Kuroda Cha-en, 黒田茶園 in Yamataigo (邪馬台語), is a tea plantation near Sapporo on Jiyuu III owned and operated by Kuroda no Ryūsuke (黒田竜介), started in YE 34.

Founded in YE 34 as part of the rebuilding effort after the reintegration of Jiyuu III with Yamatai.

Logo

The company logo is simply the characters for Kuroda in Yamataigo (邪馬台語), 黒田.

Motto

“Kuroda Cha is the best tea we can make.”

Kuroda Cha-en has a single facility which is also its headquarters on its plantation outside of Sapporo. Most of the plantation is rolling hills covered in tea shrubs, cultivated so most of them aren't any taller than 1 meter. The southern faces of the hills, with direct sunlight, are used to grow sencha while the northern faces are partially covered before harvesting to grow kabusecha or fully covered to grow matcha.

There is a farmhouse at the entrance to the property, hand-made by Kuroda no Ryūsuke (黒田の竜介) from the materials he had on hand when he arrived: wood, corrugated steel, and spray-on insulation foam. At first, it was a one-room cabin but has slowly been expanded over the years to include 3 bedrooms around a central living/dining/kitchen space where the one room cabin was originally. At first, it had no running water, but that was added in YE 36.

Between the farmhouse and the rest of the plantation, there is a barn containing hand-made automated equipment for processing tea once it's been picked, and storage space for both processed and unprocessed leaves. A later addition to the barn added a robotics workshop, which had previously taken up much of the farmhouse. Here, Ryūsuke builds and maintains the robots, such as Handy Max (pictured), that tend to the farm and allow him to handle all parts of the farming himself, with only occasional help from his sons Daizō and Ginji.

The company is a sole proprietorship owned by Kuroda no Ryūsuke (黒田の竜介).

The following products are made every year and their manufacturer's suggested retail prices for 100g are displayed.

• Kabusecha (かぶせ茶)
  • 34 KS
• Sencha (煎茶)
  • 30 KS
• Matcha (抹茶)
  • 26 KS

• For some time, they grew gyokuro (玉露), but after a few seasons they decided it was too costly to produce.

Hyralt created this article on 2022/10/15 08:42 from the Business Template.

tea_fields.jpg retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/64151236@N07/26990383250 and is used under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Handy Max drawing by Hyralt. Permission is given to Star Army to use this image in perpetuity.

Approval: https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/threads/kuroda-cha-en-%E9%BB%92%E7%94%B0%E8%8C%B6%E5%9C%92-tea-plantation-on-jiyuu-iii.69354/