Ichō Kamairicha | 萎凋釜炒り茶

This tea is something special. We've never come across anything quite like this before. 

This fragrant tea is made by withering and oxidizing the leaves to give them a flowerlike scent, called ichōka (萎凋香). Japanese teas are rarely withered, in order to keep their fresh and grassy flavours. 

Once the leaves are pan-fried to halt further oxidation, they are manually roasted for 10 to 20 hours using a Taiwanese roaster. The result is a satisfying and mildly sweet tea with little to no bitterness or astringency, reminiscent of lightly fermented oolong teas.