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  • 'Sandie' Uroncha Minami Sayaka
  • 'Sandie' Uroncha Minami Sayaka

'Sandie' Uroncha Minami Sayaka

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NAME: Sandie

STYLE: Uroncha (Oolong)

FARMER: Ryo Miyazaki

PRODUCER: Miyazaki Sabo Tea Garden

CULTIVAR: Minami Sayaka

ORIGIN: Gokase, Miyazaki 

STEAMING: Pan Fried / Semi Oxidised 

HARVEST: First Flush, Spring 2026

ELEVATION: 600m

TERROIR: Volcanic Mountain, Organically farmed

TASTING NOTES: 

When I visited Miyazaki Sabo Tea Garden, I had the great pleasure of tasting a selection of all Ryo Miyazaki’s teas in the beautiful tea house overlooking the tea fields in Gokase. One of these teas I tried was their incredible Oolong, or Uroncha, as it is sometimes known as in Japan.
I have been wanting to fit it into the Qatari offering for the last year and finally got round to it.
This is a stunning example of a lightly oxidised, incredibly floral and refreshing Japanese Oolong. Rio experiments with unique tea cultivars rarely used in traditional oolongs. This one In particular is the award winning Minamisayaki which is known for its distinct gardenia, milky vanilla and elderflower aroma.

Once brewed this tea has a wonderful chamomile characteristic to it, there’s dried flowers and a distinct milky element.
On the palate it’s a luscious vanilla bean, honeyed sweetness with that Taiwanese Milky Oolong style showing, but also a refreshing starchy edamame base to the tea.
It’s extremely well rounded and lends itself to a few infusions, bringing out that sweetness gradually as it goes.
An instant classic this one, definitely suits tea drinkers who like Taiwanese Oolongs with a refreshing floral, distinctively Japanese element.

MEET RYO MIYAZAKI ~ miyazaki sabo tea garden

Ryo Miyazaki, or ‘Cultivar King’, as he is known due to the more than 20 cultivars at Miyazaki Sabou Tea Garden, is a passionate tea farmer. Miyazaki Sabo is characterised by its focus on traditional tea specialities from the region, including wakocha black tea, sannen bancha and especially kamairicha. A rare style, influenced by Chinese tea making, distinct from other Japanese teas because its leaves are pan-fired in a wok-like pan instead of being steamed.Due to the high altitude, 600m above sea level, the tea fields have a climate with large temperature differences depending on the time of day and season, and even snow sometimes falls in large quantities in winter despite the southern location.
Miyazaki Sabou boast some of the best award winning all organic tea in Japan. The conversion to organic, pesticide-free cultivation took place in the early 1980s, which means that the farm can be counted among the pioneers of organic cultivation in Japan.

Miyazaki

The prefecture enjoys a warm climate and has the largest number of sunny days in Japan! The old name of Miyazaki - Himuka, even means the ‘place, where the sun goes’. It is home to the alluring Takachiho river valley, dotted with a number of waterfalls; yellow sandy Nichinan beach; and a range of mountains, highest of which are over 1700m. The mountainous areas result in a lot of highlands, great for producing tea.
The main tea made here is sencha, but Miyazaki is also the largest producer of kamairicha - pan-fired tea. Tea is made widely across the prefecture, with some areas by the sea and some high in the mountains reaching an elevation of up 700m.
Now ranking 4th in tea production in Japan, Miyazaki is an up and coming region with plenty of rare styles, like the aforementioned kamairicha, oolong and sannen bancha (aged bancha).