"A year as catastrophic, is unheard of!". This phrase, which came out of the mouths of more than one producer or seller veterans, can be summed up Japanese tea new 2010 edition.
I've already spoken enough on this blog, blame the cold, frost.
At this writing, the first harvest is not over yet in parts! At the same time, the second is well underway, finite even in Kagoshima, southern growing areas, only department to have been spared by the whim of Mother Nature (if one excluded the eruptions of Sakurajima volcano!). Thus, many retailers and wholesalers who had not yet finished their supply of tea first harvest for the year. Again, this is an unprecedented situation. Why this delay is in addition to crop? Simply because market prices have fetched huge due to the scarcity of products, and even greater scarcity of quality products. We expect that producers revise their ambitions downwards. But these producers can not blame them for driving up prices, since their production is quantitatively small, and yet it is well the sale of their first harvest which constitutes the bulk of their income for year.
I know one retailer who sees it this way: "Why wait? Even if prices fall, this does not alter the poor quality of most of what is being proposed on the markets! ". Thus, few new teas compared to previous years, and selling products last year, much better.
However, in Maruyama-in, I think the boss has finally unraveled quite a bit, with even some teas better than last year. However, what hurts is based products like teas or Makinohara Kakegawa (etc.), ie, the plains of Shizuoka tea. Here, clearly, without being ill, the products are one level below. Lack of smoothness, lack of taste. And these products represent a significant portion of our catalog. Also, of course, the delay is important, frankly, there are still 4 or 5 of our first crops that are not yet available.
To return to an overview on the ichiban-cha 一番 茶 (tea first harvest) 2010, as I said in my previous post, excellent teas have nevertheless emerged. But all is not great, producer revenues for 2010 are scarce, and the margin traders greatly reduced. In short, when Mother Nature does not care shit, everybody is losing, consumer, farmer, merchant. In all this, there is still a winner: the producers of Kagoshima (second after producing region Shizuoka), they, saved by cold damage, have able to fill their pockets with quality products equivalent to previous years, they were able to sell very expensive at the delay and the lack of quantity and quality of Shizuoka.
Again , there is still this year of fabulous teas. After he left a big satisfying the condition of not too much compared with last year. And if history does not repeat itself next year will be fireworks! This year 2010 for the black Japanese tea called us with pain that Nature is stronger than us (oh, how horrible cream pie I end this article!).
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