Welcome drink at a ryokan (Japanese-style hotel)

Hello, everyone. We went to a trip to Gero in Gifu prefecture this weekend. Gero is a popular hot spring resort, and we stayed at a ryokan (Japanese-style hotel).

Most ryokan will serve you a welcome drink at the lounge or your room. Usually, it will be sencha (most common green tea). When we arrived this ryokan, they served matcha (powdered green tea) at the lounge. I was very happy to have matcha. A little bit of disappointment was that the matcha was a little watery. I guess it is the taste treat for everyone. Even in Japan there are many people who are not used to matcha. I’d prefer a little bit more strong one though. Anyhow, I appreciated the nice arrangement of the ryokan, which we could have a relaxing moment with matcha at the lounge while viewing a nice courtyard.


Hiro & courtyard

Heve a nice day!

Boiling water → Teapot → Mug = Temperature???

Hi, everyone! Everyone has their own way to cool down boiling water to the correct temperature for sencha (most common green tea), I guess.

As I write yesterday, I measured the temperature of actual water I used to infuse sencha. I usually pour boiling water into the empty teapot, and then pour the hot water from the teapot into the mug, then use the water to brew the tea.


Boiling water → Teapot → Mug = Water temperature???

**Conditions**
Amount of boiling water : About 500ml
Room temperature : 21 degrees C
Tool : Mug(500ml) and Teapot (550ml) in the picture, and a thermometer


Generally, 70-80 degrees C (158-175 degrees F) of hot water is good for brewing sencha.
The water I used yesterday was…


76 degrees C !!!


Wow, it’s a perfect temperature (^0^)/ I’m glad that I have been preparing sencha with right water temperature. Was this the reason that I was good at brewing delicious green tea!? Ha, ha..

The result may differ in different conditions. If I have chances I’ll check it in different conditions, and let you know then.

Take care!

Correct water temperature for sencha?

How are you doing today, everyone?

How do you usually cool down boiling water to the correct temperature for green tea? Do you use a water cooler (pitcher) or cups and a teapot?

I usually use a big mug for sencha (most common Japanese green tea) when I’m working at office. The teapot and mug in the picture are what I’m using now. When I was preparing sencha this morning, I was curious if I’m always using right temperature water for the tea. I usually pour boiling water into the empty teapot, and then pour the hot water from the teapot into the mug. I use the hot water in the mug to brew sencha. In this way I can usually make delicious sencha pretty much. But I’ve never measured the actual temperature of the water.

So, let’s check it out!
I did measured the temperature today.

Boiling water → Teapot → Mug = Temperature???

**Conditions**
Amount of boiling water : About 500ml
Room temperature : 21 degrees C
Experimental tool : Mug(500ml) and Teapot (550ml) in the picture, and a thermometer

How much do you guess the water temperature was?
I’ll tell you the result at my next blog, talked you soon!!

The flower of the day, Ajisai with Hanging vase, Jun 10

The flower at yesterday’s lesson was ajisai, hydrangea. It was small and pretty. But the flower is not the one I want you to look at. Can you tell where the vase is placed?


Yes, it is hanged on the column at *tokonoma. This hanging vase is called ayukago. Ayu means sweetfish and cago means a basket. Ayu is stream fish and its season starts now, early summer. Ayuago vases are used in Jun and July. I love the cool impression that spindly bamboo vase has(^-^) I think it’s neat to place a flower on the wall.


*Tokonoma is an alcove in a traditional Japanese room where art or flowers are displayed.

The flower of the day, Chinshibai, Jun 3 2009

Good morning, everyone!

This is the flower from last week lesson called, chinshibai. It was still in the bud, but our master chose it by more handsome foliage than blossoming. I think three foliage spread in different directions with aligned leaves were beautiful. I like the well-balanced figure of buds, leaves and vase.

After the lesson, our master gave us the flower. We brought it home and placed it on the niche in our hallway. We used the vase our master gave us(^-^)

We got vases

Hello, everyone!

Officially the rainy season started yesterday here in Aichi Japan. I don’t like rainy days much(^_^;) But if we don’t get much rain in this period, we’ll suffer a water shortage in the summer. So, I should welcome the rain \(^0^)/

We got five vases from our master at the last lesson! Before, we had told her that we have only one vase at home. Then she gave us five of them. How generous of her!!

