Shirakawa-cha at a hotel restaurant

How is it going everyone? We went to a trip to Gero hot spring resort in Gifu prefecture this weekend. The lunch at a hotel we stayed was pretty good. You could have buffet-style beverages there. I found green tea that you can prepare it yourself with a teapot and beautiful deep green sencha leaves, not a tea bag. The tea was Shirakawa-cha, which is popular sencha bland from this region. We used tea cups to lower boiling water temperature. The brewed tea color was nice light green, and had comfortable bitterness and excellent green tea flavor. This was a kind of sencha I like. Talk to you soon!

Kettle rings and kettle rest

Hi, everyone! I introduced how to rinse a large kettle the other day. When you handle the kettle, you use some accessories. They are kettle rings and a kettle rest. You use two rings to carry the kettle by putting them through lugs on the kettle. You use a wooden frame as a kettle rest at preparation room. Have a nice weekend!

Susuricha

Good morning everyone! Yesterday, I talked about susuricha, and tried it again. This time I used 3g of fine sencha with 15ml of cold water, and brewed it one minute. You might think one minute is too short for cold water brewing, but it isn’t. The plenty tealeaves to the little water brought out amazing flavor. The brewed tea was just few drops, but so delicious. It was very mellow and no bitterness, and totally different from the sencha I usually have. I really like it. I’ll explore more of susuricha. Have a nice day.

Sample wares for susuricha

How are you everyone? I got some sample porcelain wares for my online shop. I am looking for small tea wares for susuricha preparing. Susuricha preparing is a brewing method for fine green tea, using small amount of water just to saturate the tea leaves. I was looking for a small plate or bowl with a spout instead of a teapot. What I found was a unique design white porcelain bowl and small cups. I tried susuricha with them after dinner. It was great! Have a nice day!!

Rinsing a kettle

Hi, everyone! We learned how to prepare large kettle and hot wate. You rinse the kettle at the preparation room before use. You water outside and inside of the kettle with a ladle. When you throw away the water inside, you use some cloth to hold the kettle. And turn over the kettle and throw the water out. Basically, you don’t touch the kettle with bare hands. You dry the outside with cloth by applying it in rotation, don’t wipe. Leave the inside. There is a special coating inside, so you don’t touch it. Then pour hot water into the kettle. Talk to you soon!

Jasmine tea at a fancy steak house

How was your weekend everyone? I had a chance to have a nice lunch at a fancy steak house this weekend. We were led to a gorgeous room. The meal was so delicious. I could relish nice meat; it may because of the modest portion served. I think somehow people tend to relish well a smaller portion food.

The tea served there was jasmine tea. It is one of my favorite Chinese teas. The tea was prepared very well. The aroma and taste was just right, they were not too strong or too pale. The feature of jasmine tea is the aroma like a flower. I like that the nice aroma rise through my nose when I take a sip. Have a nice day!

High-quality long-steamed sencha

Hello, everyone! When I visited my parents place yesterday, they served me green tea. The tea was a expensive long-steamed sencha. It was from the same tea shop of our tea, but a much better grade tea. The taste was pretty similar to what we usually have. I found good umami and comfortable bitterness. The faded black block you see in the picture is sweetened and jellied bean paste, known as yokan. It is pretty sweet, but sweet bean paste really goes well with green tea. Cmbination of green tea and been paste is popular and also my favorite. Have a great weekend!

Cheep green tea and sweet

How are you every one? My wife, Hiro was not feeling well last night, so we canceled the tea lesson. It got cold this couple of days here.

I went to the neighborhood grocery after dinner and got a cheap package of Japanese confectionery. We had them with cheap sencha over watching Ugly Betty. The sencha is teabag type, and gives out nice green color into brewed tea well. But the taste is kind of light. It wasn’t bad to have cheep green tea and sweet in a relaxing evening. I should have taken a picture of them for this blog. Have a nice day!

Flower of the day, Oct 28

Good morning everyone! This is the flower from Oct 28 lesson. I’m sorry. I don’t remember the name of flower. We are having another lesson tonight. I’m looking forward to it! Talk to you soon!

Sencha at an eel restaurant

Hi, everyone! We went to an eel restaurant in my neighborhood for dinner. Grilled eel is one of my favorite meals! Unexpectedly, the grilled eel is high-calorie food. A man in his late thirtieth like myself needs to be careful with these kind of diet to keep back the middle-aged spread(^_^;) However, the juicy grilled eel with rich teriyaki sauce is irresistible. Tea served there was long-steamed sencha, I guess. There was nothing special about the tea. It was just a regular tea you can have anywhere. Have a nice day!

Maple tree in spot garden

How are you everyone? This Friday night we went to a movie. We saw a Michael Jackson’s documentary, “This is it”. What surprised me was that despite a late show, it was almost full with all generation people. Even kids and students who don’t know of MJ on time were there. Michael was just fine and cool in the movie. I still wonder why he had to die. I wish I could see his real concert, not rehearsal.

I worked on my back yard this weekend. In a spot garden, we had white gravels, green moss and grasses, but didn’t have any tree. So, we bought 1.2 meter tall maple tree and planted it. The little garden looks better now(^-^) I’m happy with it. There is nothing about Japanese tea in today’s blog, sorry. Take care.

Sweets of the day, Kurikinton Oct 28

Hi, everyone! In this season, you can find kurikinton at many Japanese confectionery shops. The taste is slightly different among shops, like chocolate chip cookies are little different at each shop in the states. Last week, our master suggested that we can try kurikinton from different shops in our town in each lesson. I thought it was a great idea. Here we had kurikinton again this week lesson. This one was a little big, and it was smooth in texture and mild in taste. We loved it as much as we liked the one from the last week. I’m looking forward to another kurikinton next week!!