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.