The narrow-neck vases are for single-stem flower, called ichirinzashi the one of my favorite kind. They are pretty popular in The Way of Tea. We have a little niche for flower in our hallway, so we wanted small vases. The ichirinzashi our master gave us are perfect in size!

Thanks to our master.

Brewing sencha from friend

Good morning, everyone! Yesterday I tried the tea that I mentioned on Jun 7.

The good water temperature for sencha is 70-80 degrees C (158-175 degrees F). I poured boiling water into the teapot with no tea leaves, and then the hot water from the teapot into a water cooler (pitcher). I guess the temperature of the water became around 80 degrees C at this moment. I put the tea leaves into the teapot and poured the hot water, and waited for one minute.


When I pour the tea into the cups, the brewed tea was a nice sencha yellow, but didn’t smell as good as I expected. The tea leaves have very nice scent, so I had too much expectations, I guess. However when I drank it, I realized that it did have a nice aroma . When I took a sip, the green tea aroma spread inside my mouth and climbed though my nose. The taste was also perfect!! It has a great balance of comfortable bitterness and refreshing green tea flavor. This is the green tea flavor I like which really go with sweets!

If you want to know how to brew green tea, please visit our website
Everyone’s Tea “How to brew green tea (Easy!!) “ >>> http://www.everyonestea.com/

Tea from a friend

Hi, everyone!

It was hot today.When I got home today I found a package in our mailbox. It was the first tea of the season from a friend of mine. Her grandma grows tea. When I opened the caddy, the nice refreshing aroma flared around. The color is deep green. It smells and looks nice. I’m really glad for the first tea of the season!! Thanks to my friend.

I’ll try the scented tea tomorrow, and am looking forward to it! Good night!

Green tea coke!?

Hi, everyone! How is it going?
It’s raining here. I guess the rainy season is just around the corner.


Yesterday, I found an interesting article on yahoo Japan news. Coca-cola Japan is releasing a new coke, “coca-cola plus CATECHIN”. Catechin is bitterness in green tea and medically effective constituents. According the article the drink is a diet coke with catechin and green tea flavor. What, coke and green tea!? How interesting! Diet coke is my favorite drink and I love green tea. I should try it at least once. But, I’m really not sure if the both flavor goes well. I’ll let you know when I try it.

Everyone, visit to Japan and try it!

The Yahoo new article (Japanese) >>> http://zasshi.news.yahoo.co.jp/article?a=20090604-00000005-tkwalk-ent

Sweet of the day, Jun 3 2009

How are you, everyone?
We had another lesson last night.

I really liked yesterday’s sweet. It has bean paste inside and covered with thin soft sticky stuff (like rice cake) outside. I loved the moderate sweetness and sophisticated flavor. I believe a little bit of brown sugar was used in this sweet, and the brown sugar gave it a depth in the flavor. Do you know Japanese Loquat (biwa in Japanese, picture blow)? This sweet is designed in the image of Japanese Loquat. Aren’t they cute?

Have a nice day!

Flower of the day, May 27 2009

Hello, everyone!

This is the flower at May 27 lesson. It is called shakyaku in Japanese. I’m not sure the name in English, but it’s Paeonia lactiflora or paeoniae radix, I guess. It has a big blossom (about 10cm) and is pretty pale pink. Our master says that shakyaku is often used at tea ceremonies in this season.

Have a good day!!

Japanese cake

How are you, everyone?
Yesterday, I got some Japanese cake from a Japanese-style confection store.

There are couple different types of Japanese-style confections. Today I want to talk about nama-gashi (uncooked type). In The Way of Tea, nama-gashi are often served with tea, also in my tea lessons. They are made from sugar, starch syrup, rice, wheat and red beans mainly. And fruits are not used unlike western cakes. Japanese cakes are not only good to eat, but also fun to look at. They are beautiful visually. I like that they made with the sense of the season and the beauties of nature. I think they are a kind of art.

For casual tea and practicing *temae at home, I and Hiro (my wife) went to our favorite Japanese-style confection store and got some Japanese cakes. They are about four centimeter big which is smaller than western cakes and 160 to 250 yen for each. Hiro liked the one in the right back on the picture. It is made with an image of rose. The one in the most front is “a reflected moon on rice paddy”. My favorite one was “stream” which had an image of fish in clear liver. But, it is not in the picture. My father already had it; I was too late to take the picture (^_^;)

Have fun with your teatime and good day!!

* Temae is series of procedures followed to prepare for making the tea, then to do the tea making and then to put things away.