Nihoncha Award organisers’ interviews with past Platinum winners

Nihoncha Award is one of the many tea competitions in Japan. It is organised annually since 2014 by the Nihoncha Instructor Association together with the Nihoncha Award Executive Committee and Japanese Tea Examination Council. Winners are selected after several rounds of evaluation by both tea industry experts as well as consumers. Dubbed as "The New …

Advertisement

Tea tasting: Meiryoku cultivar

Meiryoku resulted from crossing Yabukita and Yamatomidori cultivars. It was cultivated by what is now known as Kanaya Tea Research Centre, and was officially registered in 1986. It is a medium budding cultivar, with the sprouting period about one day earlier than Yabukita. This makes the picking of Meiryoku leaves done at about the same …

Tea tasting: Hinokuni Kuro (Hinokuni Kumamoto)

This is a deep-roasted houjicha made of fukamushi (deep-steamed) tea leaves that were roasted at very high temperature for a longer time than regular houjicha. The tea leaves are zairai or native species from the mountains, hence it is also known as zairaishu yamacha. Produced by the Fujisako family in Sagara village in Kumamoto, their …

Special Focus on Shizuoka: Shimada Green Ci-Tea

The mighty Oi River flows from the Southern Alps of Japan, and runs through Shimada City in central Shizuoka. If one is traveling on the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka, Shimada lies between the two stops of Shizuoka and Kakegawa, so in order to visit, you will have to get off at Shizuoka and …

Online Chagenkyo Matsuri 2020

The annual Chagenkyo Matsuri (Teatopia Festival) that is usually held during autumn in Wazuka, south of Kyoto prefecture, was held online over two days this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I had physically visited the festival in 2015, but that was before I started tea blogging, so I don't have record of it except …