Kagoshima
The other of the two giants alongside Shizuoka, and first in the country by output for the first time on record in the 2024 crop — largely on the back of a shift into tencha, the leaf that becomes matcha. The warm climate brings some of the earliest new tea in Japan. Fields are largely flat and heavily mechanized, which keeps output high. It also plants a much wider range of cultivars than most regions, so single-cultivar teas — Yutakamidori, Asatsuyu — are easy to find.
Land and climate
Southern Kyushu is warm enough that frost damage is rare and growth starts early. The main districts are in the south of the Satsuma peninsula, including Chiran and Ei, and in Osumi around Shibushi. The free-draining volcanic shirasu soil suits tea well.
How it is made
Mostly deep-steamed. Because harvest starts so early, the first-flush window is long, and growers stagger cultivars to spread the picking. Fields are laid out for large-scale machine harvesting from the outset. The name to know is Chiran. Minamikyushu city was formed in 2007 from the towns of Chiran, Kawanabe and Ei, and in April 2017 their three separate tea names were consolidated as Chiran-cha. It is the largest tea-producing municipality in the country.
Cultivars
What to look for
'Chiran-cha' on the packet means Minamikyushu city. You may still meet the older names Kawanabe and Ei, which point to the same city. If you want to try tea sold by cultivar, Kagoshima is the easiest place to start. Yutakamidori is deep green and strongly savory; Saemidori is refined with little astringency; Asatsuyu is sweet enough to be nicknamed natural gyokuro.