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To Make One Cup of Green Tea, You Need 1.4 Tea Plants! — Calculating the Required Tea Field Area and Number of Tea Plants

When you’re drinking tea, have you ever wondered, « How large of a tea field is needed to produce this tea? » or, while passing through Shizuoka on the Shinkansen, thought, « How much tea can be produced from that tea field? »

In this article, we will answer such questions.

To make a cup of tea using a standard 300ml teapot, you would need about 781.3 square centimeters of tea field area. This is roughly equivalent to an area slightly larger than an A4 sheet of paper, which is about 623.7 square centimeters, or an open B5 notebook, which is around 902.2 square centimeters.

In terms of tea plants, to produce enough tea for a 300ml teapot, you would need approximately 1.41 tea plants. Here’s how these numbers are calculated:

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) data, the yield of fresh tea leaves per 10 are (1,000 square meters) in 2023 is 448 kg. After processing, this becomes about 20% of the original weight, so the yield of processed tea leaves per 10 are is 89.6 kg.

For a 300ml teapot, approximately 7g of tea leaves are needed.

Thus, to find the area needed for 7g of tea leaves:

10 are × 7g ÷ 89,600g = 0.00078 are
Converting this to square centimeters: 0.00078 × 1,000,000 = 781.25 square centimeters.

To determine how many tea plants are needed:

According to MAFF, about 1,800 tea plants are needed per 10 are.
So, for 781.25 square centimeters: 1,800 plants × 781.25 ÷ 1,000,000 = approximately 1.41 plants.

Summary

To brew tea in a standard 300ml teapot, you need a tea field area slightly larger than an A4 sheet and about 1.41 tea plants.

Was this information consistent with your expectations?

Interestingly, saying « 1.41 tea plants are needed for a teapot » might sound more impressive compared to « an area equivalent to an A4 sheet of paper is needed for a teapot. » Our mental image of a « plant » might make it seem more significant.

By the way, the tea leaves used in this calculation are from the first harvest (Ichiban-cha) around May. There are also second harvests in summer and autumn-winter teas. The first harvest accounts for about 37% of the annual total production, so overall, the yield is roughly three times what was calculated.

Furthermore, when brewing green tea, you can generally make about 900ml of tea from a 300ml teapot by refilling it a few times. This translates to approximately 9 cups of tea, with each cup being around 100ml.

If you combine all these figures, you find that to make one cup of tea, you need:

781.25 ÷ 3 ÷ 9 = 28.9 square centimeters

This is slightly smaller than a business card (about 50.1 square centimeters).

Whether you say “about 1.41 tea plants are needed for a teapot” or “a business card-sized tea field is needed for one cup of tea,” both are accurate but convey different impressions.

Writing this article highlighted the fascinating ways numbers can be conveyed and how breaking down tea production into specific measurements offers a new perspective. I look forward to sharing more about the numbers behind tea production in the future!

References

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2023 Tea Harvest Data, MAFF Link
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tea Cultivation Points, MAFF Link
Shizuoka Prefecture Economic and Industrial Department, Tea Industry Status, Shizuoka Link