A tea tasting session was held in iCLA’s Language Acquisition Center, organized with the national tea competition Nihoncha Award (Japan Tea Award) for Nihoncha AWARD 2025. Students evaluated 20 teas, including green, black, and oolong varieties, and submitted votes to contribute to the selection of the nation’s best tea.
The Nihoncha Award introduces a more inclusive approach to the judging process by incorporating consumer perspectives, where typically award-winning teas are selected by tea industry experts. Through the participation of iCLA students from 11 countries, the competition is also able to include an internationally diverse range of tastes and preferences.
A total of 503 teas across 15 categories were submitted by tea producers throughout Japan, under the criteria that the teas must be cultivated and produced domestically. From these, 20 Platinum Award winning teas were chosen over two rounds of judging.
iCLA students had the opportunity to participate in the third and final round of judging, to choose the winning tea from among the award-winning platinum teas. Their votes are counted among other small scale tasting sessions held across the country. The tea with the greatest number of votes is awarded the Japanese Tea Grand Prize.
During the tasting session, each of the teas were brewed to perfection in front of the students by representatives from the Japanese Tea Instructor Association. Students enjoyed drinking each tea sequentially, and recorded their thoughts on each one. To preserve the integrity of the judging process, participants were instructed not to discuss their evaluations with one another or to share any information publicly until the results were finalized. After tasting all 20 teas, the students submitted their vote for the favorite among the candidates. The votes from the session go towards the final tally to choose the award-winning tea in Japan.
The winning tea will be announced on the Nihoncha Award website.