Will you temporarily stop purchasing Japanese Greens?

[a.serrao]

They are testing for Iodine and Cesium, I don't see either of those listed on this form...

There's written "see the annex for radionuclide results".
Maybe the customer has scanned only the first page?

[Fireflower]

They are testing for Iodine and Cesium, I don't see either of those listed on this form...

There's written "see the annex for radionuclide results".
Maybe the customer has scanned only the first page?

i did'nt received this page, you can find it in the hibiki-an's website.
maybe we can ask them if is possible to see the annex page.

[Fireflower]

This certificate does seem a little odd. It refers to "green tea" without specifying which ones. And testing for "radiation level" is much more vague than testing for the presence of particular isotopes. Perhaps if we saw the certificate in the original Japanese it would make more sense. It could be just a case of something getting lost in translation, or "dumbed down" for those of us (myself included) who are not radiation scientists. At any rate, I have confidence in teas from Uji (as well as Kagoshima), so I would guess that the basic message of this certificate is correct.

i agree but also is better than nothing and i think that they cannot show incorrect things.

[Chip]

The certificate is pretty meaningless, at least from what we see here. Is Hibiki-An having all ~50 of their teas tested individually? What tea was tested? And yes, tested for what exactly. Anyone can pay 100 bucks for a test and cert.

To me this is more or less a PR move for marketing purposes. Customers ask, "is your tea tested?" Hibiki can say, YES.

Bottom line, there have been no reports of problems in Uji. The government will have to keep close watch to ensure Shizuoka tea is not blended with Uji tea.

So while it may make you feel better to see this piece of paper, there is no agreement yet in Japan what is acceptable and what isn't. There is an ongoing dispute between two government agencies, MAFF(Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) vs MHLW(Ministry of Health, labour and Walfare) over whether the results should be taken from fresh leaf and infusion, or from aracha. This is supposed to be ruled on sometime this week. The bottom line is, at this time there are no prohibitions on Shizuoka tea. My guess is that if it is ruled that the tests are to be taken on aracha, then some areas of Shizuoka will be banned.

I don't know if Shizuoka will be able to redeem their situation for 2011. Hopefully the 2 governing bodies will come to an agreement this week per the report by Kevin of O-Cha. This will be of the most interest to date for Japanese tea drinkers as this will be the most direct impact we have seen to date.

IMHO, the only thing they can do to possibly redeem the situation is the testing of aracha, the most revealing and "undiluted" testing from what I have read. The early mixed messages coming out of Shizuoka may have cursed their crop for this year. It will take a hardline stance by the govermental bodies to salvage any of this year's harvest. The safety of the general tea consuming public as well as confidence in the regulating bodies and the industry must be top priorities. This will be critical for the long term as well as the short term production and sale of tea from any region.

No matter what, Shizuoka will take a serious blow this year. Whether it is based upon reality or simply in the court of public opinion.

[a.serrao]

Am I missing something?
Teekampagne.de, the world biggest Darjeeling tea importer in the world, tests his Darjeeling tea for pesticides and radionuclides. All the documents, from the actual flushing of the tea, to the shipping certificates, to the blending scheme, to pesticide and radionuclides tests are freely downloadable from their site provided you put the traceability code from the tea package into the search form. Why cannot do the same the japanese vendors?
Am I missing something?

[Chip]

Am I missing something?

This would take some doing. And you have a compnay doing testing, not a required testing for all teas grown w/i a country such as Japan. This is highly regulatory. And it is not so easy to simply say, test everything starting now. It has to be justifiable based upon consumer safety, logistics, feasibility, expense.

Unless it is an across the board requirement, in a free market economy, the costs would make it hard to offer such teas versus a competitors that do not have the added costs.

And if no radiation has been detected in Uji for instance, why pay so much more?

Of course, if money is no object, anyone can test teas, an individual importer or Joe Consumer.

Of course there is also the trust factor, who is to say any testing is not corruptable?

[a.serrao]

This would take some doing. And you have a compnay doing testing, not a required testing for all teas grown w/i a country such as Japan. This is highly regulatory. And it is not so easy to simply say, test everything starting now. It has to be justifiable based upon consumer safety, logistics, feasibility, expense.

Unless it is an across the board requirement, in a free market economy, the costs would make it hard to offer such teas versus a competitors that do not have the added costs.

And if no radiation has been detected in Uji for instance, why pay so much more?

Of course, if money is no object, anyone can test teas, an individual importer or Joe Consumer.

Of course there is also the trust factor, who is to say any testing is not corruptable?

Teekampagne is offering 250g Darjeeling tea for only 8€. Much cheaper than other sources where these tests aren't available. I know that Japan produces less tea than India but maybe it could be feasible, or indispensable nowadays.

[togei]

I have just ordered 5 kilos of rokucha from the fields around my house. If I start glowing I will let you all know.
Dave

[Cole]

Hahaha! If you do, we'll just start calling you "your eminence."

Thanks to Shinobicha, I'm going to be ordering 100g more of Houryoku and some 88th Night's Shincha from Shirakata Denshiro Shoten soon. If they're not going to be able to stop these reactors from venting radioactive steam (or reaching criticality...) in the next 9 months, I'm not going to chance never having Shincha again.

I'll let you guys know how my Geiger readings are afterwards!

[Kevangogh]

New Ruling, it's been decided:

The new limit will be 500 becquerels radioactive cesium per 1 kilogram of "aracha", not freshly picked leaf as hoped by the ministry of agriculture.

This will shake things up a bit, stand by.

[Chip]

New Ruling, it's been decided:

The new limit will be 500 becquerels radioactive cesium per 1 kilogram of "aracha", not freshly picked leaf as hoped by the ministry of agriculture.

This will shake things up a bit, stand by.

Thanks Kevin. Sounds like they did what they had to do. IMHO.

[Chip]

However, I still can not help but also consider the ever expanding numbers of victims, still rippling through Japan. The farmers and sellers of Shizuoka tea did nothing but continue to do what they have always done.

How much further will this reverberate? At the end of the day, we should try to be responsible and keep things in perspective ... and not sensationalize irrationally.

[lkj23]

oh my good have you seen the rabit without ears that has born in fukushima?

[artmom]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... evels.html

[Chip]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... evels.html

This is a good news, bad news kind of thing. It is a shame, yet it is good to see certain steps being taken to protect the general public.

Although the 4 prefectures mentioned are not real players for exports, Chiba is home to at least one export vendor. Ironically this vendor has suspended sales of Shizuoka teas (not yet included in export bans), yet is still shipping from Chiba as far as I know. A bit of a paradox.