Toyama (Asahi)
In the Hirudani settlement of Asahi town, a post-fermented tea called batabata-cha is still drunk. It belongs to the furicha tradition — a dark, post-fermented tea whisked to a foam — and takes its name from the sound of the whisking.
Land and climate
A mountain settlement near the Japan Sea at the foot of the Northern Alps. Not a place that grows tea at scale; a place where a way of drinking it survived.
How it is made
The leaf is kurocha, a post-fermented tea. It is whisked with a paired whisk and drunk at gatherings, which is how the practice has been carried on. Post-fermented tea is made elsewhere too — goishicha in Kochi, awa bancha in Tokushima — so batabata-cha is not Japan's only one, whatever you may read.
Cultivars
- Local seed-grown stock
What to look for
Not something an ordinary tea shop stocks; it is mostly sold locally or direct. The flavor sits outside the green tea family altogether, so a gathering on the spot is the clearest way in.