Mr. Bunji Itoh/伊藤文治 and his daughter Asami/麻美 at Marufuku Tea Factory/丸福造者株式ｊ会社 were kind enough to show me twice the mechanical part of processing green tea as well as explain the various kinds of tea they make.
Bear in mind this the mechanical part of green tea which takes place after picking, steaming and massaging the fresh leaves.
The basic first step is hi-ire/火入れ/roasting which can be done with two different machines:
A comparatively small roasting drum-style machine which can roast green tea at 120~135 degrees Celsius from 10 kg in 20 minutes.
A larger and more elaborate roasting machine which can take care of 300 kg in an hour.
The second step will involve separation according to quality into 5 basic teas I will describe later.
But more than one type of machine is used to produce tea according to the demands and preferences of clients.
Some of quality tea has to be treated by hand!
But the machines certainly make the job easier!
Tea also has to go through other apparatuses to take out unwanted particles, especially metallic powder with magnets.
Finally after the tea has been processed satisfactorily it will have to be put into packs of various sizes.
The tea packs will be then put into larger boxes for delivery!
Basic types of green tea:
Arai-cha/荒い茶/ Coarse Tea
For a closer view of the same.
Boo-cha/棒茶/ Stick tea
For a closer view of the same.
Me cha/芽茶/ Bud tea, the best quality
For a closer view of the same.
Yanagi Cha/柳茶/ Willow Tea, called so because the the roasted leaves look like willow leaves. Also commonly called Ban cha/番茶/ Number Tea
For a closer view of the same.
Kona cha/粉茶/ Powder Tea
For a closer view of the same.
Marufuku Seishya Co. Ltd. (Mr. Bunji Itoh)
Shizuoka Shi, Aoi Ku, Wakamatsu Cho, 25
Tel.: 054-271-2011
Fax: 054-271-2010
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