"Our goal is to protect an environment where the next generation can work in the same way," says Hiroyuki Sato, the third-generation owner of Kawabata-en. In order to continue making sustainable and delicious tea, they use only naturally derived tea as fertilizer and try to cultivate according to plant physiology. The tea processed at his own factory boasts a balance of fragrant and refreshing taste and umami.
Until he started farming, Hiroyuki had no idea what kind of hardships his father, the second generation, had been through. By experiencing the process of manually removing weeds from a large field, processing them at the factory, and packing them into bags, they were able to get a sense of their parents' efforts firsthand. Knowing the difficulty of making tea, he says, "There are many points of trial and error between cultivation and production, so it is very profound and interesting."
