TeaChat

Hi everyone ( and Kevin, I know you are watching this thread ),

Nice Shincha 2014 I tried Chiran Sencha and it is very good. Really good emerald tea.

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[ Freedom of speech helmet on ]

Following is some opinions and regret ( which absolutely no correlation to the wonderful tea ):

It's a pity that given O-Cha's address and the label printing "Fukushima Prefecture" on the bag, I cannot gift the tea from O-Cha to other.

You know, there are many people having fear of literally ANY radiation level. I do not have the confidence to persuade other in trusting the tea given the labeled distributor address, eventhough the tea itself comes from Kagoshima Prefecture and I do not have any fear and consume the green tea daily happily.

And I cannot stress this enough, that I do not find other merchant who offer green tea of the same level.


Anyone have any idea to this topic?

Not all teas from O-Cha have the Fukushima label on the package, unless it's in Japanese. You could consult with Kevin about labeling and gift the ones that are not marked that way.

Are you confusing the packaging for shipping with "the bag" containing the tea?

JRS22 wrote:Not all teas from O-Cha have the Fukushima label on the package, unless it's in Japanese. You could consult with Kevin about labeling and gift the ones that are not marked that way.

I thought that was legal rules to indicate product origin?

Chip wrote:Are you confusing the packaging for shipping with "the bag" containing the tea?

No, the words was on the bag containing the tea. It wrote "福島" ( Fukishima ) on the back.

We who understanding Chinese/Japanese Kanji will get the meaning that it came from Fukushima.

gunbuster363 wrote:

JRS22 wrote:Not all teas from O-Cha have the Fukushima label on the package, unless it's in Japanese. You could consult with Kevin about labeling and gift the ones that are not marked that way.

I thought that was legal rules to indicate product origin?

I want to stress here, that I am not trying to be confrontational nor argumentative ...

Product origin for O-Cha tea is never Fukushima. It is places such as Kagoshima, etc. The product is shipped from Fukushima where Kevin lives and conducts his business.

I also believe the products are packaged close to product origin, not Fukushima.

But yes, the Kanji you mention is listed in the company address.

Chip wrote:

gunbuster363 wrote:

JRS22 wrote:Not all teas from O-Cha have the Fukushima label on the package, unless it's in Japanese. You could consult with Kevin about labeling and gift the ones that are not marked that way.

I thought that was legal rules to indicate product origin?

I want to stress here, that I am not trying to be confrontational nor argumentative ...

Product origin for O-Cha tea is never Fukushima. It is places such as Kagoshima, etc. The product is shipped from Fukushima where Kevin lives and conducts his business.

I also believe the products are packaged close to product origin, not Fukushima.

But yes, the Kanji you mention is listed in the company address.

Thank you. I think my use of words may have been confusing. That's what I am trying to say.

Hi,

This will probably be the last time I explain this.

First, I realize the poster does not have an agenda or anything, and I do understand his concern. And I do appreciate that he has/does purchase from us. I understand what he says about perception, but some things are beyond our control, and that is one of them. We operate of facts, however.

1) None of our teas are grown anywhere near Fukushima, green tea isn't even grown in Fukushima - it's too cold.

2) The teas are packaged at the source.

3) The average radiation levels in Iwaki City, Fukushima where we are located are 0.14 microseverts/hour, less than the average natural radiation levels in most places in the world. I ride my motorcycle daily in the surrounding air everyday that it's not raining. Would I do that if there was ANY chance of being irradiated? No, I wouldn't. There is zero problems with exposure to harmful levels of radiation in Iwaki City, Fukushima.

4) The released radiation involved at the Fukushima plant is not the type that penetrates walls, storage bins, or tea packaging. Not that it matters considering that is not a factor in Iwaki city anyway.

5) Most of the teas have been inspected for radiation, though that's becoming less common lately because it was never found in any of the teas south of Shizuoka.

6) Last but not least, three years later we've reached a point where we're not going to try and convince people our products are safe beyond what we have already done. We operate on facts, and everything you read above is fact. If someone is afraid to buy tea from us, they simply shouldn't buy it. I guess I might sell a few more bags if I peeled off the label of our company headquarters, but that wouldn't be honest, and it's not necessary because there is nothing wrong with shipping tea from Iwaki City, Fukushima - the teas are NOT exposed to radiation because we ship from here. It might cost us a few sales, so be it - we're not changing the packaging.

I see O-Cha has a new website. Very clean and well-organised. Puts me in the mood to seriously consider an order! Well done, Kevin.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

ありがとう！

sherubtse wrote:I see O-Cha has a new website. Very clean and well-organised. Puts me in the mood to seriously consider an order! Well done, Kevin.

Me too!

Few minutes ago I went to look what Sencha teas are still available from O-Cha and I got the message "Storefront is closed". Does anyone if the website is just temporarily down or if they have changed the website address?

Many thanks.

Rui

Rui wrote:Few minutes ago I went to look what Sencha teas are still available from O-Cha and I got the message "Storefront is closed". Does anyone if the website is just temporarily down or if they have changed the website address?

Many thanks.

Rui

Hey Rui, I believe I remember seeing a message from them, either from my email or on their site, explaining that they were going to be on vacation and unavailable to process orders. I do not remember how long they said, but I think it was somewhere around a week or less.

Frisbeehead wrote: Hey Rui, I believe I remember seeing a message from them, either from my email or on their site, explaining that they were going to be on vacation and unavailable to process orders. I do not remember how long they said, but I think it was somewhere around a week or less.

Thank you very much for coming back to me. There is no rush on my side, I can wait until they return as I still have some Japanese green tea.

We have been opening, closing, opening our site off and on over the last few weeks. The reason being, we have migrated to a completely more modern shopping cart system. However, it's highly complex and has caused us numerous glitches, some of which we are still working on. We ask for your patience, it's a matter of short term pain, long term gain.