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| Organizational Support for Tea Competition |
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| - Competition Grade Tea |
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| Seasonal Topics & Items |
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| Dear Sir and Madam, |
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| We at Hibiki-an THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your continued patronage and support.
We are pleased to offer useful information for your healthy life and continued
enjoyment of Japanese green tea. In this issue, we talk about 'Organizational Support for Tea Competition (Competition Grade Tea)'. |
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Organizational Support for Tea Competition (Competition Grade Tea)
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The Tea Competition in Japan requires the support of many people working together. It sustains the tea industry, because the purpose of the tea competition is to improve Japanese tea agricultural and manufacturing techniques.
It requires organizational strength, steering strength, judging technical strength, and so on at a high level to convene the tea competition every year. From 600 to 1000 teas are contributed, and the first place tea in each category: Gyokuro, Sencha, and Matcha, wins the award of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. To ensure a successful tea competition, about 1000 teas should be contributed and 80 to 100 expertise personnel should be involved.
Large numbers of teas are typically contributed to the competition during an economic boom because the competition teas are bid at relatively high prices and farmers can recover the costs and labors to grow competition tea. However, during an economic depression, most competition teas except only the awarded teas are bid at relatively low prices and farmers can’t recover the costs and labors. At that time, the secretariat strives to encourage farmers to increase the number of teas contributed to the competition. The tea competition is an important activity to raise the level of agricultural and manufacturing techniques throughout Japan.
About 20 Judges are called away from the tea research laboratory organized within the farm ministry, and major tea merchants who all evaluate several thousand teas every year to improve defects on cultivating and processing, or to bid. Judging tea is the most important job governing their principal occupations. So, their judging technical strengths have been continuously kept at an amazingly high level.
Number of administrative support personnel range from 60 to 80 people, who are mainly called away from agricultural cooperatives, the tea research laboratory, and tea industry association.
Needless to say, all competition teas should be judged under quite equal conditions. It is not easy at all but requires much time and effort. Once contributed, the teas should be strictly preserved in order not to deteriorate. And at examining meeting, for example, over 100 contributed teas at one category should be extracted in the same condition, with the same water temperature, same amount of water, same amount of tea leaves (and same content rate of specks and tiny tea leaves), for the same brewing time. All tea should be deftly and properly extracted in a short time. Even if there is just a small difference in each extracting condition, the flavor or tea color can’t be judged fairly.
To handle and to prepare all competition tea properly, every procedure and every step are clearly standardized. And all of the administrative support personnel should become adept at the procedures, and strictly conduct each step. To do that, huge organizational strength as well as steering strength is required.
Examination criteria for the tea competition should be modified and improved over time. Factory automation has found its way into tea agriculture. In contrast, traditional agricultural and processing techniques should be preserved. So the examination criteria must include both the traditional and the modern. And each production center seems to want to alter the examination criteria in their own favor. So, the improvement of the examination criteria is not always easy.
The national tea competition is supported by a great number of individuals throughout Japan, but this strong and continuous effort raises the level of agricultural and manufacturing techniques and benefits everyone from the tea farmer to the tea shop to you, our customers.
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| Administrative support personnel meeting in the morning of the tea competition. |
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| Progress chart for the tea competition. All teas contributed (around 1000 teas) are judged. The process takes two full days. |
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| All contributed teas for the competition are stored in steel airtight containers. They are all strictly preserved. |
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| Teas are extracted strictly following the procedures. In this picture, they are carefully checking if the poured water amounts are all equal. |
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| Timing measurement to check the brewing time. |
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| Impressive number of tea ware are always kept in good condition in order to examine the huge number of teas contributed to the competition. |
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[Limited] Competition Grade Tea / Blended Sencha Items |
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| Competition Grade Tea is limited edition of just 450 packages each and Blended Sencha is limited edition of just 600 packages each ONLY AVAILABLE this winter season.
