Japanese Green tea for Life

We are green tea exporter in Japan. Japanese green tea has a lot of varieties such as Sencha, Gyokuro, Matcha. Each of producer in gardens are devorting their life for tea production. We'd like to introduce and share their interesting story. For more info, visit; www.jp-greentea.co.jp/english/

June 2016

Hello

Let me explain the tea industry in Japan Today.

As you know, green tea is unfermented tea and Sencha is steamed (not pan flied) tea.

This characteristic of steamed tea and also the long history of tea business in Japan made the industry complicated.

 

Simply, tea industry is composed by;

1. Tea garden (farmer) company.

2. Steaming facility/company.

3. Packing company.

4. Trading company.

 

So, unlike Black tea business, 1 tea is made and sold by at least 3 companies.

 

Many of my new clients often ask me if they can buy from tea garden direct.

Then my answer is that who will steam before the leaf becomes black tea?

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We do harvest maximum 4 times in a year so that tea gardens usually don’t have steaming facility.

Then, steaming company is quite small company size  (99% family size) since they are busy only 4 times in a year.

No one has ISO certificate.

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At this period, both of them (tea garden or steaming company) can be a tea owner.

They bring to local dealer auction.

Then packing companies buy it and remove the stem before packing.

 

So, packer can be called manufacturer and some of them have ISO certificate.

However, the packers are not a garden owner and they buy at tea auction for existing customers (supermarkets), and not buy for stock since they have to pay cash at auction and they don’t want to have excess inventory.

 

Therefore, I believe we are standing and get required as exporting business for over 45 years and exporting 26 countries.

 

We do manage all traceability from tea gardens to packing so that the our selling price is very fair.

 

I do directly deal with tea farmers in Uji/Kyoto, Kagoshima, Yame/Fukuoka, Shizuoka, Nishio, Aichi as you see the photos below.

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48a
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So, it is not like we just buy from the manufacturers and resell to you. If so, you can’t buy the tea with our price if compared to the quality/grade. (although you should judge the quality/price. Hehehe)

We encourage the farmers to make good tea or non pesticide tea or organic for export, and also supporting the sales in domestic.

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77a
58a
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So what we doing is from A to Z in Japanese green tea business.

135a

 

Anyway, no one in our tea source speak English and it is very impossible for them to deal with overseas without us for sure.


Foodex15 2

 

By recent Matcha booming in the world, we are pretty busy to manage matcha raw ingredients.
For the large customers, we need to secure the quite big amount of raw ingredient or rough tea (Tencha) as single LOT #. Then it becomes very difficult to secure their necessary amount through the year these days.

Therefore, we encourage tea gardens to try making organic or low pesticide matcha to meet the overseas standard.

I'd like to introduce 2 remarkable but reasonable matcha at here.
Both of them are limited stock, and next available date is next harvest in 2017.

#23098 Kagoshima Organic Matcha 2nd Flush Premium (140kg ONLY)
23098 Kagoshima Organic  2nd Flush 3
Matcha grade basically differenciated by ceremonial or cooking (culinary grade).
The definition of ceremonial grade must be 1st flush spring harvest.

And this is 2nd flush so that it must be cooking grade no matter the taste is.
Then, you can see the color in the photo.
This is very same as 1st flush spring harvest matcha but the price is 2nd flush.

Limited Edition. Only 170kg. 2nd Flush premium organic matcha made at North Kagoshima, but stone milled. Color, aroma, sweetness is equal to organic 1st flush ceremonial grade.


#23053 Kagoshima Ariake No Pesticide matcha 1st Flush. (250kg ONLY)
23053 Ariake 3
Limited Edition. 1st Flush premium pesticide free tea. Only 250kg available in a year. The garden is waiting for JAS Organic approval in 2018. Harvest time is only twice (Spring and Autumn) a year to save the nutrition in matcha. Powdered by Mikage Stone mill.

If you have any question, please contact to
www.jp-greentea .co.jp/english

Thank you very much.

Here is the limited edition of Organic Gyokuro.

Making organic gyokuro is really difficult than we think.
Sun shading the tea tree for a month with organic fertiliser is not enhancing L-Theanine grow.
The leaf can be dark like conventional Gyokuro but it is just because of Chlorophyll and not by L-Theanine.

