Baisa Tea Gathering, October: Hand-Rolling Sencha and Japanese Black Tea

Touch the leaf, roll it, make tea.
An announcement for our tea-making workshop.

Each month we hold a workshop we call the “Baisa Tea Gathering”.
On the theme of “touching the leaf”, October is given over to hand-rolling sencha and Japanese black tea.

You roll the leaf in the old hand-rolling way while leaving the hardest, most laborious steps to the processing machines, so the path to a finished sencha is an easy and enjoyable one to follow. Hand-rolling and machine rolling, two experiences at once — something only Baisa Nakamura, with a small processing line inside the shop, can offer.

If you trace the history of tea processing, it seems that for a long time after processing machines first appeared, sencha went on being made by hand, or by a half-machine method combining hand and machine rolling, for fear of a drop in quality.
Among those machines, the rolling machine was in fact built to automate the hand-rolling of black tea, and was only later adapted for sencha.

During the workshop the shop fills with a scent that only fresh leaf has. Hand-rolling sencha brings a green scent like the tea garden itself; with Japanese black tea you work wrapped in a sweet, fruity aroma. Neither can be met with outside the processing itself. Touch the leaf directly, and enjoy the scent of it raw.

We want you to see as much as possible of the path from a single leaf to a single cup of sencha, so the gathering runs for the whole of our opening hours. It makes for a long day, but it has been very well received, including by people visiting us for the first time.

We plan to work through the process with frequent breaks, including while the machines are rolling. At Baisa Nakamura we work on all sorts of teas beyond sencha and Japanese black tea — withered sencha, Japanese oolong and more — and during the breaks we will have these ready to taste side by side.
We hope you will join us.

Tue 1 Oct: ＜Sencha＞
Kyoto, Minamiyamashiro Village, Yabukita
Producer: Toru Inui

Fri 4 Oct: ＜Japanese black tea＞
Kyoto, Minamiyamashiro Village, Yabukita
Producer: Toru Inui

Sat 5 Oct: ＜Sencha＞
Kagoshima, Kirishima, Yabukita
Producer: Nishi Tea Factory

Sun 6 Oct: ＜Japanese black tea＞
Kyoto, Dosenbo, native cultivar
Producer: Shin-ichi Ishikawa

Mon 7 Oct: ＜Sencha＞
Saitama, Sayama, Yabukita
Producer: Ikenoyaen

Tue 8 Oct: ＜Japanese black tea＞
Kyoto, Minamiyamashiro Village, Yabukita
Producer: Toru Inui

Fri 11 Oct: ＜Sencha＞
Kyoto, Minamiyamashiro Village, Yabukita
Producer: Toru Inui

Sat 12 Oct: ＜Japanese black tea＞
Hyogo, Tanba, native cultivar
Producer: Tokujuen

Sun 13 Oct: ＜Sencha＞
Saitama, Sayama, Yabukita
Producer: Ikenoyaen

Mon 14 Oct (public holiday) 【Fully booked】: ＜Japanese black tea＞
Kyoto, Dosenbo, native cultivar
Producer: Shin-ichi Ishikawa

Each session runs 12:30–17:30, about five hours; depending on how the day goes it may take around six. Please allow plenty of time.
Six places per day, reservation required.

There is nothing in particular you need to bring, but hand-rolling involves some large movements. Please come in clothes you can move in.

To reserve, please contact us through the enquiry form on our official website or by DM on Instagram, including your preferred date, your name, telephone number and email address.
We also take reservations in the shop.

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■Baisa Tea Gathering, October

“Touching the leaf ＜hand-rolled sencha＞”　: Tue 1, Sat 5, Mon 7, Fri 11, Sun 13 Oct
　Hand-rolling sencha (tsuyukiri, yokomakuri, momikiri)
　Machine rolling (soju, junen, chuju, seiju, drying)
　
“Touching the leaf ＜hand-rolled Japanese black tea＞”　: Fri 4, Sun 6, Tue 8, Sat 12, Mon 14 Oct
　Withering and oxidising the leaf
　Rolling (by hand and by machine)
　Drying

Time: 12:30–17:30 (about five hours)
Venue: inside Baisa Nakamura
Price: ¥10,000 (includes a tasting of our freshly rolled “Gaho” teas, and freshly rolled leaf to take home)
Places: six per day

To reserve: please contact us through the enquiry form on our official website or by DM on Instagram, including your preferred date, your name, telephone number and email address.