King of Green MASA Premium

Single-Garden Sencha as a Wine Alternative. King of Green MASA Premium is a bottled Japanese green tea in the sencha style produced by Royal Blue Tea, a brand operated by Royal Blue Tea Japan Co., Ltd. and founded in May 2007. It sits in the Premium tier of Royal Blue Tea's tiered bottled-tea range, which spans Deluxe, Grand, Imperial, Premium, Elite, Super Premium and Super Elite grades. The MASA line is also offered in a made-to-order Super Premium tier. Across the house, Royal Blue Tea works exclusively with single-garden, hand-picked Camellia sinensis, handling development, manufacturing and sales in-house under SGS-HACCP certification, with all work performed by hand by a small dedicated team.^[1]

Garden-First Cultivation. According to Royal Blue Tea, the source garden follows the philosophy that 'quality tea comes from a good tea garden.' The Ota family practices soil cultivation through mulching and homemade, fully-composted fertilizer. The gardens sit in a mountainous area along the upper reaches of the Tenryu River in western Shizuoka, where morning mist and large day-to-night temperature differences are credited with the tea's highland aroma and rich flavor.^[2]

Yabukita Sencha (Tenryu) — Sole Base. King of Green MASA Premium is built from a single component: sencha of the Yabukita cultivar grown in the Tenryu tea region of Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. The Tenryu region, also known as Enshu mountain tea (遠州・山のお茶), lies along the upper reaches of the Tenryu River in western Shizuoka. The leaf is hand-picked by the one-bud-two-leaves (一芯二葉) method, harvested only once per year, and cultivated using a natural training method (自然仕立). Harvest draws on the cooperation of approximately 200–300 local people for hand-picking. The garden uses mulching and homemade fully-matured compost for soil cultivation.^[1]

Loose-Leaf Susuri-cha Counterpart. King of Green MASA Premium is also offered as a loose-leaf (すすり茶) product. The loose-leaf tea is made from hand-picked young buds grown in naturally cultivated tea fields (自然仕立), selected only for the soft parts of new shoots. Royal Blue Tea characterizes it as rich in amino acids — mainly theanine — with low astringency and a mellow flavor.^[3]

Nose. Royal Blue Tea describes a high mountain aroma characteristic of highland tea gardens, attributed to the morning mist and large diurnal temperature differences of the growing environment.^[2]

Palate. The palate is described as rich and concentrated, with a harmonious balance of umami and sweetness. The loose-leaf counterpart is described as rich in amino acids (mainly theanine) with low astringency and a mellow flavor.^[2]

Temperature & Glassware. Royal Blue Tea recommends serving its bottled teas in a wine glass, straight without ice, at approximately 17–18°C, noting that at room temperature the refined aroma becomes more pronounced. The house sells a handmade logo-engraved wine glass manufactured by Hungarian Table Top Kft. in Hungary, designed to enhance the visual presentation of the tea.

Closure. Royal Blue Tea bottles are sealed with a glass stopper (Vino-Lok) manufactured by Alcoa Germany rather than cork, which allows repeated resealing and eliminates cork taint.

Specifications. Royal Blue Tea classifies King of Green MASA Premium as a Japanese green tea (sencha) of the Yabukita cultivar in the Premium tier, available as both a bottled tea and a loose-leaf (すすり茶) product.^[1]

Production. The tea is produced by Masakatsu Ota, Katsunori Ota and Misaki Ota across three generations of the Ota family. Royal Blue Tea bottles its teas using a non-heat extraction, non-heat filtration and aseptic filling process, with all work done by hand by a small, elite team in an SGS-HACCP certified factory. The house has maintained a zero food-loss manufacturing policy since its inception.^[1]

Ingredients Policy. Royal Blue Tea uses only single-garden, hand-picked Camellia sinensis as raw material, and its bottled teas contain no additives.

Tea Master. Tea master Masakatsu Ota has been involved in tea production since age 15 and founded the Tenryu Tea Research Association (天竜茶研究会) in 1996 to improve production techniques and promote branding. He received the Yellow Ribbon Medal (黄綬褒章) in 2015 for his contributions to elevating Tenryu tea as a premium brand.^[4]

Garden Honors. According to Royal Blue Tea, the source tea garden has received the Emperor's Cup and consecutive Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Awards, the International Famous Tea Competition World Famous Tea Grand Prize. It was designated as the tea garden for the 2008 Hokkaido Toyako G8 Summit and was exhibited at the 2015 Milan Expo.^[1]