Therefore, we need to start from soil making with good compost.

Sakamoto brothers, we launchged on last year is the first one we tested to tea professionals in Japan and no one thought this is organic.
This year, we introduce 3 teas from Sakamoto brothers in Kagoshima.

22658 LIMITED 230kg. Kagoshima Sakamoto Organic Gyokuro Yabukita
22658 Organic Gyokuro Yabukita 3
Sakamoto Brothers organic gyokuro is succeeded since 2015. We proudly launch this high quality gyokuro in organic. Please check their great story of gyokuro making. Yabukita is most popular cultivar in Japanese sencha.

5g for max. 200ml. Cool down the boiling water to 60 to 50C degree. 3 minutes. Use small tea cups and pour to each cup a little by a little. See carefully on the surface of the cup. If it looks shiny jerry looking, it is about to drink even the color is not yellow like Sencha.


#23054 LIMITED 210kg. Kagoshima Sakamoto Organic Gyokuro Yutaka Midori
23054 Organic Gyokuro Yutakamidori 3
 Yutaka Midori is rich antioxidant and rare cultivar.
Reasonable price among Sakamoto selection.


#23055 LIMITED 70kg. Kagoshima Sakamoto Organic Gyokuro Premium
23055 Organuic Gyokuro Blend 3
 This premium Gyokuro is blended within his organic gyokuro garden, Yabukita and Saemidori cultivars.


The last one is;
#23067 LIMITED 65kg. Kagoshima Organic Gyokuro Kanaya. Limited Edition.
23067 K 3
Limited Edition. Total 65kg only. The most reasonable price in organic Gyokuro. Also the cultivar is Kanaya Midori which is very rare to be sold as single cultivar. Very rich Theanine.

You see the Jello look a like cup color from the photos. This is high concentration of L-Theanine.
All the teas above are harvested only once in a year, no 2nd flush or Autumnal, to save the best energy for 1st flush of next year.

If you have any question, please contact to
www.jp-greentea .co.jp/english

Thank you very much.

I usually travel many tea regions in Japan mostly from February to May for purchasing and communication with farmers. We share many homework with tea gardens to develop pesticide complianced but the taste is similar to Japanese standard.

These days, I spent more time for organic gadens so that it was physically very tough trip since my choice of organic gardens are mostly located in deep inside of mountains.
But they are real deal: genuine tea growers rather than just "I keep JAS certificate rule" gardens.

Also, organic teas are grown slower than conventional tea trees so that the harvest time is later and packing to be ready is slower since the gardens are relatively smaller sized.

Anyway, 2016 selection is ready and let me introduce them.

These are not yet JAS certified but in the process of evaluation by JAS Organic.

So, let me call them "Export tea" until they are certified. They are grown in 1 single farm and crop amount is very limited.

#23066 Kagoshima Sencha F No Pesticide. Limited Edition
23066 K 3

Limited Edition. Total 500kg. No pesticide, no chemical fertiliser. Unique aroma. Rich Theanine. 1 farm made. Blended for taste and aroma.


#23068 Kagoshima Sencha 2nd flush A for EU Limited Edition
23068 K 3
Limited Edition. Total 450kg. This tea is made for EU compliance. A little long steamed (Fukamushi) and rich Theanine.


#23070 Kagoshima Sencha A for USA Limited Edition
23070 K 3
Limited Edition. Total 350kg. The most recommended Sencha in 2016. This 1st flush tea is early crop blended to complete aroma, sweetness and rich taste, blended by Mr. Tomiyama.

#23071 Kagoshima Sencha B for USA Limited Edition
23071 K 3
Limited Edition. Total 300kg. This is economy version of #23070 Sencha A, the most recommended Sencha in 2016. This 1st flush tea is early crop blended to complete aroma, sweetness and rich taste, blended by Mr. Tomiyama.

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This is Mr. Tomiyama of Kagoshima tea. He is a taster and blender who bid in dealer auction for me.

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To be continued....

If you have any question, please contact to
www.jp-greentea .co.jp/english

Thank you very much.

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