Hon Yama Hebizuka Sencha

[Tead Off]

Hojo is ridiculous. They have about 5 pages of information with pictures for almost all of their products. Thanks for the pricing list, I have always thought about ordering but never had any idea of the prices. The Hon Yama Hebizuka is expensive but not unattainable. The Spring Oriental Beauty on the other hand

I understand your sentiment, but, how do you know his price for OB is rediculous? If the tea is fantastic, it may be a bargain. Imen at Tea Habitat sells some of her Dancong for $50/per oz. Many people say it's great. I'd love to hear from more posters about Hojo's teas. He has told me that I would see a difference immediately in his selections.

[Maitre_Tea]

Hojo is ridiculous. They have about 5 pages of information with pictures for almost all of their products. Thanks for the pricing list, I have always thought about ordering but never had any idea of the prices. The Hon Yama Hebizuka is expensive but not unattainable. The Spring Oriental Beauty on the other hand

Even though I have yet to order/see their price list, I suspected as much. The quality is there, but as with a lot of the finer things in life...the more they explain about the product their selling, the more expensive it's probably going to be...

Though I'm still curious about how steep these prices are, I've seen/bought some pretty expensive tea before, IMO

[thirtysixbelow]

I understand your sentiment, but, how do you know his price for OB is rediculous? If the tea is fantastic, it may be a bargain. Imen at Tea Habitat sells some of her Dancong for $50/per oz. Many people say it's great. I'd love to hear from more posters about Hojo's teas. He has told me that I would see a difference immediately in his selections.

I never said the pricing was ridiculous. I meant the website was, but in a good way, with the wealth of information on all their products to a level I have not seen with any other teashop. As far as spring oriental beauty, at some point things stop becoming "better" and just become unique. $105 for 30g of tea is a lot of money. It may have a special flavor that no other tea can produce, but there are so many quality teas out there to try which will bring you equal enjoyment for a whole lot less money. For some people this may be a good price, but I was mostly just shocked that tea got that expensive.

[David R.]

Hi again,

I just wanted to point out the fact that for me ¥3500/100g concerning the Hon Yama Hebizuka Sencha wasn't a silly price considering its quality. Believe me, I have spent far more money on teas which could not bear the comparison with this one, and I have done it once again this afternoon, silly me...

It is not the fact that this sencha is the best, but it is different in a very good way. But once again, I am a humble amateur.

I know a guy, someone who can call himself a green tea specialist without blushing, who orders it by kg for an everyday usage...

Finally, for the Spring Oriental Beauty (the other one is more than 3 times cheaper,) it is considered by some to be the tea, for great occasions only (as pointed out on the website.) Its quality depends on peculiar factors such as the presence of green flies which is not a given. So its being quite expensive sounds a bit normal from my point of view. Has someone ever tasted it by curiosity ? From my experience, it could be quiet a bargain to buy an expensive good product instead of a lot of nearly-good ones.

I may sound like a shareholder of Hojotea (which is not the case ) but I like to point out things that I like, even more when the service has this quality. I won't say this about a lot of products, believe me...

++

[Chip]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing David! Hojo is clearly knowledgable about their product. I would certainly like to give it a try.

[Intuit]

Spring Oriental? Thought Bai Hao Oolong is a summer crop.

http://teamasters.blogspot.com/2007/02/ ... eauty.html

Addendum/corrected: The HojoGods company is in (oops, not NYC) Japan; storefront is in Malaysia. Company aims for elite customer base in it's pricing and product exclusivity.

No 'green tea expert' in his right mind would buy kilogram quantities of a relatively rare tea from a high-end vendor like Hojo. They would use exclusive contacts within the industry and would very likely buy directly from the farmer.

[Maitre_Tea]

Spring Oriental? Thought Bai Hao Oolong is a summer crop.

http://teamasters.blogspot.com/2007/02/ ... eauty.html

Addendum: The HojoGods store is in NYC, eh?
Expensive real estate, high overhead is reflected in his pricing.

No 'green tea expert' in his right mind would buy kilogram quantities of a relatively rare tea from a high-end vendor like Hojo. They would exclusive contacts within the industry and would very likely buy directly from the farmer.

Even though Bai Hao is traditionally an early summer crop (IIRC), I think there are some varietals that are harvested earlier, I think it's called guei fei (concubine's) oolong or something. It's mentioned on teamasters

From Tead Off's constant reference to the shop, I believe there's a brick and mortar shop in Malaysia (or some other SE Asian country), but I think the online storefront ships from Japan.

Actually, thinking about it now, who would buy green tea by the kilo, especially at that price? green tea expert, maybe, but perhaps just a green paper* expert is more like it. I don't even think Chip, who I consider to be the largest consumer of Japanese green teas on this forum, buys in that kind of a quantity.

*if you don't get the joke, green paper = money, specifically US currency

[David R.]

Hojo shop in NYC ??? In Malaysia, yes, but not in NYC.

Sorry, I do know someone who bought one kilo of this tea (some of it may have been bought to be given, I don't know nor care.) Getting tea directly from a farm won't give you the opportunity to drink all year long. You'll get 30g at most. I am only here to share my point of view, beeing luckily one of the few to know this tea with the original poster. I have nothing to gain by lying or making up fairy tales.

Anyway, I don't see the point of justifying myself. Discussing from TEA is far more interesting, don't you think ?

PS : Teamasters is a great store and Stephane deals with tea with passion and humility. Unfortuntaly, he doesn't sell japanese green tea...

[fortunato]

Akira Hojo is doing a great job with the Hon Yama Hebizuka Sencha !

I only wanted to share a link about one very interesting Sencha tho.

[Oni]

All shuppin grade sencha are 30 $ and above, if it is the best grade Shizuoka asamushi, than it is worth it... I cannot spend more on tea for a while, but I will try this tea soon.

[Tead Off]

Fortunato,

Excellent video. thanks for posting it.

[fortunato]

Fortunato,

Excellent video. thanks for posting it.

I'll post the video link as a new topic, maybe it's better...