Do you know Japan is the 8th tea producer in the world?

This week I was visiting Japanese tea plantations where our organic Bancha and organic Matcha come from. (and a fresh batch of Organic Matcha is almost ready to deliver to Australia)

It was fantastic meeting the makers of our tea and seeing the facilities that turn leaf to cup.

But there is a problem, and it is even Japanese are turning more and more towards coffee and non-green tea.

We have been to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hokkaido.

For a country that produces 88,900 tonnes of tea, we are amazed out of 4 hotels we have stayed in, none of them served decent green tea, not even big name hotels like Sheraton.

For the locals, convenient stores and vending machines are filled with coffee, flavoured drinks and we are served more non Sencha tea, such as Mugicha (roasted barley), Hojicha (roasted green tea) in restaurants. 

Matcha desserts are everywhere. Most folks have no idea of where to find good tea.