Price and Quality of Green Tea

Tea trees are solid and long life plant, and tea leaves can be harvested 3 to 4 times a year from the same tree. The first harvested tea of the year is called "Ichibancha", the second one-"Nibancha", the third one-"Sanbancha", and the last one is called "Yonbancha" or "Shutouban". Since the first harvested tea is concerned to be the most fine quality tea among above all, they are usually most expensive. Ichibancha is picked in the early spring time, after the cold winter time. Tea leaves store high nutrition through the winter, thus the catechin and theanin are highly contained which known as its effectiveness to the health are highly contained. Tea retailers put the highest priority to obtain those Ichibancha. Now, let's compare the prices: Average price in 1999 (1kg) Ichibancha \3750 Nibancha \1420 Sanbancha \900 Syutouban \330 The price of the Japanese green tea greatly reflect by its quality, so you can see how the retailers put importance on the first harvested tea. The ability of judging tea quality is very important job for both tea traders and the retailers. Many of them aim their goal to become a good connoisseur of tea. Those professional idea is almost the same as wine sommelier. During Meiji era, Japan Green Tea Fair took place under the auspices of the former Interior Secretary Toshimichi Ookubo. Since then, those introduced traditional method of judging tea has been carried down till now. To be a good tea connoisseur, it is important to understand the regional characters of tea, how you could receive the messages from the farmers by tasting tea. It is a serious job to provide reliable information, and this information become a source to set the price of tea. Price setting has to be the one to make both farmers and the consumers satisfied.

(Shohei Tokita)