JA-Hainan supports and holds “Aracha” competitions after first flush season.
On the end of May, two competitions were held by a local association of tea farmers and JA-Hainan.

In this year, the quality of first flush is evaluated to be so excellent in comparison with recent years. Totally saying, there seemed to be less undesirable properties.

Judges commented the spring climate was so good for tea buds that tea farmers’ input for tea cultivation could fulfill perfectly.
In the competitions, I found some “Aracha” leaves have special sweet aroma, which I cannot express the aroma correctly. Let’s say, their aroma are basically sweet, at the same time, they have somehow spicy or citric notes, resulting exotic nuance.
The tea farmer, who had produced such “Aracha”, told me that those farmers use the same organic fertilizer. He added the organic fertilizer is plant origin and well-fermented, and he guesses these aspects seems to contribute the nice aroma.
Indeed, it was reported that organic fertilizer can improve sensory-evaluated quality of tea even if chemically-evaluated quality of organic fertilizer applied tea is less than that of chemical fertilizer applied tea[013]. In addition, some tea merchants and tea farmers feel this tendency, they think application of organic fertilizer to tea plantation can provide higher sensory-evaluated quality of tea.

Anyway tea competition is the best occasion to discover finest teas, but also characteristic teas.
Lately many tea merchants have a liking for procuring characteristic ingredient teas to supply various teas according to multihued needs of end users, providing us with more chances to enjoy selecting tea based on our preferences.

Reference
[013] Saigo T., Watanabe K., Morita M., Nakano T. (1979) : Effect of Organic Fertilizer Application on the Growth of Tea Plant, Quality of Green Tea and Chemical Properties of Soils, Tea Research Journal, 50:31-41.