Coffee in a teapot

Last weekend, I went to a café run by a middle age couple.  It was a good representation of Japanese architecture located in countryside.  Once I got in the cafe, I smelled the air filled with rich coffee aroma.  Nice jazz has been played.  I instantly loved that place. 

Konnichiwa, it’s Kohei who is praying for the coming typhoon to go away for his Kyoto trip this weekend.  In the cafe, you can view the rice fields through the window behind the counter.  You can also see the bamboo tees that are slowly swinging once in a while.   At the cafe, the barista grinds the beans for individual orders. This makes it especially made for each customer.  The time passed by so slowly there.  I waited for my coffee while listening to jazz.   The coffee was excellent.  It was pretty different from what I usually have.  The fresh ground coffee had a very rounded taste which you won't be able to notice any bitterness or its acidity at all but all you can taste is the fullness of the flavor of the beans.  I loved it. 

I also had some sweets.  It came with a little teapot.  Espresso, which is inside the teapot, was served as the sauce for the sweets.  I poured the sauce over.  They absolutely taste good.  I carefully looked at the teapot at my perspective as a teapot enthusiast.  I checked the bottom and tried to look for the tea strainer.  The barista said that is a Chinese teapot.  I thought that time that it’s also nice to use a teapot other than for brewing tea.  Don’t you think it’s a good idea?  I enjoyed Japanese sweets with Western coffee and Chinese teapot. Jah!

Kagiya cofee (Japanese) >>>

http://sobanoyokozuki.com/topics1/kagiya.html

http://blog.livedoor.jp/zacozaco/archives/51699315.html

Tokoname-ware Festival

Where do you think it is?

It is a motorboat race track!

This is just an aside.  The races of the four; motorboat, hose, bicycle and motorcycle are only the races that you can legally gamble in Japan.

Konnichiwa, it’s Kohei who would have a bad luck on boat-race gamble and even he has never tried it (^^;; Chikin!  Well, there was a Tokoname-ware Festival held at Tokoname boat race track on Aug 20 &21.  I visited there to see a teapot artist who I’m asking to make original teapots for our shop.  I had a meeting with him and talked about the design for our teapots.  After the meeting I enjoyed the festival.  There were many craftsmen gathered with their works, and I could see a lot of unique teapots and could actually talk to the artists.  Each artist has their own thought on tea brewing and their teapots.  I was so excited about it.  I also enjoyed festival food and fireworks.  My favorite is chocolate coated banana on stick.

I’d like to come back next year again, or maybe to get-rich-quick^^  Jah!

Namacha Sparkling

Bottled tea manufacturers try to release new products on each season.   There is one product that has caught my eyes this summer.

  

Konnnichiwa, it’s Kohei, who is looking forward to optical fiber networks for his homeヽ(^。^)ノ  Namacha is a popular bottled green tea produced by Kirin.  This summer I found Namacha The Sparkling!  Tea and sparkling??  I thought it was very weird combination.  It says it has a yuzu (Japanese lemon) aroma.  Alright, I’ll see.  I opened the bottle.  I smelled it.  I didn’t find green tea aroma there but the citrus.  I took a sip of it.  It was very refreshing.  You will find modest sweetness and citrus flavor.  It gives a mild flavor.  It is more like a plane soda so you can drink a lot of it like water.  It’s going to be great for a hot summer day. 

But well, where is green tea?  I didn’t realize the flavor of green tea.  So, I took some more sips and carefully tasted it.  Hum…, you could notice the flavor of bubs and fresh leaves of green tea.  But, it is slightly different from the common flavor of green tea.     It is very modest so I would not have noticed it if I was not told it is a green tea sparkling.

  

I think it is very interesting drink but it would not be my favorite drink.  I appreciate and enjoy that tea manufacturers try to produce new products!  As I’m watching the photo, I think I need to get my hair cut (^^;;  Jah!

