The angle of the tea whisk when checking it

The spring started from today on Japanese calendar. However, it is still cold and we had light snow falls this morning.



Yesterday we had another tea lesson. One new thing I learned was an angle of the tea whisk when you hold it. Before and after making tea, we raise the tea whisk and check it for breakage of splines in temae. I used to raise the tea whisk horizontally (left picture). But our muster advised me that it looks more beautiful if I hold it with its head down little. (right picture) I agreed with it. The movement with tilted tea whisk looks more natural and beautiful. I know this little thing is nothing related to the taste of tea. You might think why Japanese care so much detail just for preparing tea. But, this is The Way of Tea, and preparing tea gracefully is one part of it. I’m proud of this highly developed culture matured around tea. I was glad learning something to make my temae better.

Which is popular? Gyokuro or Sencha?

What kind of Japanese tea do you drink? Many of our customer at oversea are drinking gyokuro. I mainly drink sencha. Do you know which kind of tea is popular in Japan? Gyokuro? Sencha?

The most produced tea in Japan is …

1. Sencha!

And the next is …
2. Bancha
3. Kabusecha
4. Tamaryokucha
5. Tencha (ingredient of matcha)
And then
6. Gyokuro

Isn’t it interesting? Gyokuro is produced less than on one hundredth of sencha in Japan. Gyokuro seems popular oversea but not so much in Japan. Maybe Japanese think gyokuro is little too expensive for daily tea. I like gyokuro but actually don’t purchase it so often. Kabusecha is a type of tea in between sencha and gyokuro, so it has more umami than sencha and is more refreshing than gyokuro. It is usually reasonable than gyokuro. You might like kabuseha, if you love gyokuro.

*Type of green tea >>> http://www.everyonestea.com/page/2

Container for powdered thick tea, chaire

Ntsume is container for powdered thin tea, which we have been using in our lessons. Common type is wooden and urushi lacquered (on the left). Different type of container is used in thick tea temae. It is ceramic container (chaire) with pouch (shifuku). The one used at our hatsugama is in the right picture. Isn’t the pouch beautiful?

Organic powdered tea

I got complimentary powdered tea. It is organic tea from Kyoto. This powdered tea looks like matcha, but it’s different. I believe this is made from sencha, not tencha (matcha ingredient). You just put the powder into a tea cup and add hot water. That’s it. It had similar smell as matcha, and I found slight of woody aroma. The prepared tea was murky green. It had green tea flavor, but it tasted totally different from sencha or matcha. It was easy and tasted good. I could taste little powdery texture in the aftertaste.

Sweets of the day, Nov 25 ‘09 – Jan 6 ‘10

Here are the sweets from past tea lessons. I don’t remember how tastes were liked for some of them (^_^;)

Nov 11

It is difficult to see, but it has yellow ginkgo leaf design.







Nov 30








Dec 2
This was very interesting confectionery. Real dry persimmon is used for this sweet. Been pest was inside. Japanese confectionery are often formed into shapes with been past that reflect the seasonal food, flower or scenery. But this one is used real flutes.




Dec 9

It is chestnut shape, and had small pieces of chestnut.







Dec 16








Dec 28








Jan 6
At Hatsugama, there are two kind of sweets are served. Sweet in the round tray is called hanabira-mochi, which has burdock root in it. Look at the picture. Something sticking out from the sweet is the burdock. It is special sweet for New Year. I don’t usually like it very much, but this year’s one was better. It was not that bad, I thought. Sweet on the square trey is higashi, dry confectionery

Sweet from Oguchiya, Hiro’s favorite

Lucky us! We got to see classic music concerts two months in a law. So, we went to Nagoya this weekend again. We were absorbed in Beethoven Symphony No. 7. I felt cheerful sense and tremendous energy in various expression. Now I’m listening to it over writing this blog.

＜YouTube ↓　↓　↓　＞
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8eigkwmMEo&feature=related
My favorite part is jubilant note from a quiet around 3:00.

After the concert, we looked for a Japanese confectionery shop in Nagoya, called Oguchiya. Once Hiro had a chance to have a confectionery rapped with a leaf from Oguchiya, and she really loved it. She was sure Oguchiya has a branch in one of department stores in Nagoya. We found it in Sakae-Mituskoshi, got the confection she’d had before. The sweet is called Anpu-sankira. I had it on tea time today, with sencha. It had smooth been past covered soft and springy gluten. When you bring the sweet to your mouth, you can smell faint aroma of leaf. I liked the comfortable sweetness and earthy flavor.

*You don’t eat the leaf.

