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.
On June 9th, 2020, we visited Kawaji Seicha in Ijyuin, Kagoshima.
We visited this cool guy, Mr. Kawaji, who I became a big fan of after this visit.
They have about 30 years of experience in growing organic tea.
He told us that his biggest challenge that his facing now is to convey the goodness of kagoshima tea.
I was shocked to hear that he once was told by a guy at a shopping center, “tea is not as attractive as most other products.”
But I need to admit, before I jumped into this tea world, I didn’t really care about tea.
I drink tea almost every day, but I’ve never thought about the quality or how it’s grown.
I didn’t even know that black tea and green tea comes from same trees.
But, more I know about tea, the more attractive I felt for tea.
The time and space that’s created by brewing tea, looking at its color, smelling it, and sip it is just irreplaceable for me.
Mr. Kawaji told us that it is very valuable to meet his customers in person when they sell their tea and have chitchats with them.
The quality time with their customers, talking about the climates and the conditions in growing their tea is very precious.
Their fans are not only buying their tea.
They are buying the whole STORY of how the tea come to their hands.
He also says, “it is frustrating that most people don’t know what quality tea tastes like, but our customers’ faces motivates to make good quality tea.”
His vision for kagoshima tea is that tea to become like ramen noodle.
Everybody loves ramen.
People make a trip just for a bowl of ramen.
A bowl of ramen could be a several thousand dollars including the cost of travel.
His vision is that people travel to Kagoshima, to his garden just for a cup of tea.