Integrated Human Practices

Interview with Mr.Matsumoto: Master of farm work in “Teppen”

8 Oct. 2017

We visited the facility named “Teppen” which is a guest house and a farm.

The link of the inn

“Yabukita”, a type of tea is cultivated there. It usually used in green tea.
I learned interesting and useful information about our study from Mr.Matsumoto, his wife and the worker.
Below are the itemized information that I have gathered.

○Most of the currently marketed green tea contains the additive

They sometimes compare the tastes of marketed tea. Cheap or imported one often contain the additive to enhance the taste of the tea.

The farmers determined if the tea has additive or not by putting it overnight. If there are a lot of additives, it will turn into a milky color.

According to the following references, adding sodium glutamate into green tea have been undertaken from Sanin Region through into the Hokuriku region in Japan.
後藤 哲久・堀江 秀樹・向井 俊博（2009），添加茶の化学成分による判別法（Japanese）

This type of green tea can be determined by the ratio of the content of glutamic acid to the content of Theanine.

In the case of tea additive-free, the ratio of the content of glutamic acid to the content of Theanine is 0.2 or less. However, the ratio is sometimes more than 0.4 in cases where the tea is containing the additive.

The taste of glutamic acid which is much cheaper than Theanine is completely different from the original taste of Japanese green tea. Our Theanine sensor can be used to differentiate the tea containing the additive.

○The taste of green tea changed for some reasons despite the same cultivation method.

There are many factors to consider that affect the change of the taste of the tea despite the same cultivation method. For example, the slight difference of place like facing across the road, the degree of damage done by insects and the different way of how people processed the tea.

Only large facilities have the device to measure the component analysis so it is usually measured all at once. However, they said that these slight differences which described above are important factors to evaluate the quality of tea. We recognized the importance of inexpensive sensor.

○Decrease in consumption of green tea

According to the following references, the amount of consumption of green tea in Japan is decreasing these days.

茶類の国内消費量の推移（Japanese）

Indeed, farmers stated about the decrease of sales of green tea.

To educate the culture of Japanese green tea is important, but to make Japanese understand the good benefits brought by natural green tea is also important.

Our Theanine sensor might help the appeal of it because Japanese people nowadays are attracted to beverages that promises good healthy benefits but these beverages are added by Theanine artificially. In green tea, there are a lot of Theanine which is naturally contained. Our sensor will make the fact known to the public.

After our interview, we experienced tea-picking and hand-rolling.
(Hand rolling is the primary process of making green tea)

Interview with the representative of cultivation of Benifuuki group

9 Oct. 2017

We interviewed with the representative of cultivation of Benifuuki group.

“Benifuuki” is a type of tea which is commonly used in black tea. But these days, it is also used in green tea because it contains a lot of Catechin which suppress the symptoms accompanying the allergy to pollen. I learned interesting and useful information about our study from him.
Below are the itemized information that I have gathered.

○Lack of manpower due to aging

There are many tea plantations which have been left neglected for years. These days, they change their orange farms into tea plantation because tea is easier to grow. So they grow “Benifuuki” which is new breed and attracts people’s attention by suppressing the symptoms of hay fever. If the market of health tea will increase, the labor shortage will also be solved little by little.

○The necessity of small device which can measure the components of tea accurately

To measure the component analysis in a way that is publicly certified is difficult on a small scale. They said that the content of Catechin affect sales directly. The green tea in Nakazima which we visited contains a lot of Cathchin but they cannot appeal about this because its small scale. We believe that small biosensor will be able to measure the components of tea accurately and will be publicly certified.

”Benifuuki” prefer warmer climate than “Yabukita” and have tolerance to sea breeze.

Survey on tea culture

The purpose of the survey is to compare data green tea culture among different regions. We ask them 9 questions.

Percentage of individuals from different places who took the survey.

As indicated in the chart, Japan has the greater number of people who enjoys tea. For this data, enjoying the taste of tea has become a part of Japanese culture.

Even though enjoying the taste of green tea is a Japanese culture, green tea doesn’t have big market share in Japan compared to other region.

In all region, at least about 40% people think that health effect is a very important aspect when choosing tea and most of the people know that different type of tea have different effects on your health. There are many people in the world who are interested in health effect of tea. The day that Theanine gets a lot of attention like Catechin is near.

All the people who took the survey has already tasted the green tea and most of them know Japanese tea product. Japanese tea culture has higher name recognition than I thought.

Profile of theanine in Japan was higher compared to other regions. (Except for category other regions in which there are only two people in this category and they know Theanine.) There are some people who pointed out that Japanese has a lot of interest in the healthy beverage in the free-answer column of the survey. We agree with this opinion. They heard about theanine in various situations and was reported in a variety of media in Japan.

Organization Chart

• Ehime Prefecture International Center
  Secretary‐general　Ryo Takaoka
• Matsuyama International Center（MIC）　
  Maki Mizuno
• 愛媛県中予地方局商工観光室
  Miyuki Yamanaka
• 愛媛県港湾管理事務所

Our sincere thanks to these people!