What is Gogumi? Understanding Matcha Blend
The Essence of Uji Matcha Production
When it comes to matcha in Japan, Kyoto's "Uji Matcha" is the gold standard. Supporting its exceptional quality is the practice of gogumi (blend), a process highly valued by the Uji matcha manufacturers during the final production stages. Gogumi, or blending in English, is the cornerstone of Uji matcha production.
Matcha manufacturers carefully select tencha (the raw material for matcha) that excels in one or more of the key qualities: color, flavor, and aroma. These selected tencha are then combined in carefully calculated proportions to produce the final matcha products, ensuring superior quality.
What is Gogumi?
Matcha is made from tencha as its base material. The key factors that determine the quality of matcha are its "color" (the ground matcha’s hue), "flavor," and "aroma." The ideal tencha is considered to excel in all three of these elements—color, flavor, and aroma. However, it is rare for tencha from a single tea field to meet all these conditions. Even if such tencha can be obtained, it tends to be exceptionally expensive and rare.
Tea leaves grown by a single producer on one tea field are referred to as single origin. In recent years, there has been a trend toward selling such single origin teas to highlight their unique characteristics. However, it is generally difficult for single origin teas alone to achieve the uniformly high quality required for matcha across all three factors: color, flavor, and aroma.
This is where the blending technique, or gogumi, employed by matcha manufacturers comes into play. In the case of matcha, the tea masters at these manufacturers select tencha that excels in "color," tencha that excels in "flavor," and tencha that excels in "aroma" from tea farmers. They then combine these as raw materials to produce high-quality matcha.
Through gogumi, the resulting product transcends the individual value of each tencha, creating something greater than the sum of its parts. This process is one of the core reasons for the existence of matcha manufacturers.
The blending of the three elements—"color," "flavor," and "aroma"—is referred to as mitsugō ("three-way blending"). Additionally, to adjust for cost considerations, there is a practice of incorporating tencha with a focus on "value" as a fourth component. This approach is known as yotsugō ("four-way blending").
In Uji matcha production, such blending techniques, whether mittsugō or yotsugō, are indispensable and represent critical skills for each matcha manufacturer. These techniques are also closely guarded trade secrets. The blending process integrates numerous elements, including the tea leaf varieties, their origins, blending ratios, and the intuition and experience of the artisans responsible for the blending. The matcha created through these refined techniques is not easily replicated.
Another essential concept in Uji blending is the use of hine (past crop). To minimize quality fluctuations due to seasonal or annual variations, tencha harvested in the previous year is intentionally included as hine. Uji matcha, unlike sencha, is appreciated for its deep flavors that emerge after a certain amount of aging. Moreover, the use of hine ensures stable quality throughout the year, regardless of the production season. For these reasons, the term "shincha" (newly harvested tea) is not commonly associated with Uji matcha.
Past Crop (hine)
For Uji matcha manufacturers, blending with hine (past crop) is essential to ensure consistent quality throughout the year and to enhance the unique richness of matcha. On the other hand, in Shizuoka, known as Japan's top producer of sencha, freshness is prioritized in tea production and consumption. The idea is that tea should be as fresh as new tea, so old tea has a strong image of being leftovers, and the same perception seems to apply to matcha.
In Uji matcha, however, freshness is not the primary focus. To achieve consistent quality, manufacturers blend shincha (new tea) and hine, crafting matcha that consistently meets customer needs. Moreover, in Uji, the slightly sharp flavor unique to shincha is considered challenging to manage for ensuring consistent quality. Instead, the approach is to allow it to mellow before use. For this reason, matcha is never offered as shincha. The earliest it is made available to customers is around September to October, about six months after harvest. This explains why the term shincha is rarely associated with matcha.
In Shizuoka, possessing hine is sometimes seen as a mark of failure in supply-demand planning, earning the label of "a tea merchant's shame." However, in Uji, hine is regarded as an essential component for creating high-quality matcha.