Looking at the hue and shape to tell good leaves

Can you tell good tea and bad tea just by their appearance?  The other day, I attended another tea workshop and practiced three different tea tastings for sencha.  

 

Konnichiwa, it’s meヽ(^。^)ノ     Today, I will introduce one of them.  It is telling the quality by their appearance.  The five different dry-leaf samples are placed on black square trays.  You can have a look at them, grab for the weight, feel its texture and smell them.  So you use all senses except the taste and tell rate their quality.

Do you know any index to tell good leaves?  Which do you think is better, heavy or light?  How about the shape?  Do you have any idea if thin or thick leaves are good?  Please look at the photo below.  They are placed in order from 1 to 5, 1 is good and 5 is bad.

Probably, the photo may not be so clear, but now, can you tell some differences?   I’ll give you the answer and these answers are as follows:

	GOOD	BAD
Hue	Profound brilliant green	Reddish, blackish or whitish green
Shape	Thin	Thick
Pieces	Even Less broken pieces and twigs	Coarse and uneven Many broken pieces and twigs
Surface	shiny and Smooth	rough and chalky surface
Weight	Heavy	Light
Smell	Green and sweet aroma	weak

Why are thin leaves good?  Young and soft leaves are better for Japanese tea.  They are easily and tightly curled than old stiff leaves.  So, good leaves are usually thinner.

I think the easiest indexes for you will be the “hue” and “shape”.  Bad leaves are reddish or blackish.  They are coarse and thick and include many broken pieces and twigs.  On the other hand, good leaves have profound color.  The pieces are thin and even.  Now look at the photo again.  Can you tell the differences?

When you have a chance to compare dry leaves, please look at their “hue” and “shape”.  They will be a guide to tell its quality.  Jah!

Color of Cups

Which tea you think looking delicious?

 

Konnichiwa, it’s meヽ(^。^)ノ　　As you look at the picture above, they are all of the same tea but placed in different cups.   So, they all have the same taste.  But you might get a different impression by seeing them in different cups.  I think the color of the cups affects your total impression of the tea.

It is said that red stimulates your appetite, or warm color makes food look delicious.  It is also said that opposite colors accentuates the others.  However, the reason why a bunch of spinach is tied with a blue tape is to make the green color of spinach to be a lot more attractive.  So the idea seems not to be that consistent.  I have heard about many theories about color.  Now I wonder its effect to green tea.  So, I prepared green tea in different cups and took a picture.

I personally find the white cup "E" looking best.  White cups help show the natural color and adds to the impression that it looks delicious.  I wanted to find which is better for green tea, warm or cold colored cup.  Since the cups are in different shapes, I cannot fully determine how it truly affects them.  What I can only say is that I prefer a brighter colored cup.  Which one looks delicious to you?

The color of the cup is very important but don’t be so particular of the color too much.  It is just one of many elements for a good cup.  Design, shape, weight, texture, heat transfer, durableness, and usability are also important.  Jah!

Switching Tea School

Our tea master is an elderly lady and she is going to retire from teaching The Way of Tea.   I’m sad to leave her but I guess that’s the way it is.   We looked for a new school and now we are learning The Way of Tea from a new master. 

Konnichiwa, it’s meヽ(^。^)ノ  We invited the previous master home for lunch.  We made pizza for her.  We had a good chat and great time.  I asked her if I can take a picture for my blog.  She said “okay then” and took a piece of pizza and had a bite of it.  I shoot the moment.  She is very endearing.  We are going to miss her.  Jah!

Kano_shojuan café

Do you have any nice café for Japanese tea in your city?   We do not have many around my neighborhood, but the other day I found one in Matsuzakaya department store in Nagoya.  The café is called kano-shojuan.  They are actually a confectionary chain shops.  This is one of their cafés. 

Konnichiwa, it’s meヽ(^。^)ノ　I ordered an iced sencha tea set.  The set came on a tray and you brew the tea yourself.  The waitress gave me a quick instruction on how to prepare it.

