Cultivar: Asahi
Shading time: 40 days (Kanreisha Shading)
Elevation: 20 m
Harvest: May 2024 (First Flush), hand-picked
Type of steaming: Asamushi (short steaming)
Special features: This tea was top placed at this year's National Competition.
Ideal storing: Use as soon as possible after opening. If possible store in the refrigerator and wait five minutes after taking it out of the refrigerator until the tea has reached room temperature.
Weight: 15 g
Steeping Method
・Amount of tea ：1,5 - 2 g
・Water temperature：about 80℃
・Water amount：about 60 - 80 ml
About the Japanese tea competitions:
Let me briefly explain the tea competitions in Japan: The two most important tea competitions are of course the national (全国茶品評会 = Zenkoku Cha Hinpyoukai) as well as the Kansai competition (we were also there this year). The Kansai Competition is probably the most important competition for tea farmers from the regions of Kyoto, Shiga, Nara, Mie and Gifu.
The teas are judged by appearance, cup colour, aroma and taste. In the end, cup colour and appearance have rather less influence on the taste of the tea, which sometimes leads to good deals, especially in the midfield.
After the teas have been judged, the auction takes place. Only wholesalers from Japan are allowed to enter the auction, but we were lucky that a befriended wholesaler had taken us with him.
The auction will take place as follows: There is a room where all competitive teas are displayed and you have the possibility to inspect the teas (about two to four hours), but you cannot try the teas, you can only take them into your hand and smell them.
Then you have to determine the price / kg and write it on a piece of paper and put it in a box underneath the table. The one with the highest price wins the bid.
Because you have to determine the price only according to appearance and smell, there are of course "rivets" every now and then, because competition grade tea does not mean automatically that it really tastes good.
Why are competition grade teas so expensive and what is the difference to "normal" teas?
The effort required for competition grade teas is quite different from that required for normal teas. It starts with the selection of the tea field: The tea farmers use their best tea field for competition grade teas (location and soil). In addition, particularly elaborate fertilization methods are used for these teas. The teas are of course hand-picked, but the difference is that for competition grade teas, a maximum of two leaves and a bud are picked, and often only one leaf and a bud. In addition, the harvest takes place comparatively early, so the tea leaves are very tender and have a lot of umami and sweetness. This of course means that the tea farmer loses a lot of his harvest.
Small machines are used in the production, every step is thoroughly checked and many intermediate steps are carried out manually. In total there are about 70 - 80 people involved in the whole production process, which lasts from morning until late in the evening. At the end the tea is sorted by hand with tweezers and at the end of the day only about 4 kg of tea comes out. However, this does not apply to all competition teas, as not all are hand-picked and produced as carefully as described.
As you may have already noticed, from a financial point of view, competition grade teas are not profitable at first, but it is important for the reputation of a tea farmer and the price that his "normal" tea achieves on the market.
Here are a few impressions of the production of two competing teas, where we were allowed to take part in every step from morning to evening :
A hand-picked Matcha from the top region Kyotanabe. Kyotanabe is known for producing the best Gyokuro in Japan, but Matcha of the highest quality are also produced there.
Mr. Kobayashi has already won the national competition with his Tencha (raw material for Matcha) and every year achieves top results with his teas. This Matcha is the finest of Mr Kobayashi's teas and we are proud to be able to present another top class competition grade Matcha in addition to our Competition Grade Matcha from Mr. Tsuji.
The rare Culitvar "Asahi" gives this Matcha an incredible sweetness and umami, in addition a slightly cocoa-like aroma and overall extremely round without a hint of bitterness with a beautiful creamy texture.
Here is a video in English about the tea region Kyoto, where our tea master Mr. Kobayashi can be seen briefly from minute 10:30: