Quality of hand picked tea

Today hand picked teas are rare to see. Most of the plucking is done by machines. However some family-running farms and the farms which specializing producing finest kind of sencha especially the farms located on the hillsides, hand picked method is still be used. There are actually 3 different methods of hand pickings- Oritsumi, Kakitsumi, and Kokitsume. Oritsumi, tender buds are pulled with between the thumb and forefinger and snapped. Method of Oritsumi keep the damage least. And produce extra fine tea. However, this method is not very productive and only 10kg leaves can be picked by one person a day. Kakitsumi is other hand picked method. The fingers positions are basicaly same as Oritsumi. Only difference is to pull the leaves instead of snapping off. This method is suitable for not the semi-matured leaves. 15-20g leaves are harvested a day by one person. Kokitsumi Kokitusmi is more rough hand picking method than other two. Therefore, more productive, but not necessary the quality may not be the best.