First, pour the cold water into the cup to measure the right amount.

Pour it into the teapot.  The sencha leaves has already been in the pot.

Add one cube of ice, and wait for seven minutes.  When I heard the instruction, I thought seven minutes was pretty long, but actually it was not.  Seven minutes has passed in a fraction of a second over chatting at a nice café.

 

The tea was so smooth.  I think this type of slow brewing tea is the best for your quality time with your significant others.  Why don’t you give iced sencha brewing a try?  Jah!

Kano_shojuan webpage (Japanese) >>> http://www.kanou.com/tearoom.php

Efficiency of partial storing 2

A: Opened almost every day
G: Not opened



Sencha
A looked darker and greener, and G was brighter and brownish. It was not a huge difference but we found that A was slightly better in condition of appearance.

There was no big difference for brewed tea. However, we found G to give a poor flavor.

Matcha
A had a darker color.

Prepared Tea A was also a little darker. Hiro and I both found A better than G. G tested bitter. The difference was more obvious on matcha than sencha.

This is a very surprising result. I expected that G would be better or at least we would not find much difference. However, the result is totally opposite. I have to say that A is better. I don’t find any good explanation about this but what I can only think that has caused it is moisture. It was rainy and very humid on the day when I packed these samples three weeks ago. So I think the moisture would have gone into the packages. This is only my assumption; by opening Package A every day, it helped reduce the moisture instead of gaining. G kept the moisture from the beginning and it made G worse than A. I think the two advantages of the parcel storing are avoiding oxidation and block humidity. If my guess is correct, you could say that the moisture has much worse impact than oxidation. Again this is just my assumption and nothing to be sure.


I’m dissatisfied with the result and I still believe the theory of the partial storing is correct. So I want to re-try this test sometime. I’m sorry that I could not give you any good advice from this test. But, why don’t you avoid opening a new package on a rainy day till I find out the cause. Jah!

Efficiency of partial storing

When you open a new package of tea, do you keep the tea all in the same tea caddy? It is said that it is better to keep only an amount for about two week’s use in your daily caddy and keep the rest at a cool place in an airtight container separately. It can reduce the risk of oxidation and humidity. Let me call it the partial storing.



Konnichiwa, it’s meヽ(^。^)ノ I wanted to know how effective partial storing is. In the series of my storing tests, I included one for it. Here is the condition for the test. I have two samples. I kept one in a tea caddy at a room temperature and opened it almost every day. For the other one, I triple wrapped and didn’t open it. I did this test for three weeks for both sencha and matcha.



Common conditions
Tea: sencha (3g each) and matcha (1.5g each)
Term: about three weeks
Place: room temperature (the average was about 22degC (72F))



Condition

	Condition
A	Single packing (tea caddy) Opened almost everyday
G	Triple packing (small plastic bag, tea caddy, plastic bag with zipper) Not-opened during the term

Tasting condition
Sencha: 3g tea leaves, 100ml (3.5oz) boiling water, one minute brewing
Matcha: 1.5g matcha, 60ml (2.1oz) 85degC (185F) water


Daily caddies are opened pretty often and it also refreshes the air and introduces more oxygen and moist into the caddy. So, I believe the theory of the partial storing naturally makes sense. I wanted to prove its efficiency or I should say that I myself wanted to know how effective it is. What‘s your thought? I’ll tell you the result on the next entry. Jah!

The best condition for daily tea storing 2

A: Room temperature
B: Refrigerator
C: Freezer



Sencha

A (room temperature) and C (freezer) were similar in color on dry leaves. B (refrigerator) was brighter and yellowish than the other two. So, B was not good on the appearance.

For brewed tea, B did not have much aroma compared to the others. I liked the flavor of A the best. My wife, Hiro liked C best.

