What Makes Our Tea Different? The POEMS Philosophy
Tea shaped by place, people and craft
At POEMS Tea Atelier, we believe exceptional tea is not defined by a label or grade alone.
It begins with where and how the tea is grown, who grows it, when it is harvested, the cultivar chosen, and how the leaves are handled after picking. These details shape everything that eventually appears in the cup.
We travel to tea-growing regions across Japan to meet the people behind the tea, walk through their fields and understand the thinking behind their farming and processing. Rather than selecting tea from a catalogue simply because it fits a category, we look for teas with a clear sense of origin and character.
Our collection is deliberately small. Each tea needs to give us a reason to include it.
What We Look For
01. Farming that respects the land
Our starting point is the farm.
We favour growers who work organically or naturally and who see the health of the soil, surrounding ecosystem and tea plant as interconnected.
That philosophy can look different from farm to farm.
In Wazuka, Kyoto, our matcha-producing family makes its own natural fertilisers and adjusts them according to the condition of the soil and plants rather than forcing rapid growth. Their farming is guided by observation, timing and generations of experience.
In the mountains of Shizuoka, the Kinezuka family has built an organic ecosystem in which insects, birds, fungi and tea plants coexist. Biodiversity itself becomes part of how the fields are managed.
And in Gokase, Miyazaki, our tea-growing partner has practised organic agriculture for decades, developing a philosophy in which experimentation and craftsmanship sit alongside respect for the natural environment.
For us, organic certification is valuable, but the conversation goes further. We want to understand how the farmer thinks about the land.
02. Harvest matters
Not every leaf from the same tea plant tastes the same.
The season in which it is picked has an enormous influence on its character, which is why many of the teas we select focus on Ichibancha 一番茶, the first spring harvest.
After resting through winter, the plant directs its stored nutrients into its first new shoots. These tender leaves are particularly prized for their sweetness, aroma and umami.
Our Uji matcha, for example, is produced from spring-harvested tencha grown by a family that concentrates its production on this first harvest rather than continuously pushing the plants for volume throughout the year.
But first harvest is not a rule we apply blindly.
Different seasons can reveal different qualities. What matters is understanding why a particular harvest has been chosen and what character the maker wants to express through it.
03. We pay attention to cultivar
Just as grape varieties influence wine, tea cultivars influence aroma, sweetness, umami, astringency, colour and texture.
For this reason, we are especially interested in teas where the cultivar is clearly identified.
A Yabukita Sencha from the mountains of Shizuoka can express something very different from a Yamanami Wakoucha from Miyazaki or an Okumidori matcha from Kyoto.
Rather than treating all “Japanese green tea” or all “matcha” as interchangeable, we want each tea to introduce you to a particular expression of the tea plant.
This is also why many of our teas are single cultivar. They allow the character of that cultivar, farm and season to remain visible rather than being blended away.
How We Select Our Matcha?
Matcha is one of the clearest examples of why origin and processing matter.
For our matcha, we look beyond colour or a generic “ceremonial grade” label. We consider the entire journey from field to stone mill.
The growing place
Our matcha comes from Wazuka in Kyoto Prefecture, an historic Uji tea-growing area where tea has been cultivated for centuries.
The landscape, farming knowledge and long tradition of tencha production are important, but provenance alone is not enough. We chose to work with a fourth-generation family farm because of the way they grow and understand their tea.
The leaf
Before matcha becomes powder, it begins as tencha.
The plants are shaded before harvest, changing the chemistry of the developing leaves and encouraging the sweet, umami-rich character associated with high-quality matcha.
We consider the cultivar, harvest and intended flavour profile when selecting each matcha.
Some cultivars offer deeper umami and vegetal character; others bring more sweetness, creaminess or softness. This allows us to select different matcha not simply by “grade”, but by how we actually expect people to enjoy them.
The processing
After harvest, careful processing is essential.
The finished tencha is slowly stone-milled into an extremely fine powder. Traditional stone milling is intentionally slow because excessive heat and friction can compromise the delicate aroma and character of the tea.
When tasting matcha, we look for more than bright colour.
We consider:
Aroma
Does it smell fresh and expressive before water is even added?
Texture
Does it feel fine, smooth and creamy rather than coarse or chalky?
Balance
How do sweetness, umami, vegetal notes and astringency interact?
Finish
Does the flavour disappear quickly, or continue to develop after swallowing?
Purpose
Is its character best enjoyed slowly with water, or does its stronger body make it particularly suitable for milk?
This is why our matcha collection contains different expressions rather than one simple hierarchy of “good, better, best”.
Each has its own purpose and personality.
>> Shop Our Premium Uji Matcha Collection
How We Select Our Loose Leaf Tea?
Loose leaf tea gives us another opportunity to explore how place and craftsmanship influence flavour.
Here, we pay particular attention to terroir, cultivar and processing style.
Shizuoka: clarity and mountain character
Our Shizuoka teas come from mountain-grown organic fields.
At higher elevations, cooler conditions and shorter periods of direct sunlight slow the growth of the tea plant. The leaves develop differently from rapidly growing flatland tea, contributing to the refined aromatic character we look for in these teas.
The delicate leaves can then be treated with relatively light steaming, helping preserve clarity and aroma.
When selecting a Sencha such as this, we look for a cup that feels clean, layered and balanced, where sweetness, fresh green character and gentle astringency coexist rather than compete.
We are not simply looking for intensity.
Sometimes the most interesting tea is the one that reveals itself gradually.
Miyazaki: aroma and experimentation
Our teas from the mountainous region of Gokase show another side of Japanese tea.
Here, we were drawn to a producer whose approach combines long experience with curiosity.
Small processing equipment allows the maker to work with individual batches closely and experiment with techniques more difficult to achieve at industrial scale. The result includes Kamairicha, Wakoucha, Oolong-style teas and unusual roasted teas, each exploring a different possibility within the same plant.
For these teas, aroma is particularly important to us.
We look for floral, fruity and naturally sweet characteristics that arise from cultivar and processing rather than added flavouring.
A tea should be technically well made, but it should also be memorable.
