Winter Fancy Food Show 2010

35th Winter Fancy Food Show was held from January 17 to 19. Just like the last year, Shizuoka prefecture had a booth, and my company helped the booth to promote Shizuoka's most famous product - TEA. Compared to the last year, there were so many attendees from the first day. Some exhibitors said hopefully "it might be a sign of an economic upturn."

My brother came to the show from Japan to help me. There is nothing he doesn't know about our teas because he is the person making the teas with my father. Because he doesn't speak any English, only the problem was interpretation... my English!
We, Sugimoto America, believe the product safety is one of the most important as a company in the food industry. From this perspective, my brother's visit had great significance; my brother could have face-to-face conversation with customers and established personal relationship with them. We want our customers to know who makes our teas and how passionate we are.

Shizuoka is also famous as the catch of bonito"Katsuo," and the company called Shin-Marusho (visit their Japanese website?) also joined to the booth. Have you ever heard "Dashi?" Dashi is soup stock made by shaved dried bonito and is used for almost all Japanese cuisine. The person came from Shin-Marusho provided 2 kinds of Dashi soup and did some research about customers' preference. He said "contrary to my expectation, American preference is similar to Japanese. American people already have acquired taste of Dashi." Just like Sushi got popular in the U.S., there are many Japanese foods getting popular in the U.S. now. Green tea is one of them. Dashi might be the next one?

Japanese Mandarin and Pear Expo

December 10, 2009, Japanese Mandarin and Pear Expo was held for the first time in the U.S. This expo was supported by Japan's Agricultural Ministry and intended to increase the volume of trade of Japanese Mandarin "Aoshima" and Japanese Tottori 20th Century Pear.

Did you know there has been Japanese Mandarin "Aoshima" imported to the U.S. for centuries? Furthermore, it is surprising for me that only Aoshima Mandarin from Shizuoka prefecture, where our teas come from, is allowed to be imported to the U.S. As I blogged before, Shizuoka is famous as No.1 tea producing prefecture, and also famous as a quality Aoshima Mandarin producing region.

At the expo, Chef Dean Shinagawa and his team demonstrated a variety of ways to cook Aoshima Mandarin and Tottori 20th Century Pear. When I was in Japan, I ate a lot of these mandarins and pears, but what Chef Dean made was completely different from what I had eaten before and super delicious! Right now, many of Aoshima Mandarin imported to the U.S. go to Alaska, very few to the mainland. I hope Aoshima Mandarin gets more popular in the mainland, and many local grocery stores start carrying it.

Because our teas and Aoshima Mandarin come from the same Shizuoka prefecture, I provided green tea samples at the expo. Eating a mandarin orange with drinking green tea is authentic Japanese way to enjoy the winter time. It was my pleasure that many people enjoyed the Japanese tradition at the expo.

At the end, I'd like to thank Market to Japan to organize this expo and provide us with this great opportunity.

Try Hoji Cha!

Since the last week, we have had cold weather in Seattle. It has been around 30F; you might say it's not so cold, but it's too cold for me because I am from Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, where the weather is nice and warm. It takes time for me to get out of bed every morning.

Every morning, I warm myself up by drinking Hoji Cha. Hoji Cha is a robust and bold full-bodied tea. It is roasted giving it a distinctive character. The tea's pleasing flavor, golden brown color and low caffeine content make it appealing to tea drinkers of all ages. To brew Hoji Cha, you can use boiling water. High temperature makes tea flavorful with a little bit astringency. Hoji Cha itself doesn't have much astringency, so high-temperature water doesn't make your cup of tea too bitter.

Hoji Cha also goes well with milk. Warm toasty notes of Hoji Cha perfectly harmonize with milk. Add warmed milk into dark-steeped Hoji Cha. OR, you can put milk and Hoji Cha leaves in a pan and simmer over low heat. A few drops of vanilla essence enhances the aroma. Add sugar as you like. To enjoy the cold winter, I recommend this Hoji Cha Milk Tea.

Shop Hoji Cha?

Teapot Bottle

Teapot Bottle is now available in the U.S.!!

Teapot Bottle provides you with innovative ways to steep your favorite loose-leaf tea. It's very simple, but there has been nothing like this before.

This Teapot Bottle can be used to make both hot tea and cold tea. There is a filter at the centre of the thermos, and it keeps tea leaves in the bottle, not in your cup. Picture is worth a thousand words. See how-to-use video (Japanese).

Now we are offering "Introductory Sale" for all of our new products including greeTEAing card. For more information, please visit our website.

Northwest Tea Festival 2009

Yesterday October 5, Northwest Tea Festival 2009 ended with a great success. People were highly motivated to learn something about teas, and tea experts were knowledgeable enough to answer all the questions asked. This event showed how deep the tea culture took a root in NW area.

Representing SA Japanese Green Tea, I had 2 sessions of the tea tasting and shared my knowledge of Japanese tea culture with tea enthusiasts. It was a lot of fun to talk with tea lovers and heard their feedback about our teas directly. Through the sessions, I found Japanese green teas were not appreciated enough yet and felt the need to provide more chances to learn about Japanese green tea.

During the event, my friend, Ken Rudee of Barnes & Watson Fine Teas gave me a cup of tea. That was Pu'er tea harvested in 1979!! The harvest was before I was born. I had never tried such a long-aging tea, and that was fantastic! Even 7th steep, it had strong flavor and deep body without any astringency. I'm not an expert of Chinese tea, but I could tell the tea was very high quality.

greeTEAing card

I'm very pleased to announce here that our greeTEAing cardTM is finally ready to be marketed. If you want to put a little more thought into the card you are sending to someone special, our greeTEAing card can be your choice. The following is the brief description about 3 kinds of our greeTEAing cards.

greeTEAing card
"Thank You"
Tea Flavor: Sen Cha

Sending your appreciation with our exceptional quality Sen Cha. It surely show your gratitude and thoughtfulness.


greeTEAing card
"Happy Birthday"
Tea Flavor: Hoji Cha

"Happy birthday!" for tea lovers. Hoji Cha has much less caffeine, and it is loved by many tea drinkers of all ages.


greeTEAing card
"Thinking of You"
Tea Flavor: Genmai Cha

Sending hearty message with our award-winning Genmai Cha. This card can be used for any occasion.

Seattle Gift Show 2009

Seattle Gift Show was held from August 22 to 25, and this was our second year to participate in this show. Because of the bad economic time, this show got smaller than the last year, but there were many people coming from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington State.

In this show, we introduced a couple of new products - "Teapot Bottle" and "greeTEAing Card." These items are still prototype, but we received a lot of positive feedbacks from many buyers. The "greeTEAing Card" will be available next month, and "Teapot Bottle" is coming in October. I will make an announcement when these items are ready to be marketed.

During the show, we enjoyed meeting many of our existing customers and new customers. I want to express my gratitude to all of the visitors who came to our booth. We hope this show will be a good lead to our business growth in the future.