Ishida Chaya’s Signature Mori-no-cha Soft Serve Ice Cream and Exploring New Ways to Serve Green Tea【Morimachi, Shizuoka Prefecture】

Morimachi in western Shizuoka Prefecture, is a town rich in nature, surrounded on three sides by small mountains with the clear Ota River running through the centre. The tea produced in this area is known as ‘Mori-no-cha’ and is characterised by a rich aroma and balance of sweetness and astringency. In this report, we will cover Ishida Chaya, a teahouse in Morimachi. Ishida Chaya not only produces tea for everyone to enjoy, but is also active in distributing tea-related information, products for the younger generations such as Mori-no-cha soft-serve ice cream, and the Golden Tea Box, a set of teas from different regions in Shizuoka to taste and compare.

This article includes an interview with Hiroyuki Ishida, the president of Ishida Chaya, about their tea and how the ‘Golden Tea Box’, launched to contribute to the promotion of Shizuoka tea as a whole, was marketed.

About Ishida Chaya

Ishida Chaya is a long-established tea wholesaler with its head office in Morimachi, western Shizuoka Prefecture. It has been in business for more than 70 years and is currently headed by Hiroyuki Ishida, the third generation company president.

▲On the other side of the road is Osadaen Honten, another Morimachi teahouse.

Ishida Chaya has a total of four shops in Shizuoka Prefecture. In addition to the flagship shop in Morimachi, there are three others in Hamamatsu Entetsu Department Store, Miyakoda Cainz Home and Kosai’s Super Cook Mart.

The headquarters in Morimachi is divided into two main areas. One is a space for selling tea and tea confectionery, mainly from the local Morimachi area, and the other is a café space.

The shop is decorated in bright colours and is sometimes furnished with paintings by children from local schools. These efforts show Ishida Chaya’s popularity and deep roots within the local community.

▲Ishida Chaya tea bags are popular as an easy way to enjoy their tea. They come in cute packaging and are available in a wide range of varieties.

Ishida Chaya’s Poster Dog – female Shiba Inu ‘Koto’

Ishida Chaya’s poster dog, Koto, a Shiba, was once featured on Mezamashi TV’s ‘Today’s Wanko.’ The dog is energetic and friendly, but has a lovable side, too, as it gets jealous if it smells another dog’s scent on the president and proceeds to try to bite him.

An Introduction to Ishida Chaya’s tea and café menu

At Ishida Chaya, visitors can enjoy items on their café menu that include not exclusively their carefully brewed tea, but drinks and confectionery to compliment it. There is also a wide range of seasonal treats, such as kakigori (shaved ice) in summer and zenzai in winter.

Here is a small introduction to the tea and café menu at Ishida Chaya. (Eat-in spaces are available inside and outside, and visitors can relax freely in either area. Some menu items can also be ordered to take-out).

Ishida Chaya’s Signature Mori-no-cha Soft Serve Ice Cream

At first glance, it looks like it is matcha flavour, but is actually sencha soft serve. It is made from a well-balanced blend of powdered first-grade tea leaves, and has a refreshing sweetness with the slight astringency of tea.

It has become a popular staple for locals.

Yakimochiri

Yakimochiri, as the name suggests, is a sweet dish made by baking a sweet red bean paste wrapped in sticky rice cake dough. Three flavours are available: green tea red bean paste, hojicha red bean paste and azuki red bean paste. Characterised by their plump texture and elegant sweetness, they are the perfect match for green tea.

They are available served warm or cold, so enjoy your choice in every season.

Chilled Zenzai

A perfect match of not too sweet, refreshing vanilla and sweet red bean paste. Recommended as a dish to complement a cup of green tea.

Deluxe Chilled Tea

This tea is made using 10g of the finest tea handled at Ishida Chaya (100g/¥2000), carefully and slowly extracted with cold water. The clear sweetness and refreshing flavour of the leaves flood the mouth. A cup of tea that satisfies both stomach and soul.

