Masumi Yoshida
(Anabuki Town in Mima City / Ni to Ha・ruche CAHOA)

The popular café ruche, CAHOA, is located in Anabuki Town, Mima City.

Mrs. Masumi Yoshida owns this café, and her teenagers are popular among customers locally and from other prefectures.

In 2019, she launched a project that covered everything from tea cultivation to commercialization because she wanted to pass on local tea, which has long been cultivated extensively in mountainous areas, to the next generation.

She organized a "Ni to Ha" group with about ten local people in their 30s and 40s who agreed to participate in the project. They borrow a tea farm from Mr. Yasuo Koizumi, a farmer who farms on a steep slope in Fuchimyou village, and teach them how to make tea.

In 2019, the work began with tea harvested in May. Harvested tea leaves were processed into green tea at a local tea factory.

Mrs. Yoshida thought, "I would like to know the traditional method of making the product as well." Under Koizumi's guidance, she made tea with handpicked tea leaves using the traditional method of kneading them by hand.

Mr. Koizumi had not done this method for more than 50 years, however, he was kneading the steamed tea leaves with skillful hands on the HOIRO (roasting stove) table that was used in the past.

Mrs.Yoshida's cafe offers a new menu of Canelé and cookies made with green tea that she has produced by herself. She is also trying to produce "green tea beer" and planning to sell it in the future.

Mrs.Yoshida's wish to "leave behind the precious local agriculture for my children" will take a new form and become a product many people will appreciate.

ruche CAHOA
Address: 11-1, Anabuki-aza-fujiwara, Anabuki-cho, Mima city, Tokushima Prefecture
TEL: 090-9453-1442