Hachiju Hachiya – the day 88 days after Imbolc – is considered as a border between spring and summer.
The conditions at the boundary could affect the fulfilments of tea industry in Japan in this year.
Hachiju Hachiya has been considered as not only the best day for first flush plucking and tea production. The day has been also considered as the best day to prepare for the next season. For example, the day has been believed a perfect day for seeding or nurseries planting. Someone recommends the seasonal change of clothes and interior design at Hajichu Hachiya.
Possibly it can be also said that Hachiju Hachiya is the best day for challenging something new to prepare the next stage.
Today, a new tea event “Green Tea Picnic 2018” has been started in Inokashira Onshi Park till 4th May. The host of this tea event called co-organizing, as a result, some challengers of tea businesses responded the call to develop the frontier of tea business.
1. The Tea Company – Reinvigorator of ruined tea plantations.
The Tea Company has been established since August 2016. This tea business deals with organic tea leaves and the bottled beverage of organic tea. In addition, the tea enterprise itself does the restoration of abandoned tea plantations. This is an excellent exploit, I think!
They bring organic-certified oxidized teas from various organic tea farms and produce organic oolong teas by themselves.
Their bottled organic tea have unique aroma each other. A young woman said the roasted tea with extracts of organic rose was so nice and she wanted to use for cocktail or sparkling drink. I was impressed with roasted oolong of ‘Tsuyuhikari’ cultivar. It has harmony of mellowness and freshness!
I remember Matcha Organic Japan Co., Ltd., the venture of young tea farmers producing organic tencha, which is ingredient of matcha. They also reinvigorate abandoned tea gardens to produce organic tencha.
I hope these highly-motivated young persons will cooperate each other to innovate tea industry and create new insight in tea business. And I think investing these new tea enterprises in some ways could be real option for us investors.
2. Collaboration of Tea Ceremony and Modern Arts
The host organized 4 times tea ceremonies per a day at the special tea space “SORA”, designed as if the cloud set a tea room on the sky. The artistic tea space was arranged by the students in Tokyo University of Arts. On the modern arts, a tea master served cups of traditional matcha for participants. Besides, musician plays a nice background music. The field harmonized with all senses provided my mind with a serenity.
3. Tokyo Black Tea presented by Shinkoju
Shinkoju is a pioneer of tea shop for single cultivars. Generally local tea shop bring crude teas from various tea estates and then they blend and refines the ingredient teas to suits to local customers’ preference. The tendency has been established historically. I guess the limitation of logistics and requirement for stable supply have led the tendency.
Shinkoju has challenged to let tea lovers or guests to enjoy the uniqueness of each single cultivar. Now the tea enterprise gets popular among tea lovers.
Lately Shinkoju has been started to support the renaissance of black tea production in Tokyo. This renaissance program has been organized by Shinkoju with cooperation of black tea meister Kinoshita. For the purpose, they called for donation publicly on the web. And then they successfully could be founded and fulfilled the project.
Now Shikoju has sold a series of Tokyo Black Tea.
I’m so glad to meet such challenges in Hachiju Hachiya.
Their prominent motivations for tea business are highly oriented to future. So the boundary condition that their creativities are expressed on the border between spring and summer could give the infinite possibility of tea businesses!