Award-winning Japanese Black Tea (Wakōcha) – Smooth, Naturally Sweet Artisan Loose Leaf Benifuuki Black Tea - from Horiguchi Tea Farms

Award-winning Japanese Black Tea (Wakōcha) from Horiguchi Tea Farms

A handpicked, award-winning Japanese black tea sourced exclusively from the Horiguchi Tea Farms. This black tea made from the Benifuuki cultivar delivers a flowery aroma and a flavour that is gentle, smooth and naturally sweet - entirely without additives or flavourings.

⭐⭐⭐ Great Taste Award Winner 2024 - 3 Stars
🏅 The Leafies Gold Award 2023

What Makes This Tea Extraordinary?

The Benifuuki cultivar is a Japanese black tea hybrid, developed in 1965 in Kagoshima prefecture from a cross between the Japanese Benihomare cultivar and a Darjeeling-lineage plant (MakuraCd86). It was registered in 1993 and is prized for its rich aromatics and mellow, low-astringency character.

What makes this particular tea exceptional is how it is grown. The Horiguchi farm cultivates its tea without pesticides, which allows the green leafhopper to feed naturally on the leaves. When the plant is bitten, it triggers a defensive response, producing volatile aromatic compounds that translate directly into the tea's characteristic honeyed sweetness, floral complexity and stone fruit character. This is the same biodynamic principle behind Taiwan's celebrated Oriental Beauty oolong, applied here to a Japanese black tea with extraordinary results.

This tea is Rainforest Alliance certified.

Tasting Notes

Smooth · slightly sweet · honey · stone fruit · floral

Mouthfeel: Clean, gentle and smooth with a lingering sweetness and no bitterness or astringency.

Key Features

• Origin: Horiguchi Tea Farm, Japan — single origin
• Cultivar: Benifuuki - a Darjeeling × Japanese hybrid, bred specifically for black tea production
• Processing: Handpicked, fully oxidised wakoucha (Japanese black tea)
• Biodynamic: Leafhopper-influenced, no pesticides used; insect activity naturally enhances sweetness and floral complexity
• Certification: Rainforest Alliance certified
• Format: Whole loose-leaf
• Additives: None - natural sweetness and aroma are entirely the product of cultivar, farming practice and terroir
• Suitable for: Vegans and vegetarians

The Science Behind the Sweetness

When the tea green leafhopper nibbles the Benifuuki leaves, the plant responds by releasing aromatic volatile compounds - including terpenes and floral compounds such as β-ionone and damascenone — that give the tea its distinctively sweet, honeyed character. The natural sweetness here is not added and not incidental: it is the direct product of the plant's own defence mechanism. Farmers who understand this process manage their fields to work with the leafhoppers rather than against them.

How to Brew this Tea

• Water temperature: 100°C
• Amount: 2-3g per 150 ml
• Brew time: 5 minutes
• Steeps: 3–5 infusions — the honeyed sweetness deepens in the second and third steeps

Tip: This tea is better without milk or sugar, but it can be added.

When to Drink It

Morning: A gentle, elegant alternative to breakfast tea - smooth body, soft caffeine, no bitterness.
Afternoon: Pairs beautifully with honey cake, shortbread, stone fruit desserts, or plain dark chocolate.
After meals: The clean, sweet finish makes it a natural digestif after delicate or lightly seasoned dishes.
As a gift: Two major awards, a story worth telling, and a flavour that surprises - a tea worth giving.

AVAILABLE IN

• Pouch

Photo credit: Horiguchi Tea Farms

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