August 2025 Newsletter

Loyal Tea Program Announcement (Daiki T.)

We are delighted to announce the launch of the Loyal Tea Program on August 25, 2025.
This program was created to express our gratitude to the many customers who have supported d:matcha for years.

During our Tea Tour this August, we welcomed a guest who has been using our online store for over six years and had purchased several dozen kilograms of matcha. Encounters like these reminded us how deeply we are supported by long-term customers, and inspired us to start a program that gives something back.

Program Overview

• Silver Matcha Leaf: Customers who spend 60,000 JPY annually → 10% off every order
• Gold Matcha Leaf: Customers who spend 120,000 JPY annually → 15% off every order
  

We are also exploring future benefits such as access to hand-picked matcha and artisanal ceramics, as we continue refining ways to reward those who support us most.

International Shipping Update

August was also a month of change for d:matcha. Approximately 40% of our individual customers are based in the United States, and until August 29, purchases under USD 800 were exempt from import taxes under the De Minimis rule. However, this regulation was unexpectedly revoked by presidential order, effective August 29, 2025.

As a result:

• A 15% reciprocal tariff now applies to Japanese exports
• Additional handling fees are charged by couriers such as DHL
  

To adapt, we are actively considering:

• Transitioning to DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) so all costs are collected at checkout and d:matcha pays duties directly to each government
• Streamlining product offerings for overseas shipments and building local fulfillment hubs in the U.S. and EU
  

While these adjustments involve significant costs (including up to 7% platform service fees), we are committed to finding both short- and long-term solutions. Your feedback and experiences will help guide us toward the best approach.

Ultimately, our long-term goal remains the same: to grow and cherish the community of loyal customers who continue to support d:matcha worldwide.

The Tea Fields After the Second Harvest (Hiroki A.)

I will explain how the tea fields are managed after the second harvest, and what they look like during this period. All post–second harvest management is essentially preparation for the first harvest of the following year.

After the second harvest, a summer pruning (called natsu-seishi) is carried out. This involves trimming the surface of the tea fields to remove unharvested new shoots and tidy up the somewhat disordered rows. At the same time, branch growth begins—these branches will form the foundation for next year’s first flush of new shoots. If this work is delayed, the autumn shoots will not grow evenly, making it difficult to form a uniform leaf layer during autumn pruning.

The branches that grow during this period are sometimes called previous-year branches or mother branches to distinguish them from the new shoots of the following spring. Here, I will refer to them as mother branches. The healthy growth of these mother branches has a major impact on the quality of the first harvest.

Mother branches grow vigorously from summer through autumn, but by around October their growth slows, and by the time frost arrives, they stop growing completely. If summer pruning is delayed, the growth of the mother branches will also be delayed, preventing proper autumn pruning on fully matured branches. This is why tea farmers remain busy even after the second harvest ends.

Once the mother branches have grown sufficiently, autumn pruning is performed. At this stage, it is important to secure a leaf layer about 5 to 7 cm above the surface cut during summer pruning. Without enough leaf layer here, the growth of the first harvest will be weak, reducing both yield and quality. In fields where growth is poor and a proper leaf layer cannot be secured, farmers sometimes skip autumn pruning altogether, leaving leaves for photosynthesis until spring and instead carrying out spring pruning (haru-seishi).

In spring, powerful new shoots for the first harvest grow from the mother branches shaped by autumn or spring pruning. Thanks to these careful pruning processes, the tea fields are neatly prepared, and the surface where the new shoots sprout becomes the harvesting plane for the first flush, ensuring that only the finest first harvest leaves are picked.

Grinding Tencha (Seiya H.)

Most of my work at d:matcha usually involves packing tea into small bags, explaining sencha and matcha during tours, serving dinner to guests at the inn, making chocolate, noodle production, and working in the fields. But since the end of last month, I also started a new task.

Starting last month, I began grinding tencha into matcha using the ball mill. In the factory, tea leaves harvested from the fields are processed into tencha. Each time, we put about 30 kilograms of this tencha into the ball mill.

On the large bags of tencha (called tate), the following information is written:
▪️ Harvest date
▪️ Cultivar and field location
▪️ Whether it was organically grown

Based on this information, we grind the necessary tencha into matcha.

