Why mirume
You would never accept this standard for wine.
A Burgundy label guarantees origin.
A Champagne label guarantees method.
But Japanese tea origin names do not always work in this way.
Before we explain how mirume selects tea, it is worth looking at what Japanese tea is often mistaken for.
Yabukita has long represented the majority of Japanese tea cultivation. Even today, it remains dominant, however dominance does not mean monotony. Yabukita became widespread because it is genuinely excellent. It is stable, expressive, and well suited to the craft of Japanese green tea. Japanese tea has never been defined by cultivar alone. It is shaped by method: steaming, firing, rolling, roasting, blending, and the decisions of the maker. Even national tea competitions in Japan are divided by tea type and production method, not simply by cultivar.
What matters is not only what was grown. What matters is how it was made, and by whom.
Most tea is selected by name.
mirume selects by criteria.
MIRUME FAMILY
THE PEOPLE
At mirume, tea is selected through a defined quality framework, then approved by Hiroshi Matsumoto, an Emperor’s Cup-winning tea master, and his son Soma Matsumoto, named one of Japan’s 30 Tea Innovators in 2024.
For restaurants and hotels, this means tea is not treated as a product to be served, but as part of the dining experience itself.
The tea you serve shapes the conversation
