Sonogi lies in the west of Kyushu, not far from Deshima. From 1641 Japan was closed to foreign contact except for the Dutch, who traded from that artificial island in the harbour of Nagasaki and were more interested in silver and silk than in green tea.

When Japan opened to trade in 1853, the first Japanese tea to be exported was Sonogi and Ureshino tea, shipped from Nagasaki to the United States. That was the start of the tea export business.

Sonogi is known above all for tamaryokucha. The leaf is steamed, kneaded and dried, but not pressed flat afterwards, so it keeps its curl and some leaves roll into a small tama. The gardens are grown under controlled sunlight, which suppresses bitterness and draws out umami.

The scale is nothing like Shizuoka: Sonogi is no more than one percent of Japan's tea production. That small scale is part of why it tastes different, along with a warmer climate, different soil and a processing style that never followed the mainstream.