OUR DIFFERENCE

Nippon Cha’s mission is to deliver authentic, ceremonial grade matcha and traditional Japanese teas to the world and believe that quality should never be compromised. Nearly all of our teas are single origin and never blends, with clear production history, growing region, farms, and growers identified. We pride ourselves on transparency, clear geneology, and production history to be investigated. We pay close attention to to every step from choosing only the finest leaves, and growing, shading and steaming methods. Consistent with Japanese standards of quality, our entire team from farmer to CEO obsessively self-regulates and reviews every single ingredient, step of the production to make sure the result is the finest and most authentic Japanese teas, Nippon Cha. 


As the popularity of Matcha has exploded around the world, with many companies, foreign and domestic, claiming to sell ceremonial grade matcha, or premium quality Japanese tea in general, we shift the focus off watered down marketing terms by educating, and bringing to the customer all the information and transparency necessary to make that determination.  We set a defining base for what should be considered the highest quality of Japanese tea. 


For this reason, Nippon Cha has outlined strict criteria and definitions for ceremonial, both thick and thin grade matcha, and Nippon Cha teas, which you can find below. The teas with the Nippon Cha trademark are certified, strictly managed from exacting standards.  So where does Nippon Cha stand in the world of Japanese tea? At the highest level of quality, transparency and authenticity. 

DEFINITION OF NIPPON CHA TEA

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1. The tea leaves* must be grown in Japan and the tea produced for the purpose of drinking as a beverage only. *includes the leaves and stems of the camellia sinensis plant, and other plants used as a tea beverage.

2. Nippon Cha tea that corresponds to criteria 1 above must be made from leaves from the first harvest of the season.

  • The leaves must be grown in Japan and the growing region and growers must be able to be specified.
  • The tea leaves must have a clear production history (any fertilizer(s) and/or pesticide(s) used in the cultivation process must be able to be specified).

3. Nippon Cha tea must meet the Japanese Food Standards.

  • Organic NIppon Cha tea must comply with the Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS)

4. In principle, the blending of teas from different production regions to make ‘Nippon Cha’ is not permitted.

  • In principle, Nippon Cha tea from Kagoshima, Kyoto, Mie, Shizuoka, Setouchi, Fukuoka and Hiroshima is all 100% single-origin tea.
  • If Nippon Cha tea is blended, the different origins and the ratio of each different origin tea is able to be specified.

5. Any varieties that include matcha, brown rice or herbal teas require these ingredients to also meet the above 4 requirements.

  • All ingredients must be grown in Japan. All ingredients of any blend or powdered tea must meet criteria 1-4 above.
  • Hojicha can be from tea from the second harvest of the year, as determined by the making process characteristic to Hojoicha tea. Apart from this, Nippon Cha hojicha must meet criteria 1,3, and 4 above.

Nippon Cha has created the above requirements to ensure the highest quality tea from carefully selected leaves.

DEFINITION OF NIPPON MATCHA

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The matcha must be powdered tea used in the japanese tea ceremony. The matcha must be made for the purpose of drinking as a beverage only.

1. What constitutes the ‘koicha’ thick tea and ‘usucha’ thin tea grades of O’matcha-matcha tea:

  • At least 90% of the leaves making up ‘koicha’ thick tea grade O’matcha-matcha must be hand picked from the saemidori, okumidori, and yabukita varieties of the tea plant.
  • 100% of the leaves making up ‘usucha’ thin tea grade O’matcha-matcha must be from the saemidori, okumidori, and yabukita varieties of the tea plants
  • Any new varieties of tea plants developed to the quality of the above varieties may be considered for use.

2. The matcha must meet Japanese Food Standards.

  • Organic O’matcha-matcha tea must comply with the Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS).

The matcha must be ground by a stone mill.

  • Absolutely no powdered tea made by any other method apart from being ground by a stone mill can be used.

    4. The leaves must be sourced 100% from Kyoto

    5. The leaves must be leaves from the first harvest of the season (ichiban-cha) only.

    • The growers must able to be specified.
    • The tea leaves must have a clear production history and any fertilizer(s) and/or pesticide(s) used in the cultivation process must be able to be specified.
    • If any other leaves rom any other region are used, this must be clearly indicated.

    Nippon Cha has created the above requirements to ensure the highest quality tea from carefully selected leaves.