Matcha

The result was pretty much the same as sencha’s. Hiro found a little weird smell on B which is probably caused by other odors from the fridge. A looks a little lumpy in the picture. But I have sifted all teas so their granularity should be the same. It is just how I placed there when I took the picture.

A was the darkest in color among the prepared tea. I found less flavor on B. Hiro and I both like A best.

To conclude this test, for short period storage, I think it is best to store your daily tea at a room temperature. For both sencha and matcha, B was inferior in quality among the others. I don’t know the reason for this result.  I really wonder why. A and C did not have a significant difference. When you consider the effort of thawing and multiple packing, I think A (room temperature) is the most practical and best way to keep your tea.


I used double-lid tin tea caddies on this test. So when you store your tea, please use an airtight and light proof tea caddy and keep it at room temperature but a relatively cool place like food storage. It will be fine for a couple of weeks^^

There are some other tea storing tests on going. Please stay tuned for more results. Jah!

The best condition for daily tea storing

What do you think the best condition to keep your daily tea; at a room temperature, refrigerated or frozen? I actually did a test for it.



Konnichiwa, it’s meヽ(^。^)ノ I opened new packages of sencha and matcha and repacked them into three different containers. I’ve kept them for about three weeks in three different places, such in a food storage at a room temperature, refrigerator and freezer. I used triple packing for the samples in the refrigerator and freezer to avoid capturing odors from other food. I opened the three packages almost every day to create the similar environment for daily tea. To avoid gathering frost and moisture, I left the samples from the fridge and freezer at a room temperature about an hour every time I opened them. The other day I prepared those tea samples and tasted them.



Common Conditions
Tea: sencha (3g each) and matcha (1.5g each)
Term: about three weeks (average room temperature: 22degC (72F))
All containers were opened almost everyday



Place Condition

	Place	Condition
A	Room temperature	Single packing (tea caddy)
B	Refrigerator	Triple packing (small plastic bag, tea caddy, plastic bag with zipper) Leave it at room temperature for an hour before open
C	Freezer

Tasting condition
Sencha: 3g tea leaves, 100ml (3.5oz) boiling water, one minute brewing
Matcha: 1.5g matcha, 60ml (2.1oz) 85degC (185F) water


Where do you think the best place to keep the daily tea? My assumption was that the refrigerator is the best. Because, repeatedly freezing and thawing may not be good for tea and it’s also better than room storage because it is lower in temperature. However, it is said that refrigerator has the most chance to capture odors from other food. So, what is your assumption? I’ll report the result on the next post. Jah!

Pictures for the triple packing >>> Preparation for tea-storing tests

Yakitori-ya, popular drinking place in Japan

List Friday, I went to a yakitori restaurant or I should say yakitori bar. They serve yakitori, grilled chicken on stick. Yakitori bar (yakitori-ya) is a popular place for drinking. I wanted to drink shochu (Japanese liquor) but I drove there so I had oolong tea. I enjoyed yakitori for dinner.

Konnichwa, it’s meヽ(^。^)ノ Here is a quiz for you. At this yakitori bar, there was an empty ceramic cup on each table as you can see it on the picture below. Can you tell what is for? …

It has something to do with yakitori.



Before I give you the answer, let me talk about yakitori a little bit. Yakitori is usually flavored with salt or sweet soy based sauce, which is similar to teriyaki sauce. You know what? I think teriyaki sauce is a coined term in English. We do not use such term in Japanese. Teriyaki means just one of cooking methods which is grilling something with the sweet soy based sauce. Anyway, at the yakitori bar, they just call it tare which means sauce. You would be asked tare (sauce) or shio (salt) when you order teriyaki.



Have you come up with any idea what the cup on the table is for? The answer is that the cup is for you to put the sticks in after you eat the chicken. Not every yakitori-ya has this cup but some do.

You can now have your debut in a yakritori bar. What you just need to remember are Japanese terms tare (sauce) and shio (salt). Don’t forget to look for the cup when you are at a yakitori-ya. Jah!