Ceramic strainer teapot

Hi, everyone! Today is sunny, and a topical winter day here.

I talked about removal tea strainer teapots the other day. Today let me write about teapots with ceramic strainer.

Good things about a teapot with mounted ceramic strainer are…
- Lager space for tealeaves than removal strainer, which allows the leaves to expand well, and makes better tea.
- You can preparer few serving of tea with this type of teapots. Removal strainer teapots are not good at preparing few serving. Usually removal strainers are not deep enough to reach the bottom of teapots, so you need pretty of water to soak tealeaves when brewing.

There are some minor negative points with ceramic strainer
- The mesh is coarser than metal mesh. Therefore, small pieces of leaves can slip through.
- The dimensions of the strainer are smaller than removal type. Therefore, there is a chance of clogged mesh with tea leaves when pouring.

Standard ceramic strainer (on the left), Fine mesh ceramic strainer (on the right)


If you are looking for a teapot for derisions tea, go with mounted strainer teapot rather than removal strainer type!

We have released some new teapots on our shop.
Please visit us >>> Everyone’s Tea

Thin tea and thick tea

What we have been practicing at lessons was “thin tea”. One and half scoop of matcha is used for one serving of thin tea, and each serving is made and served in an individual bowl. There is another tea called “thick tea”, which our muster served at the hatsugama. About the double amount of matcha is used for thick tea. Thick tea is shared in drinking with number of guests from one tea bowl.
While prepared thin tea is light green, thick tea is dark, deep green. As you sip thick tea, the rich flavor fills your mouth. Thick tea is very dense or I could say heavy, so you can taste each flavor of matcha, umami, sweetness, and bitterness with a long finish. Usually high grade matcha is used for thick tea.
I think thick tea is not as popular as thin tea. I know some places, restaurants, hotels or café that serve matcha, but they are usually thin tea. I hadn’t known thick tea until I stared learning The Way of Tea. You can experience thick tea at tea ceremonies or tea schools, but I don’t know where else you can try it. I guess there are many Japanese who have never tried thick tea. When you have fine matcha, why don't you try thick tea? Have a nice day.

The first tea lesson of 2010, hatsugama

How is it going everyone? The first tea lesson or tea ceremony of a year is called hatsugama. It is kind of special. Our muster says that in general masters invite their students, and serve tea to the students. So, at our hatsugama on Jan 6, she treated us with her tea. She played the host and served thick tea. It was little formal. The tea flower, sweets, and some utensils are different from usual. There was a sense of tension at the hatsugama, and we could enjoy the tea and the feeling.
Have a nice day!

Hojicha at kaiseki cuisine

Good morning everyone! At Suimeikan, the dinner was kaiseki cuisine, Japanese multi-course meal. The courses are served in turn to match pace at which people are eating. The local specialty, Hida beef was featured in this kaiseki. The interesting dish was raw beef sushi. The beef could have been slightly grilled, but it was pretty much raw. It must have been very fine and fresh beef. Raw beef for sushi? Isn’t it novel, is it? Actuary, it was quite good. I liked it. It was raw beef, so kind of chewy. But, I think it was very tender for raw beef. There are some other Hida beef dishes and some others. They are all great and I was very satisfied with the dinner. Here again, the tea served with the dinner was hojicha. Hojicha is very popular tea for meal in Japan. They served a cup of hojicha in the beginning, and left a teapot with hojicha on our table for refills.
Have a nice day!

Mini Tea bar in a hotel room

Hi, everyone! I have one more thing I’d like to talk about from my New Year holiday trip. The room we stayed at Sumieikn was equipped a wet bar with a tea set. The tea set was a teapot, cups, saucers, tea strainer, tea cloth, wastewater receptacle, and sencha in a tea caddy.
I was already relaxed with youkata (casual kimono) and comfort of tatami room, plus having sencha soothed my soul. The sencha, I guess it was Sirakawacha, had a comfortable bitterness like fresh breeze in forest. I think a nice environment make tea more delicious. Have a nice day!

The picture on the right is the view from our room.

Flower arrangement with Hanamochi

How are you everyone? Suimeikan is a Japanese-style hotel, known as ryokan. Suimeikan has a Japanese garden with a pond, which you can see from the lounge. Ryokan usually have traditional-style guest rooms with tatami. Our room had a tokonoma, alcove where art or flowers are displayed, which typical tea rooms also have. Hanamochi was used in the flower arrangement in the tokonoma. Hanamochi is a special ornament for New Year, and a branch or branches decorated with small pieces of rice cakes (picture above). Have a grate day!