Mitsugō and Yotsugō
Blending (gogumi) involves combining multiple types of tencha to create matcha of greater value. The tea master responsible for blending carefully selects which tencha to use and determines the proportions for the mix. Because it incorporates various tencha, blended tea often has a complex, multi-layered flavor profile.
So, what exactly are the mitsugō (three-way blending) and yotsugō (four-way blending) introduced earlier?
Mitsugō refers to a blending approach that combines three types of tencha:
- Tencha notable for its color.
- Tencha notable for its flavor.
- Tencha notable for its aroma.
Yotsugō builds on mittsugō by adding a fourth component:
- Tencha that enhances cost-benefit performance (value).
This fourth type, known as value, is incorporated as a material that helps lower the product’s price without compromising quality. By adding this element, yotsugō results in matcha that is more affordable than mitsugō yet retains excellent characteristics in flavor and aroma while maintaining desirable color.
Both mitsugō and yotsugō represent the expertise and historical knowledge accumulated by each matcha manufacturer over time.
Blending (gogumi) involves combining tencha that excels in one of the four key factors: "color," "flavor," "aroma," or "value." This process can be explained using yotsugō (four-way blending) as an example. Let’s consider the creation of a hypothetical matcha blend, "X Matcha." To simplify, we’ll use straightforward numbers for clarity.
(Color) + (Flavor) + (Aroma) + (Value) = 100%
Since yotsugō involves four components, each component, on average, contributes 25% of the total. Furthermore, each component itself is composed of multiple types of tencha. For instance, if each component includes five types of tencha, then color consists of five types, aroma consists of five, flavor consists of five, and value consists of five as well. In total, "X Matcha" is composed of 20 types of tencha, each contributing 5%.
The first step in this process is to ensure the stability of the quality of each component's raw materials. This ensures that the final product, the matcha made using these components, maintains consistent quality. The previously mentioned hine (past crop) becomes one of the raw materials for these components—representing a 5% portion in this example.
When a specific raw material for a component runs out, a new raw material is introduced and integrated into the component while maintaining its characteristics, such as aroma or flavor. While this process may sound simple when described in words, it requires exceptional sensory evaluation skills and meticulous work.
Hopefully, this explanation has clarified the significance of blending (gogumi). Through this careful, incremental blending process carried out by individual manufacturers, the overall quality and cost stability of Uji matcha are maintained.
Uji’s Unique Auction System
In Uji, tea auctions are held from late April to the end of July each year, during which first-flush and second-flush teas are sold. These include tea leaves such as tencha, gyokuro, and sencha. The auctions are organized by agricultural cooperatives, which mediate transactions between tea farmers and matcha manufacturers. While manufacturers sometimes purchase tea leaves directly from farmers, auctions are particularly active in Uji. Among Japan's tea-producing regions, auctions are primarily conducted in Uji and Kagoshima.
The representatives attending these auctions on behalf of manufacturers are often the tea masters responsible for blending (gogumi). In our company, the president personally takes on this role. Auctions are one of the most critical steps in the blending process, and it was once common for the heads of matcha manufacturers to handle this responsibility themselves.
At the auction, participants must select the tea leaves they want for their company from a vast array of auction samples. They carefully evaluate and sample all the tea leaves they wish to bid on. Once they decide to bid, both the purchase volume and the price can be substantial. Evaluating tea requires the use of four of the five senses: sight, smell, taste, and touch. Among these, smell and taste are particularly important for discerning the true quality of the tea. While natural sensory ability plays a significant role in tea evaluation, it is equally important to have a broad knowledge of tea, as many judgments cannot be made without a deep understanding of the product.
In this auction system, the bidding price fluctuates significantly based on quality, creating a strong incentive for tea farmers to improve their products. This mechanism ensures the continuous enhancement of tea quality. Personally, I believe this "auction system" is one of the key factors that elevates Uji matcha above other tea-producing regions in Japan.