Why we only use first harvest

A single window of days

The first harvest of spring is picked once a year, at dawn, for about two weeks. It is the youngest, most tender leaf the plant will ever give — and it carries the deepest umami.

Shade makes the difference

Twenty days before harvest, the tea plants are covered with shade cloth. The leaves respond by building chlorophyll and amino acids: the deep green and the sweet, savoury flavour that define ceremonial matcha.

Why we wait

Harvesting later in the season yields more tea, and more profit. We choose the opposite: less tea, more flavour. Like the moon, the first harvest is beautiful precisely because it is fleeting.