Q. What is matcha?

A. Matcha is a fine powder and an ancient form of Japanese Green Tea.  The tea leaves are shade grown and after being picked, it is steamed and stone-ground finely into a powdered form.  It has been around in Japan since 7th century and it had been used for a traditional Japanese Tea ceremony.  Ancient Japanese people such as Zen Monks and Samurai worriers consumed Matcha socially and for medicinal purposes.

Q. What is sencha?

A. Sencha literally means "extracting essences from tea leaves by adding hot water".  In Japanese society it also means "Every day drinking loose leaf teas."  Sencha grows under the sun no shading involved.  People in the US think that Sencha is only one certain tea, however, there are so many kind of Sencha in Japan. 

Q. What is shincha?

A.  Shincha means "New Picking Teas".  In Japan, you can label teas as Shincha for a certain period of time frame which is typically between April and June or so.  Then following tea pickings are called "Ni-ban cha" and "San-ban cha" and "Bancha", which mean "2nd-picking tea" "3rd-picking tea" and "Fall-picking tea".

Q. What is bancha?

A. Bancha means "Fall-picking" and it typically tastes much bitter and it grades the LOWEST GRADE in the Japanese Tea Market. 

Q.  I have heard white tea has higher antioxidant and higher nutrition than green tea.  Is that true?

A.  Yes and no.  You see a commercial advertisement saying "picking the baby leaf of the tea tree for white tea so it has higher antioxidant".  If you just look at antioxidant components, probably it is true.  However, if you look at spectrum of nutrition including minerals and amino-acid, green tea is superior to white tea.  Plus, we pick "ISSHIN NIYOU" meaning "first baby leaf and 2nd set pair of leaves" so our tea has all.

Q. What is the difference between different teas?

A. White tea, black tea, red tea, and green tea and all other names of teas come from green tea tree which is camellia family plant.  In the US market, red tea implies typically "Rooibos" which is African tree bark.  Our red tea comes from camellia trees.  Different teas derive from differences in tea breeds, the way it is processed, the timing of picking, the way it is grown (shade grown vs. sun grown) and so forth.  There are about 3000 to 4000 tea breeds in China.  Where we come from in Japan, we can crop 300 different breeds of green tea trees.  And different tea breeds affect differently for your health benefits.

Q. How does tea industry work?

A. Tea industry works like wine industry.  If you go to a store to buy a bottle of wine, you can pay $10.00 or more than $1000.00 for one.  The crop for an expensive bottle of wine is graded much higher and sought-after among the market buyers and the farm location is pristine which reflects the price.  The harvesting method is probably labor intensive such as handpicked crops vs. machine picked.  That is the same way in the tea industry.  Our tea farms are located in the one of the most famous tea regions in Shizuoka, Japan which automatically priced teas higher than any other teas from other regions.  The reasons why tea comes from our regions is so famous because of its history, location, quality of water, soil and air and higher altitude. 

Here are the typical distribution channels for teas:

Tea farmers --> Buyers from manufactures --> Manufacturers --> Distributors --> Wholesalers --> Retailers --> Individual customers

This is how our tea business works:
Tea farmers --> Individual customers

Yes, that is why our teas are so much fresher than other teas you can find in the market.  Also we eliminate all the medium persons therefore we can offer the highest quality teas for an affordable pricing.

Q. Which teas are more healthier, powdered teas or loose leaf teas?

A. We believe either tea is healthy for your everyday diet.  Japanese people typically drink more loose leaf teas than powdered teas.  They already have built up the routine or habit of drinking green tea every day because it is a custom and almost every household has tea pots and digital hot water dispenser to brew tea at any time.  On the other hand, US households are not set up that way.  American people like more convenience "quickly make teas and go" so powdered teas are more suitable for American cultures.  We would like people to drink green tea every day for its health benefits and the consistency is the key to improve your health.  So we suggest kind of tea which you can consume every day and fit to your lifestyle.  Another, if you like to enjoy the aroma and healthy green tea oil from the leaves, loose leaf teas are suitable for you.  If you like to get the health benefits by ingesting healthy fibers and chlorophyll along with the antioxidants, then powdered teas are suitable for you.

Q. Which is healthier to drink, hot tea or cold tea?

A. Hot (not boiling but simmering / 150 degrees up to 175 degrees) tea is healthier than cold teas for your digestion.  Dumping ice cold teas while digesting other foods, it will slower the digestion, also it will take more time for your stomach to digest because your stomach has to bring the temperature up to the body temperature to digest the foods properly.  We suggest drinking hot teas with meal but you can drink cold teas while you are exercising or working out while body temperature is higher than normal.  However, some suggests that drinking hot tea during the hot weather actually brings the blood to the surface so your core body temperature gets cooler.  Our grandfather always drinks hot teas during the tea farming even though it is 100 degrees outside.  We can recommend people who have problems with digestions to drink hot/warm tea or room temperature tea without ice cubes and stay away from ice cold teas.  Others who have no digestions problems, they can drink hot and cold combinations.

