Japan seems to already run a pretty tight ship on contaminants. And like you said, it really depends on which product category one is referring to. For example, US wheat and oat production. Hopefully they can keep finding effective ways of making the tea taste better while also taking good care of the environment.
Okay, I may have written my last comment before finishing your video. And I have to say - I found your final point incredibly appealing. I will strive to better appreciate the MM no. 32 sitting in my refrigerator - it’s what’s been good enough to be drunk for hundreds of years. It’s good enough for me. I’ll even dedicate my hardwood chashaku to it - an unconventional chashaku for a historically conventional tea.
I straight-up think organic Japanese teas (roasted teas aside) taste a lot worse than their non-organic counterparts. It’s simply because Japanese teas rely on a very very high load fertilization regime to up-concentrate the polyphenols in the leaves beyond that a less fertilized tea bush achieves. I agree with organic production in many other contexts, though. What we need to do it cut down the amount of meat production, and subsidize organic farming to cut the prices for consumers. Not saying you do this, but I see many people who do… but expecting something Japan does to make sense is offensively naïve. Japan over-packages everything, Japan discards cosmetically imperfect produce. Shall I go on about stupid Japanese things? There are many. I respect organic tea farmers, but I equally respect non-organic tea farmers who are transparent about what synthetic fertilizers and/or pesticides (this is a critical distinction - many farmers in Darjeeling would be considered organic except for one dose of a synthetic short half-life fungicide applied every couple of years).
I get this video was made for an American audience but "organic is not important in Japan" and "organic certification is not important in Japan" read very differently to me and the distinction would have made some of the statements less confusing. "Clean" tea is likely important to everyone - a fuzzy enough term that requires a short chain of trust between producer and consumer. From this video I gather that it's less of a problem in Japan than in other tea producing regions.
Japan seems to already run a pretty tight ship on contaminants. And like you said, it really depends on which product category one is referring to. For example, US wheat and oat production.
Hopefully they can keep finding effective ways of making the tea taste better while also taking good care of the environment.
Okay, I may have written my last comment before finishing your video. And I have to say - I found your final point incredibly appealing. I will strive to better appreciate the MM no. 32 sitting in my refrigerator - it’s what’s been good enough to be drunk for hundreds of years. It’s good enough for me.
I’ll even dedicate my hardwood chashaku to it - an unconventional chashaku for a historically conventional tea.
I straight-up think organic Japanese teas (roasted teas aside) taste a lot worse than their non-organic counterparts. It’s simply because Japanese teas rely on a very very high load fertilization regime to up-concentrate the polyphenols in the leaves beyond that a less fertilized tea bush achieves.
I agree with organic production in many other contexts, though. What we need to do it cut down the amount of meat production, and subsidize organic farming to cut the prices for consumers.
Not saying you do this, but I see many people who do… but expecting something Japan does to make sense is offensively naïve. Japan over-packages everything, Japan discards cosmetically imperfect produce. Shall I go on about stupid Japanese things? There are many.
I respect organic tea farmers, but I equally respect non-organic tea farmers who are transparent about what synthetic fertilizers and/or pesticides (this is a critical distinction - many farmers in Darjeeling would be considered organic except for one dose of a synthetic short half-life fungicide applied every couple of years).
I get this video was made for an American audience but "organic is not important in Japan" and "organic certification is not important in Japan" read very differently to me and the distinction would have made some of the statements less confusing. "Clean" tea is likely important to everyone - a fuzzy enough term that requires a short chain of trust between producer and consumer. From this video I gather that it's less of a problem in Japan than in other tea producing regions.
Thanks, this was specifically addressed in the intro of part 1 to define what I meant by organic throughout the video series