What is Tocha

"Tocha" is a tea-tasting game where participants hit the tea variety by tasting tea. It became popular during the Middle Ages in Japan.Gradually it took a gambling nature and often it was utilized for betting. When Tocha as a gambling became a fad, the Muromachi Government prohibited it in 1336. Then Tocha became less popular, but all through the Edo Era(17c-mid19c), Tocha was passed down as a game among Kabuki actors. Nowadays, Tocha is adopted as a way of training green tea professionals.

"NPO Agriculture Support Team in Saitama" holds Tocha with a view to make Sayama-tea more familiar to people.  By comparing various "Single Origin Tea", you can enjoy the characteristics of Sayama-tea. 

In recent years, more and more guests from abroad practice Tocha and get more interested in Japanese tea.

How to enjoy Tocha

Tocha is an identification game: participants are to drink more than one kind of green tea and guess the names and production locations of each tea. 

At our events, we prepare several kinds of single variety Sayama-tea.

During the first round, you will taste various kinds of tea, given the name of each tea.

During the second round, you will taste tea in a different order, without information.

Participants are to identify the tea variety by the taste, fragrance, and color of each tea.

You can not only see the difference in taste but also enjoy the characteristics of each single variety tea.  We can say that this is a reasonable and historic game. 

Pictures taken at a Tocha game in France in October 2010