The grinding process takes about two days to turn the tencha into matcha. A typical day of ball milling goes like this:
▪️ Remove the tencha that started grinding two days earlier from the ball mill
▪️ Sift the matcha and repack it into smaller bags
▪️ Label the bags with the same information listed on the tencha tate, along with the date and time the matcha was in the ball mill, and its type (pesticide-free Yabukita, latte grade, etc.)

Every time we open a new bag of tencha, its color and aroma differ completely depending on the season it was harvested (spring or summer) and the cultivar.

Sweet Rides: Discovering Asamiya Tea（S. Mahdaria）

Living in the countryside with limited transportation makes it a bit difficult for me to explore the town and nearby villages. At the end of last year, Daiki bought two bicycles for our B&B “Tea Moon” guests. At first, I hesitated to ride one, since it looked so big for me.

I’m truly grateful to my teammate from Czech, Vitek, who encouraged and supported me to bike around Wazuka and Shigaraki. Riding with him brought so much joy into my otherwise monotonous routine, and I really appreciate him for that.

Just last week, we biked to Shigaraki to try Asamiya Tea and Mochi Puff. Asamiya Tea is a premium Japanese green tea from the Asamiya region in Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture. Recognized as one of Japan’s five most famous teas, it carries a 1,200-year history beginning from Saicho’s tea seeds. Known for its rich, smooth, and aromatic qualities with a refreshing umami, it thrives in a high-altitude, misty environment that gives it a unique balance of bitterness and sweetness. Historically, Asamiya Tea has been offered as an imperial tribute and even appeared in the works of the haiku poet Basho.

I was delighted to see how much Vitek enjoyed it! He even said the tea tasted like honey. Honestly, his smile felt the same way to me LOL (Sorry, we tease and “rizz” each other a lot, because that’s just how close we are.) Another highlight was the Mochi Puff. I think it’s the best mochi I’ve ever had in my life! Soft and chewy with just the right amount of sweetness from the red bean filling, all wrapped in a flaky croissant-like pastry, it was heavenly! Fresh out of the oven, the crisp outside blended perfectly with the warm, melting mochi inside.

I would definitely love to do this trip again soon. But I know it will feel very different, because Vitek won’t be here anymore next month.

Vegan Sweets (Sora N.)

During the first half of the month, I focused on making sweets, while in the latter half I was mostly working in the fields. It had been a while since I last spread fertilizer, so it was tough, but compared to before I was able to work more easily, and I felt my body had grown stronger.

Recently, the topic of developing vegan sweets for use in tours came up. Since most of D-matcha’s customers are from overseas, they bring with them a wide range of food preferences and cultural backgrounds. Among them, there are quite a few vegan guests, and naturally, their food options are limited. For this reason, I was asked to create vegan desserts that could be served to them. Personally, I don’t know much about vegan sweets and have never properly researched them myself. So, in preparation for this development, I looked into it more carefully to deepen my knowledge, and I’d like to share what I learned.

First of all, vegan sweets are desserts made entirely without animal products—not just meat and fish, but also dairy products and eggs. Instead of milk, plant-based alternatives such as soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or oat milk are used. Instead of butter, coconut oil, seed oils, or soybean oil are used. For eggs, substitutes like bananas, applesauce, or tofu are commonly used. As for sweeteners, maple syrup, agave syrup, and beet sugar are often chosen. White sugar, although made from sugarcane, is sometimes refined using bone char (burnt animal bones from cows or pigs) to remove impurities, which makes it non-vegan. However, not all white sugar is refined this way—some use lime in the process instead, and that type of sugar is considered vegan-friendly.

Because vegan sweets rely heavily on plant-based ingredients, they are said to be lower in calories and fat compared to regular sweets, while being rich in vitamins and minerals, making them healthier. From an environmental perspective as well, animal-based foods put a heavier burden on the environment during production, whereas plant-based foods are considered to have a smaller impact.

Since dairy products like milk cannot be used in vegan sweets, soy milk plays an important role in filling that gap. In sweets-making, eggs usually act as binders, leavening agents, and emulsifiers, but soy milk can take over part of these functions. It also helps make batters moist and smooth. At D-matcha, we already have several vegan products, and most of them use soy milk. Soy milk is not only a familiar ingredient used in both vegan and non-vegan sweets, but it is also something many people drink daily. I believe it is a versatile ingredient that supports both people’s health and the environment.