Global Japanese Tea Association Opening Event in Madrid, Spain 2018

Exactly one year ago our ideas of spreading Japanese tea took better form and the Global Japanese Tea Association was decided to start.
All these past months we had been thinking, planning, talking, sharing and announcing around to tea people and at tea events about this.
At long last, the official opening event took place last September 13th in Madrid!

Matsu san and Simona flew all the way from Japan to reach Anna, already in Spain, and gather together for a fun and nice evening of tea in the cultural hub and book shop of “Tipos Infames”, in Madrid city centre.
Some 25 people joined and together we shared our vision: Japanese tea is our passion and we want a brighter future for it.
Tea farming in Japan is facing a decline trend due to the fact that less young people take up agriculture as a job. At the same time, tea is seen by young generations as an old habit and has become less popular in recent times.
On the opposite, around the world Japanese tea is gaining popularity and every year more and more people appreciate it. However, we see so often there is lack of proper information outside Japan on tea farmers, tea sellers, tea production, tea properties, brewing, storage and so on.
Our dream to overcome that and to connect people in and with Japanese tea started from Madrid on that very first event!

Why did we choose Spain? Because it is one of the places in Europe with less tradition and appreciation for tea and we don’t like things easy. Also because Spanish people, despite not following tea too much, show a warm welcome and are usually pleasantly surprised at tasting Japanese tea for the first time.

Tea could not be missed, of course: what did we brew?
A whole lot of teas were shared on that evening, from Houji-cha to Matcha and Gyokuro. But also senchas from different areas of Japan to taste the differences and have a glimpse of the variety that Japanese tea world can offer.

A second event took place at the end of October at the dreamy travel hub “B The Travel Experience” in Madrid. The focus this time was on the cultural and travelling attractive of tea regions of Japan and their more characteristics teas.

What is next?
Lots of “behind the scenes” work needs to be done these months in building sections of our website, translating material and in spreading the news of the association.
But we are looking forward to present our new events and workshops at the beginning of new year!

Stay tuned for more – follow us on our socials and newsletter: you’ll be the first to know about our next event!