Livermore, California (PRWEB) September 4, 2009
Mellow Monk® has expanded its lineup of eco-friendly loose-leaf green teas from independent artisan tea grower-producers in rural Japan. The two teas--Matcha-Style Powdered Green Tea and Blissful Buds™ Silken Pouches--each fuses traditional Japanese teamaking with modern accessibility without sacrificing quality. These teas are part of a strategy to make authentic, responsibly grown Japanese green tea accessible to a wider range of tea drinker.
Matcha-Style Powdered Green Tea is made using the same traditional techniques as matcha but from leaves from the yabukita tea cultivar--the most popular in Japan--for a less bitter taste than ordinary matcha. The dried leaves are powdered in a way that reduces foaming and improves dissolvability. Consequently, the powdered tea can be brewed with hot water or cold, and with its fresh vegetal sweetness can also be used liberally in cooking without overpowering other, more subtle flavors.
Blissful Buds™ Silken Pouches takes the same ultra-high-quality green tea found in the loose-leaf version--made from young, unopened buds--and seals it into pyramid-shaped silken infusing pouches. The silken mesh is optimized to let water flow through freely, while the three-dimensional pyramidal shape allows the tea to swirl around, for more complete brewing and tastier tea. Blissful Buds™ is a bud tea (mecha) with rich, deep, but only slightly bitter flavor and a refreshing, palate-cleansing aftertaste.
Like all Mellow Monk teas, Blissful Buds™ Silken Pouches and Matcha-Style Powdered Green Tea are single-estate, unblended teas imported directly from family farms on Kyushu. These artisan tea estates are 100% family owned and operated: The families own the land they work, and they work the land themselves. In addition, these self-contained estates craft their traditional green tea only from leaves they grow and harvest themselves, a custom known as jienjika. All of Mellow Monk's grower-producers are certified eco-friendly under the Japanese government's Eco Farmer Program.
Mellow Monk's Green Teas was founded by husband-and-wife team Paul and Akimi Kotta. The company's mission is to support family-based agriculture while introducing the world to high-quality green tea previously unavailable outside of Japan's high-mountain Aso region, where Akimi grew up on a three-generation family farm.
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