Q. Who cannot drink green tea?  Is there any allergy for green tea?

A.  1. People who are on a blood thinner medication such as Coumadin/ Warfain due to the existence of Vitamin K in the green tea interferes the effect of the medication.  2.  People who are allergic to caffeine.  3.  People who are allergic to camellia family plants.

Q. What is the caffeine content of Japanese green tea?

A. Caffeine in green tea is 1/10 of coffee or 1/4 of soda or black tea.  Caffeine content in the tea goes up as tea leaves are fermented in the process.  Japanese green tea is only steamed and has no fermentation.  Exception to the rule is red tea.  It is not necessary called long fermentation which takes days and years.  The leaves are let sit for very short time before it goes to drying process, that way it will not lose the original amount of natural antioxidants.

Q. Are there any additives or preservatives to the teas?

A. No. Our tea has no additives, preservatives or any coloring.  It is 100% natural green tea leaves.  Some people ask if there is any artificial color to the tea since our teas are bright green color when you brew it.  It is because we have FRESH TEA AND IT CONTAINS MAXIMUM ANTIOXIDANTS compared to store bought regular tea bag teas which have typically much older and lower grade tea leaves. To keep the tea dry, there is a little package in the bottle or package to suck up the humidity in the package to keep teas fresh.   Or other loose leaf teas have nitrogen/vacuum sealed package to keep the teas fresh.

Q. What shipping method you use and how long does the product take to get delivered?

A. We ship teas via USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate.  Usually, within 24-48 hours of receiving the orders, tea will be shipped out and it takes 2-3 days for the package to be delivered. 

Q. Can I specify shipping method?

A. Yes, you can.  The website will automatically charge the priority mail rate with Delivery confirmation (without insurance) as defult, so if you wish to insure your shipment, please choose USA LEVEL #4 ~ 6 from SHIPPING OPTIONS.  Or if you wish to use different service such as UPS or FedEx, please place an order over the phone, so that we can manually specify the shipping method.

***NOTE: We assume NO LIABILITY IN CASE OF LOSS OF YOUR SHIPMENT UNLESS YOU REQUEST TO PUT INSURANCE ON YOUR SHIPMENT. 

Q. Do you have any decaffeinated tea?

A.  Yes, Houji-cha (Loose leaf tea) is naturally decaffeinated by roasting the leaves at finishing process.  Houji-cha is derived from Sencha and from the Sencha process, extra roasting technique has been done to the leaves to take out the caffeine.

Q.  I know your company grows everything organically.  What is the difference between certified organic and not-certified?

A.  Our farms are certified organic farms, however, in order to label the products as certified organic by JAS or USDA, every single facility until we package the product to be a finished product has to be certified.  Yes, every step of the way!  To register and do all the paperwork, it cost the company substantial amount of money each year which will reflect the cost of products.  Japanese customers we have in Japan, they know where the farms are and knowing that it is growing organic, and so they do not demand the certification. However, our company is new to the US market; therefore, we have a higher demand of certified products. 

Essentially, farmers know the best for the tea plants and what they should do to grow the best tasting, most nutritious teas.  Therefore, we currently are working on "beyond certified organic" definition and products.  We will update you as work in progress.

 

 

Pending status on the order form indicates that you simply need to complete the payment process to finalize and complete your order.

 

 

After add items into shopping cart, then proceed to check out;

 

Step 1: Submit the order form by clicking confirm the order button
Step 2: The web page will take you to paypal payment process page
Step 3: Choose the payment method: Use paypal account if you have one or use Credit or Debit card by entering the information/Use Credit card as paypal guest user
Step 4: Click review and continue
Step 5: Click "Pay Now"

After you complete your order you will receive 3 emails:
1. Order form
2. Transaction code from paypal
3. Notification from Haraki-Gordon Green Tea, Inc. when your tea will be shipped out

***Only receiving order form with status "pending" means "there was no payment process taken place or no payment made regarding this order form to the website."
***You will receive unique transaction code from Paypal if you complete the payment process.

If you have any troubles completing your order, simply call at 309-794-1474 or 309-721-6530 and we can take care of the payment process over the phone.  
If you are directed to voice mail, please leave your name, phone # and best time to call you back, we will attempt to call you the earliest possible within your convenient time.