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Competition Grade Tea |
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[Limited] Competition Grade Gyokuro Pinnacle (30g/1.06oz): US$38.00
(Now Available: limited edition of 450 packages ONLY AVAILABLE this winter season)
This Competition Grade Gyokuro Pinnacle has an excellent, deeply mellow taste. The National Tea Competition is held in order to improve Japanese tea agricultural and manufacturing techniques, and to congratulate and encourage those that have produced outstanding tea... |
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[Limited] Competition Grade Sencha Pinnacle (40g/1.41oz): US$30.00
(Now Available: limited edition of 450 packages ONLY AVAILABLE this winter season)
Competition Grade Sencha Pinnacle is available only at the National Tea Fair, attended by tea connoisseurs and those within the Japanese green tea industry. This fine green tea has an excellent, deeply mellow taste... |
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[Limited] Competition Grade Matcha Pinnacle (20g/0.71oz): US$46.00
(Now Available: limited edition of 450 packages ONLY AVAILABLE this winter season)
This Competition Grade Matcha Pinnacle has an excellent, deeply mellow taste. The National Tea Competition is held several times a year in Japan. Sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and attended by executives of the Japanese tea industry... |
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[Limited] Competition Grade Matcha Pinnacle Refill (60g/2.12oz): US$115.00
(Now Available: limited edition of 450 packages ONLY AVAILABLE this winter season)
This Competition Grade Matcha Premium Refill package is an excellent value. The price is actually discounted 17%. This has an excellent, deeply mellow taste. The National Tea Competition is held several times a year in Japan. Sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries... |
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Blended Sencha |
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[Limited] Blended Sencha Premium (80g/2.82oz): US$20.00
(Now Available: limited edition of 850 packages ONLY AVAILABLE this autumn season)
Blended Sencha Premium is a blend of Sencha and Gyokuro. This tea is composed of four breeds of green tea: Kanayamidori, Sayamakaori, Yabukita, and Okumidori... |
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| Are you enjoying your green moments? Hibiki-an encourages those who love to drink green tea. If you have any requests or questions regarding our teas or services, please don't hesitate to contact us. We sincerely hope that you enjoy genuine Hibiki-an Japanese green tea direct to you from Kyoto, Japan. |
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| Sincerely yours, |
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| Atsushi Yasui |
Seasonal Topics & Items
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[Valentine's Day Gifts] FUROSHIKI Wrapping Fabric / FUROSHIKI Gift Items |
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We added some FUROSHIKI Wrapping Fabric Items to respond to customers' requests. They are suitable to wrap tea or snacks / candy purchased on our website for gift. It is of course reusable and perfect for wrapping anything from a gift to a Bento lunch box. It can also be used as a decorative wall hanging, table cloth, scarf, and so on. It depends on your idea.
FUROSHIKI Gift Items, which are carefully wrapped with the FUROSHIKI Japanese wrapping fabric, are available too.
Please take a look. These items would make perfect gifts for friends, family, and professional colleagues, or any special or romantic occasion! |
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[New] FUROSHIKI Wrapping Fabric Items |
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Japanese Snacks / Candy items |
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Japanese "Amuse-Bouche" (Foods to Amuse the Mouth)
Traditional Japanese Snacks / Candy pair beautifully with any kind of Japanese tea. Like the French "Amuse-Bouche" their purpose is to amuse the mouth or palate, in this case, while drinking green tea. Since 16th century Japan, they have been refined and improved upon over hundreds of years to create absolute harmony of flavor between the green tea and the delicious sweet confection or savory snack. Such as the feeling you get when you have green tea and sushi together, your palate understands that this is an ideal match of flavor... (more info) |
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OHIGASHI (handmade confectionary): US$23.00
OHIGASHI is one of the most traditional Japanese confectionary which is often served at Japanese tea ceremony and pairs very well with Japanese green tea. At last, we added OHIGASHI which is made at Tsuboneya, a confectioner in Kyoto well-known for their beautiful confectionary made by hand with careful attention to quality and detail...
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YOHKAN (sweet bean jelly): US$16.50
YOHKAN sweet bean jelly is one of the most popular and classic confections in Japan. We developed YOHKAN with an established AN bean jam manufacturer located in Kyoto. Our four flavors of YOHKAN are manufactured with careful attention to quality and domestic ingredients...
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OKAKI (handmade rice cracker): US$23.00
OKAKI rice cracker is one of the most popular and classic snacks in Japan. At last, we added OKAKI which is made at Fujisawa Eiseido known for creating OKAKI using a traditional manufacturing process with careful attention to quality and natural ingredients. This OKAKI is traditionally-made by hand using only natural ingredients sourced only in Japan...
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[New & Limited] Teapots / Cups, Matcha Bowls / Accessories |
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| We have arranged for 20 limited edition and new teapots / cups, and 16 limited edition and new Matcha Bowls / Accessories. The 13
limited edition items are all available only this autumn and winter season. |
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| Teapots / Cups shopping category: click here |
| Matcha Bowls / Accessories shopping category: click here |
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(Notice 1) Employment Information
We are now recruiting for a job position of ministrant of online store manager and wholesale. For details, would you click here? (Employment Information) |
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(Notice 2) New Shopping Page Design
New shopping page design was recently implemented on our website. It enables you to change the shopping page to display our products as a vertical list of item details, or as horizontal rows of product image tiles, depending on how you prefer to shop. You also can sort our products by price, grade, popularity, and so on. We hope this will make your visit to our website even more enjoyable. Would you please try it and see? |
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Account info
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Or if you prefer, we are happy to update your account info for you. Just let us know. Please don't hesitate to contact us!
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