Royal Blue Tea

Royal Blue Tea produces its teas under strict quality control in an SGS-HACCP certified factory.^[2] Royal Blue Tea uses a non-heat extraction, non-heat filtration, and aseptic filling process, with all work done by hand by a small, elite team.^[2] Royal Blue Tea produces its beverages using non-heat extraction, non-heat filtration, and aseptic filling, all performed by hand with a small dedicated team.^[2] Royal Blue Tea handles all development, manufacturing, and sales in-house.^[2] Royal Blue Tea bottles are sealed with a glass stopper (Vino-Lok) manufactured by Alcoa Germany, rather than cork, which allows repeated resealing and eliminates cork taint.^[5] Royal Blue Tea bottled teas contain no additives.^[6] Royal Blue Tea's loose-leaf green teas (煎茶・玉露) are hand-picked, selecting only the soft young buds from naturally cultivated tea fields, resulting in low astringency and a mellow flavor rich in amino acids (primarily theanine).^[5] Royal Blue Tea loose-leaf green teas are packaged in paulownia wood boxes (桐箱) as a premium packaging option.^[6] To qualify as 'Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro', tea must be grown and selected in the Yame area using traditional methods, including natural training (自然仕立て), straw-material shelf shading (わら資材の棚被覆), and hand-picking (手摘み).^[15] Dentouhon Gyokuro (伝統本玉露) is produced using natural materials such as rice straw for indirect shading of 16 days or more in naturally cultivated tea fields, developing a rich fragrance known as 'ooi-ka' (覆い香), with only one annual hand-picking of one-bud-two-leaf (一芯二葉) shoots.^[11] Royal Blue Tea uses only single-garden, hand-picked tea (Camellia sinensis) as its raw material.^[2] Royal Blue Tea uses only single-garden, hand-picked tea (botanical 'Camellia sinensis') as its raw material.^[2] Hoshino Village in Yame City, Fukuoka Prefecture, is known for its terrain along the Hoshino River, soil quality, and climatic conditions that are well-suited to tea cultivation, with a long tradition as a producing area for Yame tea and particularly as a specialty production area for gyokuro.^[11] Royal Blue Tea holds SGS-HACCP certification for its manufacturing facility.^[2] The designation 'Yame Dento Hon Gyokuro' (八女伝統本玉露) is protected by the Japanese government and was registered under the Geographical Indication (GI) protection system on December 22, 2015.^[15]