Japanese Tea Report – August 2024

The end of summer is nearing and the heat should subside soon. This offers a break to look back on the tea season so far. The Kyoto tea auction, which closed on 31st July, announced that the sales revenue has been rising for 4 consecutive years, and this year for the spring tea was the highest since the opening of the auction in 1974. The volume of spring tea has also increased by 44t to 1126t.

Kyoto tea was also prominent at the Kansai Tea Competition, when it won in both gyokuro and regular sencha categories. In Shizuoka Prefecture solar energy use in producing organic tencha has gained some attention. Solar panels have been installed in 8 locations of the prefecture, and tea produced there is intended for exporting abroad. Kakegawa City in Shizuoka Prefecture has also started the Kakegawa Tea Fair Trade scheme in which tea producers and tea trading companies coordinate the quality and quantity of tea in advance and aim to trade at a fair price. 127 combinations of producers and tea trading companies made fair trade declarations, however only about 30% actually engaged in it.

Behavioral loyalty index in Japan is used to evaluate customer loyalty for each product. In the first half of 2024 ItoEn’s bottled tea Oi Ocha came at the top in the green tea category. Regarding bottled tea there was also a mystery in Matsuzaka City, Mie Prefecture. 11 boxes of bottled tea were left at 3 nurseries in the city, with the donor not revealing their information.

In Kanagawa Prefecture a new blend of tea and coffee has emerged. Local Ashigara tea is used to create unique blends, like coffee hojicha and coffee sencha. In Gunma a botanist started growing edible roses after bringing some cuttings from China, where the flower was more common. It is suitable for cakes and tempura, and can even be infused in water. Takahatsu Town in Miyazaki Prefecture has recently organized a competition to utilize local citrus fruit – tachibana. The grand prize went to a herbal blend that included tachibana tree bark among other ingredients.

On 19th August the previous Iemoto of Urasenke – Sen Genshitsu held a lecture for peace in Beppu City, Oita Prefecture. He said that we should not let the war happen again and highlighted that the spirit of tea values compromise. Omotesenke – another tea ceremony school in Kyoto, recently held a special event for high school students from several schools. This month in Fukuoka students from the tea ceremony and flower arrangement club also held an early autumn tea ceremony at the prefectural office lobby.

At the beginning of the month Kyoto had a pottery exhibition for its local pottery styles – Kyoyaki and Kiyomizuyaki and about 40 ceramic artists of these traditions participated in the event. Another pottery exhibition was held in Fukuoka, displaying tea utensils of the local Takatoriyaki style, that has about 400 years of history.

The article is based on Japanese media articles:

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