🍱 Ocha no ha tempura (Green tea leaf tempura)

"Ocha no ha tempura (=Green tea leaf tempura)" is a local dish eaten when freshly harvested green tea leaves are ready. Miyazaki Prefecture is blessed with a mild climate, moderate rainfall, and fertile soil, making it an ideal environment for growing crude tea. It is said that in ancient times, people picked a mountain tea that grew wild in the mountains and drank it. The tea industry is said to have begun in 1751, when Sadaki Ikeda, a retainer of the Shimazu clan in Miyakonojo, went to Uji in the Yamashiro district to acquire a steaming method of tea production and spread it within the clan. And there is also a record that tea was offered to the emperor at that time. Although it grew until the prewar period due to government measures and other factors, it stalled due to the effects of World War II. In recent years, however, production has been increasing due to the aggressive introduction of machinery to expand the scale of production and the establishment of tea gardens for use as ingredients in PET-bottled beverages. Current major production areas include Hyuga City, Miyakonojo City, Kushima City, and Kawanami Town, where many varieties of tea are grown, including "Yabukita". On the other hand, the northwestern mountainous area, Takachiho Town, and Gokase Town are known for their traditional kettle roasted tea production.