The National Cha Hinpyoukai

The 66th National Tea Competition of Japan Results (2012)

The 66th National Tea Competition was held between August 28th to August 31th of 2012. The event took place at Shizuokachashijyou located at Shizuoka City, Shizuoka. As a result of the competition, the following awards were recognized.

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Individual Awards

Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Award - 8 winners
Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Secretary Award - 12 winners
Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association Chairman Award - 8 winners
Japanese Association of Tea Production Award - 8 winners
National Tea Commerce and Industry's Association Award - 5 winners

Group Awards

Area Award 1st Place - 8 winners
Area Award 2nd Place - 8 winners
Area Award 3rd Place - 8 winners

The National Tea Competition of Japan is the most prestigious competition for Japanese green tea. Learn more about this competition here.

Below we will introduce the Area of the winners of each category. For the individual awards, the actual names of the winners are also announced. However, since the proper instruction on how to read the names are absent, I have left it out and instead decided to only introduce the Areas of the winners. If you would like to know the actual winners, please refer to the resource at the end of the page. (Japanese)

Results

Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Award - 8 winners

Category	Winner Area	Related Area Brands
Futsu-Sencha 10g	Kirishima City, Kagoshima	Kagoshima-cha
Futsu-Sencha 4g	Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka	Shizuoka-cha
Fukamushi-Sencha	Kakegawa City, Shizuoka	Kakegawa-cha
Kabuse-cha	Fukuchiyama City, Kyoto	Ujicha
Gyokuro	Yame City, Fukuoka	Yamecha
Tencha (Matcha)	Uji City, Kyoto	Ujicha
Mushisei-Tamaryokucha	Ureshino City, Saga	Ureshino-cha
Kamairi-cha	Ureshino City, Saga	Ureshino-cha

Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Secretary Award - 12 winners

Category	Winner Area	Related Area Branda
Futsu-Sencha 10g	Minamikyushu City, Kagoshima	Chiran-cha
Futsu-Sencha 10g	Kirishima City, Kagoshima	Kagoshima-cha
Futsu-Sencha 4g	Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka	Shizuoka-cha
Fukamushi-Sencha	Kakegawa City, Shizuoka *2 winners from Kakegawa City for this award	Kakegawa-cha
Fukamushi-Sencha	Kakegawa City, Shizuoka *2 winners from Kakegawa City for this award	Kakegawa-cha
Kabuse-cha	Maizuru City, Kyoto	Ujicha
Gyokuro	Yame City, Fukuoka *2 winners from Yame City for this award	Yamecha
Gyokuro	Yame City, Fukuoka *2 winners from Yame City for this award	Yamecha
Tencha (Matcha)	Uji City, Kyoto	Ujicha
Mushisei-Tamaryokucha	Ureshino City, Saga *2 winners from Ureshino City for this award	Ureshino-cha
Mushisei-Tamaryokucha	Ureshino City, Saga	Ureshino-cha
Kamairi-cha	Amakusa City, Kumamoto	-

Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association Chairman Award - 8 winners

Category	Winner Area	Related Area Brands
Futsu-Sencha 10g	Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka	Shizuoka-cha
Futsu-Sencha 4g	Numazu City, Shizuoka	Shizuoka-cha
Fukamushi-Sencha	Kakegawa City, Shizuoka	Kakegawa-cha
Kabuse-cha	Tsuzukigun Ujitawaracho Town, Kyoto	Ujicha
Gyokuro	Yame City, Fukuoka	Yamecha
Tencha (Matcha)	Kusegun Kumiyamacho Town, Kyoto	Ujicha
Mushisei-Tamaryokucha	Ureshino City, Saga	Ureshino-cha
Kamairi-cha	Ureshino City, Saga	Ureshino-cha

Japanese Association of Tea Production Award - 8 winners

Category	Winner Area	Related Area Brands
Futsu-Sencha 10g	Shuchigun Moricho Town, Shizuoka	Shizuoka-cha
Futsu-Sencha 4g	Shizuoka City, Shizuoka	Shizuoka-cha
Fukamushi-Sencha	Kakegawa City, Shizuoka	Kakegawa-cha
Kabuse-cha	Ayabe City, Kyoto	Ujicha
Gyokuro	Yame City, Fukuoka	Ujicha
Tencha (Matcha)	Uji City, Kyoto	Ujicha
Mushisei-Tamaryokucha	Ureshino City, Saga	Ureshino-cha
Kamairi-cha	Ureshino City, Saga	Ureshino-cha

National Tea Commerce and Industry's Association Award - 5 winners

Category	Winner Area	Related Area Brands
Futsu-Sencha 4g	Haibaragun Kawanechoncho Town, Shizuoka	Kawane-cha
Fukamushi-Sencha	Kakegawa City, Shizuoka	Kakegawa-cha
Kabuse-cha	Ayabe City, Kyoto	Ujicha
Tencha (Matcha)	Jyouyou City, Kyoto	Ujicha
Kamairi-cha	Ureshino City, Saga	Ureshino-cha

