In 2019 The UN designated 21st May as the International Tea Day to bring more attention to the importance of tea and highlight its long history as well as deep cultural and economic significance around the world. The International Tea Day was first observed in 2020 and this year was a second time. To observe […]
Spring tea harvest in Japan has already begun! And this year it is earlier than usual. February and March this year were warmer than normal and tea started sprouting early. Therefore, tea harvesting in most tea growing regions around the country started about a week earlier compared to last year. In Kagoshima tea auction opened […]
Green Tea and Health Symposium was held in Kyoto on 15th April and the specific focus was on the green tea effect on the new corona virus. The symposium was organized and sponsored by Kyoto prefecture and the general population could join online through Zoom. The symposium started with the presentation by the keynote speaker […]
You probably know that Tokyo will make the second attempt to hold the Olympic Games 2020 this summer. Inspired by the athletic spirit of the Olympic Games, we are happy to say that during the same period we will hold the Japanese Tea Marathon! ‘What is the Japanese Tea Marathon?’ you may ask. The marathon […]
On the 24th of February we had one more “Meet the Tea Farmer” event: this time the guest tea farmer was Akihiro Kita, president of Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms. Tea friends joined from Belgium, Portugal, USA, Japan and Spain and we could try together a kabuse sencha and a very special hoji-wakoucha. Akky-san fell in love […]
While the interest in tea continues to grow, learning about tea in person has been widely limited by the pandemic. Luckily learning online is still possible. In October 2020 we opened our level 1 – Japanese Tea Foundation Course online, and so far 16 students have completed it. Now we are happy happy to say that […]
On 31st January we are turning two! The first few years as a new organization are never easy. With the pandemic ravaging the world, last year proved especially bumpy. However, guided by the mission to bring new growth into the Japanese tea world through global collaboration, our team could not let the hands down and […]
For the last few years the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has been publishing reports about the Japanese tea situation. The reports normally include the overview of production, demand & consumption, import & export, etc. Most of these reports are only available in Japanese. A few exceptions were a report published in May […]