The following has been lifted from a Japanese blog, with mistranslations revised for clarity.
Please enjoy - link to original article at the bottom.
Part 1
Marukyu Koyamaen is a tea wholesaler that is said to have started during the Genroku period. Founded over 300 years ago, the store owns 5 tan (5,000 square meters) of tea fields in Uji-Kokura, and is involved in tea cultivation, processing, wholesale, and retail.
The reason why the name is known not only in Uji city but also among tea enthusiasts across the country is because of their thorough "quality-first" attitude. They have won first place many times at national tea competitions.
Currently, the 11th generation president, Genji Koyama, and his younger brother - Managing Director Toshimi Koyama, are the two who protect the business.
How has Maruku Koyamaen's reputation been protected? What is the role of a tea wholesaler? We spoke to President Genji Koyama.
「相対」での長いお付き合いだからこそ、できる品質
[Quality that can only be achieved through long-term relationships]
We were shown to a tea room located just across a single shoji screen from the main entrance. Facing the wide entrance, this room is where tea farmers with which the company has relationships visit at the end of each month to exchange information.
Genji Koyama:
[Once a month, there is a collection day. We pay the year's worth of tea in monthly installments, and that day is called collection day. As we all drink tea here, we talk amongst ourselves about how the tea turned out this year, fertilizer, and so on.
We are also tea farmers and own tea fields, so we join in the conversation as fellow producers.]
The deep bond with producers is attested to by the Wakokai 和光会, a group of tea farmers doing business with Marukyu Koyamaen. Since its formation 50 years ago in 1963, the group has been holding study sessions and social gatherings every year without fail, building strong relationships.
Genji Koyama:
[When it comes to tea produced in Uji, our company buys 99.9% of it through direct transactions. High-quality hand-picked tea doesn't come onto the market very often. The reason is that it's hard to tell if it's high-quality tea even if you try it in the short time before bidding.]
The tea leaves processed to make matcha are called Tencha 碾茶, and tea farmers sell them to tea wholesalers in the form of rough tea/aracha荒茶 that still contains the stems. The leaves are then sorted by removing the veins and stems, and tea leaves from several different producers, varieties, and soil types are blended and ground in a stone mill to become "matcha."
Genji Koyama:
The wholesaler decides the price, but when the buyer becomes more powerful, it becomes difficult for the producers, who are the sellers, to express their opinions. In the past, messengers called tonbiとんび played an important role in tea trading to mediate the delicate relationship during the most severe stage of pricing.
Genji Koyama:
[When the farmer's tea is ready, we ask the tonbi to take a sample from the tea cabinet and bring it to us. We look at the sample, check the taste, and enter into negotiations. At that time, the tonbi acts as a middleman between the farmer and the wholesaler, listening to what they have to say. Things that would be difficult to say directly are easier to say with an intermediary, and even if both parties say the same thing, they soften the tone a little. This can make it easier for both parties to communicate their true intentions.]
This system is rarely seen in Uji these days, but the tonbi are still active at Marukyu Koyamaen.
Genji Koyama:
[Once the price has been decided, I write a letter to the farmers. What do I write? For example, I might say that this year's prices were bad, so I'd like them to do this for next year. It's only because we're trading on a negotiated basis that we can discuss these things for the following year and beyond. Buying tea at the market is, in a sense, a one-off transaction. I think you could say that the quality of Uji tea has been nurtured and protected through trading on a negotiated basis.]
多くのお客様が「美味しい」と思うのが、いいお茶の基準
[The standard for good tea is that most customers find it delicious.]
Genji Koyama has twice won first place in the National Tea Tasting Skill Competition 全国茶審査技術競技大会, a competition to test the skills of a Japanese tea taster. What's more, he is a genius taster who achieved the feat of winning the competition for the second time in 1985, the first time in history that he achieved a perfect score.
Genji Koyama:
[There are farmers in the surrounding tea-producing areas who produce good tea, but in terms of the overall quality, nowhere can beat Uji. Not only in terms of aroma, but also in terms of taste. The reason why Uji tea is often used by the head of the tea family for the Hatsugama ceremony and other occasions is because it tastes good when kneaded thickly for thick tea. You can't make thick tea without a concentrated flavor, as well as the color. I think that's possible in the areas around Uji.
The reason why this is possible is because the tea is picked by hand at the shaded tea plantation. If we were to use a machine, we could harvest three or four times a year, but with a solid cover and hand-picking, it would be a lot of work and strain on the tea plants, so we only harvest it once a year. That's why the flavor is so concentrated. I don't know what it is about the soil, but even if it's along the same river, the finished product is completely different between a little south and Uji. Even if we took seedlings to another place and asked them to make the same thing, it wouldn't be possible, the soil is that important.]
To create a product, the first step is to blend the tea leaves, a process known as gogumi 合組. While some places blend teas by variety or region, Marukyu Koyamaen uses a single-origin method, meaning they carefully select teas from one producer's field and combine them each time they grind them into matcha.
Genji Koyama:
[Once it's mixed together, it can't be undone. If we store as much produce from as many fields as possible, we can use our blending techniques to create a consistent flavor all year round.]
Genji-san says that tea from Uji generally reaches its full potential after aging until autumn. The flavor of Uji tea develops after being picked. The best thing about Uji tea is that it is refreshing, yet has a concentrated flavor and taste. Each product is created while taking advantage of this characteristic.
Genji Koyama:
[New tea has a strong taste, so we blend it with a little bit of aged tea (from the previous year, etc.) We grind the tea in stone mills 石臼, of which we have about 1,200.
Normally, stone mills turn the upper mill with a shaft from above, but in ours we turn the upper mill from the bottom to carefully check the condition of the tea. The taste can change greatly depending on how we grind it.
The reason we use a stone mill is because the texture and the way it spreads in your mouth are different. The umami that spreads in your mouth is what makes our tea so special.]
Genji-san decides on the product combinations while instructing the specialized staff.
Q: What is the standard for determining whether something tastes good or bad?
Genji Koyama: [The standard is whether as many customers as possible say it's delicious. No matter how delicious it is from our expert point of view, it's no good. I want to make tea that as many people as possible will say is delicious.]
*In the second part, Koyama will talk about what he learned from his father.
Original article : Interview with Genji Koyama (Part 1) Marukyu Koyamaen