Debate: What should Uji matcha be?
Show notes
In this episode, Ryan and Zongjun (Sam) close out the Uji matcha series with a debate: can Uji matcha actually be defined? The episode maps the full spectrum of definitions, from the least conservative, where Uji is a processing and blending culture and the leaf can come from neighboring Yamashiro towns or entirely different prefectures, to the most conservative, where true Uji matcha means tencha grown in Uji itself. They test the legal, cultural, historical, and genetic definitions against each other, from the ochashi blending houses and tencha auctions to the thought experiment of foreign producers acquiring abandoned Uji plots. Along the way: why yabukita grown in Uji is arguably less "Uji" than Uji native zairai cultivars like Asahi, Samidori, Uji Hikari, and Okunoyama, what was lost when seed-propagated zairai gave way to clonal cultivars 50 years ago, why Asahi is struggling in a changing climate, and what Chinese matcha marketed as "Uji grade" reveals about the name. Wherever you land between those two extremes, believing in Uji matcha means holding a contradiction in your mind.
Companion to the Uji-no-Matcha Substack series, with "What Happened to All of Uji's Old Tea Trees?" coming soon!
https://sankomatcha.substack.com/p/uji-no-matcha-the-inconvenient-truth?r=3mxquk