Ishida Chaya’s Green Tea Shaved Ice (Summer only)

In summer, shaved ice is offered in a variety of flavours, including hojicha, green tea and matcha, with a unique strawberry version made by shaving strawberries embedded in the ice.

▲Every summer season, many visitors come to enjoy the refreshingly cool shaved ice and tea, which is quickly sold out.

Five Buds of Shizuoka（shizu itutu zaki）~japanese green tea comparison set~

The ‘Five Buds of Shizuoka’（shizu itutu zaki） green tea comparison set includes one tea bag from a range of five regions known for tea cultivation in Shizuoka. Compare and enjoy the distinct aromas of teas such as Mori-no-cha, Kikugawa-cha, Okabe-cha, Kawane-cha and Shimizu-cha.

▲ This ‘Five Buds of Shizuoka’ product was created with the cooperation of Dr Iwasaki of the University of Shizuoka.

Golden Tea Box~Kin no chabako~ – World Green Tea Contest Gold Award Winner

This set includes carefully selected leaf teas from 10 different tea regions in Shizuoka Prefecture. The leaf teas from each area are contained in single-use packets, keeping them fresh and ready to enjoy. A great gift idea.

Interview: Ishida Chaya – the Morimachi teahouse devoted to promoting Shizuoka tea

We spoke to Hiroyuki Ishida, the president of Ishida Chaya.

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In business for over 70 years, Ishida Chaya started with a single bicycle and now has four branches in the prefecture.

–Please tell us about Ishida Chaya.

Ishida Chaya is a tea wholesaler with its head office in Morimachi, Shizuoka founded in 1946. The history of Ishida Chaya dates back to the post-war days, when my grandfather, Shohei Ishida started a tea brokerage business. In the early days, he made a steady living brokering tea deals by visiting his customers on his bicycle.

70 years on, now Ishida Chaya has 4 outlets in the prefecture.

▲Ishida Chaya’s Flagship Shop was built in 1998.

The Morimachi shop has its tea factory next door, which means that Ishida Chaya tea is always available to customers in the best possible condition.

▲ The shop is decorated with many certificates guaranteeing the high quality of Ishida Chaya tea.

The Cainz Home Hamamatsu Miyakoda Techno Store and the shop in the basement of the main building of the Entetsu Department Store actively promote Mori Green Tea to people in Shizuoka Prefecture and beyond. With the exception of a few products, orders can also be placed through the Ishida Chaya online shop.

Ishida Chaya’s aim is to produce tea that is considered ‘sweet and tasty’ by all.

–What kind of tea does Ishida Chaya make?

In a nutshell, it is a tea that has everyone telling us how sweet and delicious it is. There are as many tea aromas and tastes as there are tea shops, and even so, everyone’s taste buds are different.

When I thought about what kind of tea Ishida Chaya should make, I decided to make it a tea that I myself would find delicious. That is what the taste of Ishida Chaya tea is all about.

–It certainly is true that your teas seem to have a strong sweet taste. How do you go about achieving such a flavour?

In a nutshell, the tea we produce as a producer/wholesaler is mainly divided into 3 parts of process.

‘Shiire~purchased from tea farmers~’ (aracha, the material for tea, purchased from tea farmers)

‘Hiire~drying~’ (heating leaves over a fire to bring out sweetness and aroma).

‘Gougumi~Blending~’ (a blend of selected teas from different regions to produce a deep and complex flavour that cannot be achieved with a single variety).

Of these different processes, we place utmost importance on the Hiire~drying~ of our teas.

The process of heating the aracha (unprocessed leaves), that we purchase from selected tea farmers, to bring out the sweetness of the tea requires a very high degree of skill. Even a one degree change in temperature can affect the taste of the end result.

Constantly checking the taste and aroma, the tea is ‘Hiire~drying~’ as much or as little as necessary to ensure a product that people will describe as ‘sweet and delicious’.

–Tea that is “sweet and delicious.” It sounds like it’s easier said than done!

