A Small Tea Family:
Our tea-master’s great-great-grandfather was a tea farmer, working in the fields of Uji. Since that time, our family has had a connection with tea. Rishouen was founded in 1947 and is now headed by, Mr. Koji Kagata, our second generation tea master. Mr. Kagata has more than 30 years of experience in the tea business, having been trained in the Way of Tea by his father. His son, Naoki Kagata, is also a tea master at Rishouen and will continue the family work after him.
Our Relationship with the Process:
Rishouen Tea is the final link in a long chain of tea-making events. We believe that every step of the tea-making process is absolutely indispensible, and so we stay familiar with the surrounding community, those responsible for providing our teas, and the cutting edge technology that goes into our tea’s production. The fieldworkers who till the soil and pick every leaf, and the factory-workers, who tend the machines used to prepare the tea for consumption, are all familiar with the name of Rishouen Tea in regards to being a fair and respectable teahouse. For their fine product we eagerly pay, as we can see first-hand the hard work and care they have put into presenting a tea of superior quality.
Our Mission:
We are always looking for new ways to present tea in an enjoyable and stimulating manner. We volunteer in local tea-related events in an effort to strengthen our community. Recently, we have focused our attention on bringing our teas, and the profound culture of Japanese tea, to the world. We look forward to helping you explore our various high quality teas in English and French, as well as Japanese. We will be glad to assist you in any of the three languages, given the availability of our employees. There is no doubt in our minds that we can fulfill the expectations of connoisseurs and amateurs alike when it comes to Japanese tea. Orders can be of any size, large or small.
Food Safety:
Ensuring a quality and safety of products is necessary to protect consumers from hazards that can increase health risks. Our facility has been certified as meeting the requirements of Food Safety Certification FSSC 22000, an internationally recognized standard for a complete food safety certification which makes sure the products are managed safely through the entire process – from production, to processing, to packaging, to purchase.
Freshness is Quality:
Tea is a perishable good, and we go through great lengths to keep our teas freshest. Using a vacuum-packaging strategy using a small amount of nitrogen gas, and through cold storage, we insure a maximum level of freshness is kept until delivery.
Attention to Fragrance:
Many people respect flavor over smell when they choose tea. But at Rishouen Tea, we strive to present excellent smelling teas chosen from fields long known for their exalted fragrances. For instance, the scent alone of Houjicha from Uji is quite famous in the world of Japanese tea. Thus we are confident that our thinking fits in with contemporary trends when we say that it is necessary to give as much importance to the fragrances of a tea as it is to its flavors.
Organic Tea:
Organic tea production is still rare in Japan, and is mostly meant for international markets. At Rishouen, we work with environmentally conscious and skilled Japanese organic producers to source teas that are not also pesticide free but also deeply flavorful.
Our organic teas come from the Uji and Kagoshima regions. They are labeled JAS Organic, which is the certification beholding the strictest standard of organic production in Japan. As a tea processing facility, we, Rishouen Tea Co., possess the JAS Organic certification so that our teas can be handled by organic certified actors from start to finish.
JAS organic teas meet the organic requirements of the European Union, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand so they are considered organic in these countries without further testing. For more information on the criteria used for JAS certification, please refer to the following link. http://www.maff.go.jp/e/jas/specific/organic.html
RISHOUEN TEA CO.
〒611-0013 京都府宇治市莵道門前４−１０
4-10 Monmae Todou, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0013, Japan
President Koji Kagata
Phone (+81) 774-22-0877 Fax (+81) 774-22-6550
E-Mail / Order: info@rishouentea.com
Business Hours 9:00A.M. – 5:00P.M. Japan Standard Time
Regular Holidays New Year’s week, from 12/30~1/3 Japanese Holidays