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Yoshiaki tending his tea fields in Wazuka, Kyoto
Producer Story

Yoshiaki Wada · Wazuka, Kyoto

Plants Grow Best in Harmony with Nature

Certified Organic Tea Producer

Yoshiaki grew up watching his parents work hard in the tea fields of Wazuka, but spent the next twenty years on a different path, as a schoolteacher. His father's advancing age became the turning point: a strong sense of responsibility and purpose pulled him back to carry on the family's tea business.

Building From Scratch

At the time, almost no farmers in the area grew tea without pesticides. Still, wanting to make tea that was genuinely safe and truly high in quality, Yoshiaki borrowed his parents' fields and spent five to six years developing his own pesticide-free method, eventually earning JAS organic certification.

A Commitment to Natural Farming

Today, his cultivation relies on neither pesticides nor chemical fertilizers, working with the land's own rhythms rather than against them. He clears undergrowth by hand instead of reaching for herbicides, trusting the soil itself to nourish the tea plants. The single-origin Okumidori matcha that results is finished with care at his own factory.

Yoshiaki's tea has found its way to buyers across the world, but one connection stands out. Tan, of Bamboo Tea Room in Cologne, Germany, first discovered WTEA through a flyer left at her shop, then crossed paths with its founder again months later at a JETRO meetup in Kyoto, purely by coincidence. What began as a chance encounter now connects her shop directly to Yoshiaki's single-origin Okumidori matcha.

A Direct Connection

Wazuka, KyotoCologne, Germany

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