Tea diaries: A trip to the PARU Tea Garden

Navigating organic tea practices with farmer Taro Toki in Nara

In PARU’s earlier years, I remember telling Lani that I dreamt of someday partnering with a tea grower who could designate part of their farm for us. I didn’t think the opportunity would come so soon. In 2021, we first released Mainichi (“Everyday”) Sencha from our PARU tea garden in Nara. This year’s batch will be coming within the next month or so. We’ll also be releasing our very own Hojicha and plan to release more teas within our PARU Tea Garden collection later this year.

To give you some backstory, years ago I received a message on WhatsApp: “Hello, I’m Toki. I’m going to help send tea for you." I don’t normally advise responding to unsolicited messages, but I knew this was different. He was actually helping us connect with another tea farmer. Toki is a key part of our network of tea growers because of his multilingual speaking skills (he is fluent in Japanese and English). He spent a few years in Idaho in high school and studied in Canada before moving back to Japan. From there, dove into the world of tea farming and after learning about different practices developed a passion for growing organic tea and rice. He’s been a great resource for me to learn more detailed technical aspects of Japanese tea.

Department of Agriculture representative Kadono (left), Toki (center) , nd Lani (right) just before our tour of the PARU tea garden in Nara.

One question we get asked often is, “How do you meet your tea partners (growers and producers)?”. We meet our partners in a number of different ways, but the most popular way has been through referrals, specifically from other tea farmers. Smaller tea growers often work together as a collective, especially in more rural areas. This is to share knowledge and resources. Equipment is very expensive, so it often makes more sense to share.

Something that stood out with Toki san was his positive and unconventional way of thinking—and I mean this in the best way. Although we chatted almost daily, we didn’t meet in person for two years. And when we finally did, his energy felt exactly the same. In a nutshell, he’s very direct, which is key when you don’t want things to get lost in translation. For example, as we were making our way over to Tsukigaseguchi Station in Minamiyamashiro, he messaged “Don’t miss it!!” when referring to the train stop because there was only one train per hour. While making our transfer, we noticed that train we were hopping on only had a single train car as opposed to the average four or six.

Toki also recommended that we ride on the bed of his truck to our tea garden. We hopped in without hesitation, and it was one of the highlights of our trip. It was about a 15-minute ride from the station to the garden. We passed a few abandoned tea processing facilities, which was sad to see but that’s the reality. The business of tea is a difficult one, but we hope that our growing partnerships can help contribute to revivals here and there, no matter how small.

The fresh mountain air was incredible, and the sun was shining bright. We were worried about a slight chance of rain but there was no sight of it that day. It’s fun to see how weather shaped our visits to each tea farm (more on that later).

Amy (me) and Toki enjoying the view at Taro Toki’s farm in Nara.

After driving along the narrow, window roads, we finally reached the mountaintop. The view was like a painting. Maybe it’s better to let the pictures do the talking.

Lani, Amy, and Toki at the PARU tea garden in Nara.

A view of the PARU tea garden, located 550m above sea level.

The PARU tea garden, which is a small section of Toki’s garden, is 550m above sea level. The higher the elevation, the cleaner the water tends to be. Toki shared about how tending to the tea fields is a solitary experience, but he does get the occasional visitor. Eagles, snakes, birds. Some even make nests so that they can safely hatch their eggs. We also chatted a bit about how difficult it is for smaller growers to obtain organic certification, but this year the PARU tea garden became JAS (Japanese Agricultural Standard) certified. JAS allows products to be certified commercially under Japanese organic standards, which are typically quite strict.

The timing of our visit was just right, I think. We arrived just before first harvest. It was nice to see the buds and leafs thriving. They were a vibrant green. Toki mentioned that there were many challenges to being a single farmer, including delays in production from things like limited access to processing facilities. While he’s developed trusted relationships with local partners, during peak season, the facilities get to max capacity pretty quickly. Establishing more efficient processing methods something we both want to work on together in the future.

When I asked him if there’s anything he wanted to share with our tea lovers back home, he shrugged and said, “I just want to share my tea with everyone.”

Next week’s post will be about our trip to 京田辺市, Kyōtanabe-shi where we got to visit gyokuro fields and our matcha partners. Thank you for reading!