Uji, Yame and Shizuoka -- Tastes different?

[Miles Prower]

I found an interesting article about major production areas of Japanese tea.
akiba mart blog japanese tea

I only tried Uji gyokuro, which I think is very delicious. However did some one tried Yame and Shizuoka? I'd like to know if there is a difference between these. Can someone explain?

And I'm curious if my Uji tea is genuine Uji tea and not blended tea...

Miles

Moderator edit: Link removed per forum rules located under Introduction. Please refer to these rules before posting. In particular regarding new members posting links. Also regarding self promoting links and posts.

Chip
Tea Drinker who happens to Moderate.

[Chip]

There are differences from prefecture to prefecture ... and from vendor to vendor. The best thing to do is try some different Japanese greens from a vendor such as O-Cha who offers selections from all the prefectures you mention. Zencha is another.

There are many other vendors as well. I am not familiar with the one who own's the blog/store you mention. However my first impression is that you could do better.

[Miles Prower]

There are differences from prefecture to prefecture ... and from vendor to vendor. The best thing to do is try some different Japanese greens from a vendor such as O-Cha who offers selections from all the prefectures you mention. Zencha is another.

There are many other vendors as well. I am not familiar with the one who own's the blog/store you mention. However my first impression is that you could do better.

Thanks for reply Chip. You are totally right, but I just wanted to hear about the impression from somebody before trying. It seems that Akiba Mart doesn't have different tea from other prefecture besides Kyoto now, so I will try another vendor first.

Anyway, I will try by myself and share my impressions
Thanks again,

Miles

[wh&yel-apprentice]

There are many other vendors as well. I am not familiar with the one who own's the blog/store you mention. However my first impression is that you could do better.

Why do you say that? Rational?

[wh&yel-apprentice]

I found an interesting article about major production areas of Japanese tea.
akiba mart blog japanese tea

Miles

Moderator edit: Link removed per forum rules located under Introduction. Please refer to these rules before posting. In particular regarding new members posting links. Also regarding self promoting links and posts.

Chip
Tea Drinker who happens to Moderate.

I'm sorry, maybe I'm dense, but are you implying Chip, that you think or suspect Miles is a vendor then, per rule #7, by invoking the 'self-promotion' banter above?

Welcome Miles, I'm a noob too.

link to thread Chip is referencing, it's rule #6 (it's a bit obtuse the thread title, trying to be cute I suppose, why I missed the thread before).

TeaChat Etiquette (Rules)

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=3032

^Hope that's helpful for you and others Miles.

Oh sorry Chip, seems I've violated rule #10, guess I'm supposed to PM you or xine and CutNPaste all this for either of your consumption...but not the forum readers?

10. If you have any questions or concerns (or constructive compliments, hehe- sorry, had to plug in an Office reference) please PM either me (xine) or Chip- the Mod Squad.

[Miles Prower]

Hi wh&yel-apprentice, thanks for your comment. I just read all of the rules and
I'm sorry that I broke the rules. I'm not a vendor so I never meant to advertise particular vendor, but I just wanted to share the information that I got and discuss within this forum, because I'm new to green tea and want to know deeper about it.

Miles

[Chip]

wh&yel-apprentice, nice ... perhaps you should focus your intense energy on the discussion of tea here on the forum.

There is also rule #3. "Posts or private messages that attack or harass other members or moderators are not permitted." Just because you do not care for the rules, does not change the fact that they are the rules and they apply to everyone.

If you note, I also assisted the new member.

I do not owe you any explanation after a post such as that. If you wish to discuss forum rules, I would suggest you PM a Moderator instead of attacking one on the forum. Future posts like your last one will simply be deleted. You will not draw me into a flame war, my friend ...

[Chip]

Miles, glad to see you would like to discuss tea! I would suggest reading the 2009 shincha topics located near the top of the Green Tea Forum. Lots of good tea discussion.

I drink tea from all of the prefectures you mentioned, in adddition to others. I like to discover new teas and new tea regions. I encourage you to try some from each region. But take it slow, and do not open too many Japanese teas at one time.

Perhaps you will introduce yourself under Introduction! Until then, welcome to TeaChat.

[Salsero]

Welcome, Miles Prower, I also find all these prefectures very confusing, but you will find an enormous amount of information already on the forum. You might find O-Cha's glossary helpful, but it doesn't go into too much detail.

wh&yel-apprentice, I think you will find this to be a very open forum. There are a number of special rules for new members because we have had some enormous problems with spam in the past. The sacrifice of asking people to wait a bit seems to me like a reasonable trade off for avoiding nuisance posts. Those of us who have been members for a while do have a tendency to assume the worst, as you point out, but unfortunately we are right more often than wrong when we do so.

This may be the only forum you will run across that is generously hosted by one company where you can openly discuss and learn about virtually every one of their competitors without a word of advertising from any vendor.

[Ed]

There are differences from prefecture to prefecture ... and from vendor to vendor. The best thing to do is try some different Japanese greens from a vendor such as O-Cha who offers selections from all the prefectures you mention. Zencha is another.

There are many other vendors as well. I am not familiar with the one who own's the blog/store you mention. However my first impression is that you could do better.

Thankfully o-cha is not the only vendor who sells tea from various regions in Japan. www.yuuki-cha.com and www.zencha.net have a nice selection... and there are many others as well.

[Chip]

Oh, the link for O-Cha is of course, www.o-cha.com

[Ed]

The only difference is I'm not shilling for the vendors I posted links to.

[Chip]

The only difference is I'm not shilling for the vendors I posted links to.

Shill–noun 1. a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc.
2. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.

Ummm, no. I am no shill, or no more so than anyone else. Is O-Cha a fave vendor of mine, yes, I have never said it is not. Fact, I maintain an ever changing list of at least 5 fave "Japanese tea vendors" virtually all the time. So what, don't we all have fave vendors? Don't we all post what we know about and about fave vendors? I guess we are all shills?

However your comment is accusatory and false, Ed, and not the first time you have labeled me a shill. You have no basis for this considering I post about other vendors each and every day on the forum (on TeaDay for example). Check it out.

Fact, I would venture to say that I am quite purposely objective. I base this on the shear number of vendors I sample and teas tasted. Since May, at least 10 Japanese tea vendors and over 20 different Japanese teas. I do this for several reasons, and one is to purposely maintain my objectivity.

So, being labeled a shill is quite offensive to me, especially given the lengths I go to in order to remain objective.

[Oni]

Yesterday I had a revelation, I tried hibiki-an shincha sencha super premium, and I realized that the taste of the tea is very diffrent from each vendor, I thought I tried enough high quality sencha made from yabukita agrotype, but this tea tasted so diffrent from other handpicked asamushi made from yabukita, so I can say that hold on to your horses because japanese green tea has great variety so don`t think you know it, and there is the blending, that can make interesting tastes.

[Tead Off]

Hmm. Has anyone answered the OP's question about differences between prefectures? Uji vs Shizuoka? Somehow this thread has been hijacked by behavior studies and rhetoric. I'd love to hear the perceptions of the teas from these different regions.