Cultivar: Asahi
Shading time: 40 days (Honzu-Shading)
Elevation: 100 - 150 m
Harvest: May 2020 (First Flush), hand picked
Type of steaming: Asamushi (short steaming)
Special features: The tea was shaded about 40 days before the harvest and picked by hand, grown by the most prestigious Tencha farmer in Japan, Mr. Tsuji. This Tencha was among the best six Tenchas at the national contest. "Ori" means the same as Karigane only for Tencha.
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: 40 g
Steeping Method
First infusion:
・Amount of tea ：5 g
・Water temperature：about 50℃
・Water amount：about 50 ml
・Steep duration：3 min
Second infusion:
・Steep duration：90 sec
Third infusion:
・Water temperature：about 70℃・Steep duration：120 sec
Fourth infusion:
・Water temperature：about 80℃
・Steep duration：3 min
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 :
"Ori" means the same as Karigane only for Tencha. I.e. the stem proportion is higher than with normal tea. Since this is a hand-picked competition tea, 1. the stem proportion of the picked tea is extremely low and 2. for the competition leafs are sorted out with tweezers, which would not be sorted out with normal teas. The Tencha was sold at the national competition (2020) for almost 1700€/ kg and got the second place at the national competition.
This Tencha is extremely sweet in the first infusion and has an incredible umami: completely mouth filling, but very elegant. Umami and sweetness are still clearly present in the following infusions, but also some fresh notes and a clear Matcha aroma are added.
A tea of the absolute top class and a rarity that is only available from us.