Customers will not like the tea if it is merely sweet. The sweetness is at the heart of a delicate and complex balance of fragrant aroma, richness, umami, astringency and lingering aftertaste. It has been more than 20 years since I started making tea, but I am still in a continuous process of trial and error.

It is tough to make, but when our customers drink it and tell us how sweet and delicious it is, I feel great.

▲Different tea wholesalers have different skills in their respective processes. Hence, the taste of the tea produced by each varies greatly.

The reason behind the making of the ‘Golden Tea Box~Kin no chabako’

–The “Golden Tea Box” is a set of single origin teas from different regions within the prefecture of Shizuoka. It seems unusual to see such a product lined up in a typical teahouse.

By nature, tea shops are supposed to promote local teas and very rarely publicise teas from other places of origin. As a matter of fact, they may face opposition from their peers for selling tea in this way.

That is why products with a compilation of various teas from different regions are probably very rare.

If we were a teahouse in a commercial area, such as Tokyo or Osaka, where products gather from all over the country, perhaps it would be good to prepare an assortment of teas from each region of production. However, I bear the title of a ‘Morimachi teahouse’. I do understand the dilemma.

–In the face of such a challenge, what made you decide to create this product?

More than anything, we want to see the domestic demand for tea to increase.

In addition to Morimachi, Shizuoka has many other tea production areas such as Kikugawa, Shimizu, Okabe, Kawane, Numazu, Tenryu, Motoyama, Fujieda and Kakegawa, all of which produce tea with a rich individuality. The ‘Golden Tea Box’ was created for people enjoy the taste of tea from each of these regions and to promote tea from Shizuoka as a whole.

As a result, it won a gold medal at the World Green Tea Contest and became one of Ishida Chaya’s signature products. (Laughs)

The feedback from our café sales: ‘Tea is still expanding’

Today, Ishida Chaya runs a café business, but at first it specialised in retail. One year after opening, the shop introduced Green Tea Soft Serve Ice Cream in order to try something new in their promotion strategy.

This was so well received that the café has since expanded to offer a variety of different dishes, which it continues to do to this day.

Thanks to these initiatives, Ishida Chaya has become a hot topic on social networking sites, and the number of customers visiting the shops is increasing year by year. The tea industry still has a lot of room to grow, depending on the way it is presented and the approach taken.

–I see, so opening a café business has broadened the range of people who visit you.

In the future, we intend to focus our efforts on promoting tea to the younger generation. The only way to find out exactly how we can do this is through sheer trial and error. One issue we face is that tea is often provided free of charge from service stations on the motorways.

We want to try everything we can to promote tea in these circumstances. As a teahouse, we will continue to promote in person, but we also want to do our best communicating the benefits of tea through our website and social networking profiles!

Related articles : Osadaen; Trailblazing ‘Mori-no-Cha’s’ Route to the Global Market【Morimachi, Shizuoka Prefecture】

Related articles : Ota Chaten : Enjoy green tea with meals and sweets at the friendly teahouse【Morimachi, Shizuoka Prefecture】

Information of Ishida chaya

Address	1525-1, Mori, Mori-machi, Shuchi-gun, Shizuoka 437-0215, Japan
Website	https://ishida-chaya.com/
Phone number	0538-85-2446
E-money and credit cards	Credit cards and Partially e-money available
Open	9:00～17:30
Closed	non-scheduled holiday
Parking lot	available
Access	5 minutes drive from Shin-Tomei Mori Kakegawa IC. 10-minute walk from Enshu-Mori Station.

 

Writer	Norikazu Iwamoto
Career	Ochatimes chief editer. Meeting with Vice Governor of Shizuoka prefecture. Judge of Shizuoka 100 tea’s award in 2021~23. Ocha Times link introduced at website of World O-CHA(Tea) Festival 2022, Tea Science Center, The City of Green Tea Shizuoka,  Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

 

English translator	Calfo Joshua
Career	Born and raised in England, living in Japan since 2016. Studying arboriculture in Shizuoka Prefecture whilst operating his landscape business Calfo Forestry. Appreciating the nature of Japan and the culture that places such importance in it.