure about something in making tea, he makes a phone call to Mr. Satoh.
READ>> Getting ready for Nibancha at Komaki Ryokuhoen Co., Ltd.

I cannot forget the way Mr. Satoh talks about his job.
He is the type of a person who enjoys what he does to the fullest.

He was telling me about his experiment on simplify and shorten tea process.
I could just tell how much he is passionate about his job by just looking at him talk about it.

He just made me want to ask him what his motto is. He said,

The most basic thing is the most advanced thing.

As he challenges to creating something new and expand the possibilities of Japanese tea, the most important thing is the basic stuff.

A couple of days after our visit, he told me that his experiment on simplify and shorten tea process was a success.
He went on to say that he has so many ideas, so he is trying something new now.

One thing made me clear through this visit is

The Future of Kagoshima Tea is BRIGHT!! 🙂