Shizuoka-cha

The prefecture is said to hold several tea-producing areas, each with its own character. The Makinohara plateau, spreading across the west bank of the Oi River, is a flat, vast tea garden opened up in the early Meiji era, said to be one of the country's largest. By contrast, the tea gardens of Kawane, along the upper Oi River, sit on mountain slopes said to be wrapped in soft morning fog. Honyama, along the Abe River running through Shizuoka City, is also known for fine tea grown in its upper reaches. The liquor's color and aroma are said to differ by district, with Makinohara's tea carrying a stronger astringency and Kawane's a mellowness said to come from the mist it grows in.

Flatland areas like Makinohara are said to favor large-scale, mechanized cultivation, while mountainous areas like Kawane and Honyama are said to have kept up labor-intensive growing on steep slopes. Some producing areas favor a deep-steamed style with longer steaming times, and even within the same prefecture, tea-making has split into different approaches depending on the terrain. In Kawane, mist off the Oi River is said to wrap the tea gardens for stretches of the day, and this humidity is said to be one reason the leaf's astringency softens.

Several river systems, including the Oi and the Abe, are said to run through the prefecture, nurturing mountain tea districts upstream and flat, vast plantations downstream. Holding several producing areas of such different terrain is said to be what gives Shizuoka tea a diversity that refuses to settle into a single type. Sitting along the Tokaido road and close to the major consumer markets of Edo and Osaka is also said to be part of why the region developed into one built for producing and shipping tea at volume.