Nakatsugi, container for matcha

How are you everyone? Almost every evening, we go 30 minute walking for exercise. There is a national park called Iwayado in our town. It is a little far and off from our usual walking course, but the park also has illuminations for autumn leaves in this period. Yesterday, we were warmly clothed and went to the park for a walk to see autumn leaves again. It was as nice as Sogi park. The illuminated trees reflected on liver surface was so beautiful.

At this week lesson, we used a different type of container for matcha, called nakatsugi. It is a cylindrical shape container, which is refined I think. I could scoop plenty of matcha easily. It may be because nakatsugi has a flat bottom and holds more matcha than ordinary natume.
Hope you have a good weekend.

Sobayu at a soba restaurant

Hello, everyone! I had zaru-soba (my favorite Japanese buckwheat noodle) for a lunch on the trip to Gifu. It was handmade noodles, and I liked it. Some soba restaurants serves sobayu with zaru-soba. Sobayu is hot water that the noodles were boiled in, and is murky white. After you eat soba, you enjoy sobayu. You add sobayu into soy based sauce for soba, and enjoy like soup or tea. The rate of sobayu and sauce make a difference on the taste. I think people have their own recipe. I like a lot of sobayu with a little sauce, so that you can enjoy soba flavor of yobayu. By the way, the tea served at the restaurant was sencha with tall thick younomi cup. Have a nice day!

Mushroom tea

Hi, everyone! Last night, we went to Sogi Park for night viewing of illuminated trees, which is 25 minute drive from our place. It was very cold but it was worth to visit. The orange and red maple leaves were illuminated by hundreds of lights in the dark park. It was so beautiful and fantastic!! We want to come to visit next year again.

Anyway, I’ll talk about tea. There was a tea set in a hotel room we stayed this weekend. There were a hot-water pot, teapot, cups, saucers and tea bags. And there were some sweets on the table. Green packages in the picture are tea bags of sencha, Shirakawa-cha. I didn’t try them, this time. I had orange package tea, which is mushroom tea. You put the powdered tea into a cup and just pour hot water into it. I think the taste is not like a tea, more like a soup without ingredients. It doesn’t’ have any bitterness as ordinary green tea; just has supper rich umami of mushroom. Yom might not able to imagine how the flavor is like. It is difficult to explain, but if you have tried Japanese soup, called osumashi, I can say that the mushroom tea is similar to osumashi. Anyway I like really it. Have a nice day!

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!