Tea set from Tokoname traditional craftsman

Good morning everyone! A big typhoon passed away my region this early morning. I was relieved that we didn’t got any damages.

This weekend, I received a tea set from Tokoname teapot artist which I ordered as a sample for my shop. This tea set is for gyokuro or high-quality sencha. The handle less teapot is called hohin. High grade teas are usually enjoyed with this kind of small teapot and cups. I was impressed with the perfect dripless spout of the teapot, and fine finish. That is the work of certified traditional craftsman. But I was not quite satisfied with this tea set. I want teapot little smaller and water cooler little bigger. And the design is needed some modification. I might ask the artist to reform the size and design, or look for some other new tea set. We’ll see. Take care!

Opening a new package of sencha in two weeks

How are you everyone? Today I opened another package of green tea. This tea is sencha from the same tea store for the last package at Sep 22. That means we consumed one package of sencha (200g) in two weeks. I had never counted how long it takes to use one package, though. Actually it was quite fast than I thought. We used to have cold mugi-cha in the summer, but it's getting chilly these days. So I guess we are having hot sencha more.

This sencha is the better grade than last one, so I had assumed this one would be bigger leaves. But actually it wasn’t. This better sencha also had some broken little leaves. The package says just "sencha", but I guess sencha from this tea store are "deep-steamed sencha". Anyway, this sencha had a richer umami than last one and I liked it. I hope you have a great day!

Flower of the day, tsubaki Sep 30

Hello, everyone! The flower of the lesson on Sep 30 was tsubaki (camellia), and tall green behind was quince. Tsubaki is one of the popular flowers used in the tea room. Tsubaki usually bloom in the winter, but this was early-bloom type. I think white little broom goes well with the unique design vase. Take care!

Tea container, kinrinji

Hi, everyone. We have been using chu-natsume, which is the most common type of tea container. I’ve always wanted to see other type of natsume. I had a chance to use a different type of natsume called kinrinji at last night lesson. How to handle kinrinji was almost the same as chu-natsume. The only difference was the way of purifying natsume. I was little happy using kinrinji. Have a nice day.

Difference between sencha and gyokuro leaves

Hello, everyone. I learned the way to distinguish dry leaves of sencha and gyokuro at the workshop. They looked almost the same, but gyokuro leaf had slightly deeper green hue. And gyokuro and sencha leaves had similar aroma, but gyokuro had a smell that sencha does not have. In Japanese it is described as a smell like seaweed. It might not sound delicious in English, but it’s kind of propounded aroma which you cannot find in sencha.

Since I started studying Japanese tea, I've tried preparing sencha in many different conditions to find my favorite way of brewing. It is pretty fun. You will have different tea by different brewing conditions. So far, I like cold water brewing which you can bring out amazing umami (the fifth taste sensation, delicious flavor) from sencha. I’ll report you when I find my ultimate brewing.

Tea tasting

Today I’ll talk about tea tasting that I learned at the Japanese tea adviser work shop. Teas are evaluated with two aspects, appearance of dry tea leaves and substance of brewed tea.

150g of dry tea leaves are placed on a tray and evaluated the appearance. You can touch and smell them as well. Good tea leaves for sencha should be deep green, luster on the surface, rolled hard. Brewed tea tasting uses 3g tealeaves brewed with boiling water in a white porcelain cup. You evaluate water color, aroma and taste. Well balance of bitterness and umami, and refreshing aroma and after taste are good quality for sencha.

It was difficult to tell good or bad by smell of dry leaves and brewed tea color for me. Dry leaf color and brewed tea taste were easier aspects to tell the difference.

Japanese tea workshop

How are you doing everyone? This weekend I took a workshop for Japanese tea adviser. I learned tea tasting and instruction technique. It was very interesting. We did little tests of telling names of tea out of ten kinds by just watching and smelling dry tea leaves, or telling best quality sencha out of three. Other test was telling best sencha by selling and drinking brewed sencha. I hadn’t had a chance to see or taste so many different kinds and qualities of teas at once. It was valuable experience.

This is a special tea spoon for tea tasting, which was presented to every participant.

Flower of the day, chinshibai Sep 9

How are you doing everyone? There's a clear blue sky as far as the eye can see. We have autumn skis these days. You can find autumn foodstuffs in grocery stores, such as Pacific saury, sweet chestnuts, various kinds of mushrooms, and pears. I’m going to be busy enjoying them.

I haven’t introduce the flower from Sep 9 lesson. This is called chinshibai. It was used on Jun 3 lesson which had handsome-foliage I liked better.

Have a nice day!

Hojicha at Japanese restaurant

Hello, everyone. I had a chance to have Japanese cuisine including a full course meal at a fancy restaurant. The tea served there was Hojicha, roasted green tea. Hojicha has refreshing taste and goes well any kind of meal. Serving Hojicha with a nice cup and saucer was imposing to me.

Nice tea with two minute brewing with 55 degree C water (131F)

Good morning everyone! I opened a new package of regular sencha this morning. The leaves are smaller than I expected. It’s not good for regular sencha, but the taste was not so bad. I liked nice umami with two minute brewing with 55 degree C water (131F).

Tea got bitter with 20 degree C water.

Hi, everyone! I tried the three time brewing method with different temperature water, again.

I changed some conditions from before.
Amount of tea leaves: 10g >>> 6g
First brewing: 10min >>> 5min, 5 degree C >>> 20 degree C
Second brewing: The same as before
Third brewing: 1 minute >>> 5 seconds


First brewing – five minutes with cold water (20 degree C, 68F)
For The rich umami (the fifth taste sensation, delicious flavor)

Second brewing – One minute with warm water (50 degree C, 122F)
For The great harmony of umami and bitterness

Third brewing – 5 seconds with boiling water
For The bitterness

I couldn’t get satisfied result. The first tea got bitterer with warmer water, and less richness with shorter brewing time and few tea leaves. The third tea was still too strong. I want to keep trying to find out my favorite recipe.

Have a nice day!

Flower of the day, Sep 14

How is it going everyone? The mornings and evenings are now quite chilly here. This is a flower from this week lesson. I asked our master the name of flowers, but I forgot what is. Have a nice day!