62th National tea jury had taken place from 26th to 29th of August in Kumamoto.  Here is the result of Gyokuro.

26 teas got the grade 1st to 3rd in this year, and 24 out of them were Yamé tea.  Mr. Tateishi in Hoshino village got the first rank for four years running, which renewed the record of the jury by himself, and got full score 200 again since 2007.

National tea jury is a sort of Olympic game for tea farmers.  Most of the nominations are coming from specially designed orchard that is focusing on making a certain amount of crude tea (10kg for Sencha, and 4kg for Gyokuro), so the quality of the tea does not necessarily link directly to the commercial one of the farmer. But the result can be an indicator that who and which appellation have motivation to make great tea.

This is the result of National tea jury 2008, which shows the leadership in each tea type.

It is decided by picking top 3 pointed tea in each autonomy and summing them up, so that the full score is 600.

• Sencha 10kg is the hottest contest in the jury.  Shizuoka prefecture is deep in this category, so it often appears in the leadership ranking.  In these days, Kawane and Yamé compeat closely each other for the top.
• Sencha 30kg is category for the mass productive tea.  It is dominated by Kagoshima prefecture because other sources cannot cultivate tea in large farm to get 30kg homogeneity.
• Sencha 4kg is newly set in 2007.  A lot of unique Sencha can be nominated, so that the competition is in chaos at this moment.
• Fukamushi can be called the category for Shizuoka prefecture.  Other sources hardly process Sencha into Fukamushi.
• Kabusecha is shade grown tea, and the speciality of Kinki area such as Kyoto, Mie and Shiga.  Some high quality Kabusecha tend to sold as Gyokuro, or the farmers of Kabusecha would convert the orchards into Sencha or Gyokuro, so the competition is getting quiet recently.
• Gyokuro is from Yamé, Uji, and part of Shizuoka like Okabe.  For more than 20 years, Yamé have got to be outstanding in this category over Uji, and the competition has made by each appellation inside Yamé.
• Tencha is the crude tea of Matcha, and Uji always hold the top ranking.
• Tamaryokucha is the speciality of middle Kyusyu area, Kumamoto and Saga.  The tea is processed into ball shape.
• Kamaguri is the only toast processed crude tea in the jury, while others are steam processed.  It is contested very closely between Ureshino in Saga and Kumamoto.

National tea tasting championship 2008 was held in 29th of September, and Mr. Shinya Yamaguchi, a master tea taster of Hoshino Seichaen, got the first prize with the highest score ever.

The Japanese tea tasting skill is contested in; type, season, region, and appellation distinction for the tea leaves.  120 selected representatives from each prefecture compete for those skills that are needed for their daily job such as tea selection, blending, and finishing.

The products of Japanese green tea depend on, of course, the quality of the crude tea, but the skill of tea processor also affects it greatly.