Area Awards

Category	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Futsu-Sencha 10g	Kirishima City, Kagoshima	Minamikyushu City, Kagoshima	Yame City, Fukuoka
Futsu-Sencha 4g	Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka	Kawanehonchou town, Shizuoka	Shizuoka City, Shizuoka
Fukamushi-Sencha	Kakegawa City, Shizuoka	Makinohara City, Shizuoka	Shimada City, Shizuoka
Kabuse-cha	Maizuru City, Kyoto	Tsuzukigun Ujitawaracho Town, Kyoto	Ayabe City, Kyoto
Gyokuro	Yame City, Fukuoka	Fujieda City, Shizuoka	Kyotanabe City, Kyoto
Tencha (Matcha)	Uji City, Kyoto	Jyouyou City, Kyoto	Kyotanabe City, Kyoto
Mushisei-Tamaryokucha	Ureshino City, Saga	Shibushishi City, Kagoshima	Yamaga City, Kumamoto
Kamairi-cha	Ureshino City, Saga	Amakusa City, Kumamoto	Kamimashikigun Yamatocho Town, Kumamoto

Summary by Chief Judge (Translation)

"

(1) Futsu-Sencha 10kg

102 items from 9 prefectures including Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Fukuoka and Shizuoka were evaluated.

Whilst this category is limited to machine plucking, the high-ranking products saw good quality products with good external and internal scores as a result of careful operations were evident. The middle-ranking products were also of good quality, and implied the high quality of machine operations. The lower ranking products had items with late plucking or loss of freshness, with improvements to be desired.

(2) Futsu-Sencha 4kg

106 items from 17 prefectures including Shizuoka and Kagoshima were evaluated. This year the number of submission items and submission volume has changed. The high and middle-ranked products had a relatively small gap in quality, and implied careful selection has taken place. However, overall there were many products that noticed to have ooiaji. From a futsu-sencha perspective, this is an agenda which should be thought about moving forward.

(3) Fukamushi-Sencha

110 items from 7 prefectures including Shizuoka were evaluated.

The high-ranking items had the yellow-green lust and umami, showing sufficient qualities as good fukamushi-sencha. While the middle-ranking products are slightly lower than the high-ranking products, the deductions were few and overall good quality. The some of the lower-ranking products saw some greenish smell resulting from insufficient steaming, and had a gap in quality as compared to the high and middle-ranking products. Overall, the Fukamushi-sencha category showed an evident difference in characteristics, as the products captures the qualities properly.

(4) Kabuse-cha

100 items from 8 prefectures including Kyoto, Shizuoka and Mie were evaluated.

This year the climate before growing the Ichibancha was unpredictable and relatively low. It was a difficult year to manage the shading in the tea farms. The high-ranking products showed high quality external and internal characteristics in the tea. Many products carried the fresh green lust, umami, and aroma of good quality Kabuse-cha. The high skill of the producers were on display. Some of the middle-ranking items and the low-ranking items showed some deduction points. The difference between the high-ranking products and low-ranking products seemed evident.

(5) Gyokuro

61 items from Fukuoka, 23 items from Kyoto, 22 items from Shizuoka and 1 item from Kagoshima comprised the 107 items in total evaluated in this category. The teas were overall high quality for both high and middle ranking products, with the unique characteristics of Gyokuro - with the ooika and rich umami - blending together in harmony. Also, many items. Also, an overall high level of skill in maximizing the characteristics and reducing the weaknesses of the breed were demonstrated.

(6) Tencha

Overall the external visual score was high with vivid and uniform color. The internal quality scores also extracted great mildness and umami, and saw many good quality products.

(7) Mushisei-Tamaryokucha

Products from Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, and Kagoshima of Kyushu Island were evaluated. From this year the submission volume had changed from 10kg to 4kg, and the submission items has reduced to 100 items. As a result, the teas were of high quality and was even more difficult to rank as compared to previous years. The high-ranking products were of high quality showing the fresh aroma, and the umami of the young buds mixed together, a quality of the Mushisei-Tamaryokucha. The middle-ranking products were also high quality with a small difference with the high-ranking products. Overall there were less deductions compared to previous years, and displayed the passion from the Kyushu areas.

(8) Kamairi-cha

105 items from Kumamoto, Saga, Miyazaki, Shizuoka, and Kagoshima were evaluated. More items were submitted this year as compared to last year, as a result of no frost damage. While the high-ranking and middle-ranking products showed a small difference in quality, the low ranking products seemed to show a large gap. The high-ranking products had good products showing good qualities of the Kamairi-cha. While the middle-ranking products didn't have as much of these qualities, the gap was still small. The low-ranking products had many deductions, and showed the need for careful management of the leaves and manufacturing processes.

[Resource]

https://www.ujicha.or.jp/wp/wp-content/themes/ujicha/images/h24hinpyou_zenkoku.pdf