Good matcha from a tea shop in my town

Yesterday, we had another tea lesson. When I was placing matcha into natsume, I noticed that the aroma of matcha was richer than usual. I find a smell like seaweed in the matcha. It’s probably similar to the aroma that gykuro has, and I think it comes from umami. Our master usually buys matcha for the lessons once or twice a month. Yesterday's matcha was new one. It may be fresh grinded one at the store. The taste was very good. We thought it was better than usual, and loved it. I think fresh is better for matcha, and it's better to buy fresh matcha little by little from store.
Our muster buys it from a small shop in our town, called Kokaen. They have tea gardens and produce matcha in Nishio, or the tea garden owns Kokaen. I’m not sure. Anyway, Nishio in Aichi prefecture is one of the biggest matcha production regions in Japan. I think this outlet shop form Nishio tea farm sells good quality matcha.

Scooping Mathca from natsume

In natsume, matcha should be naturally heaped up like a small mountain.



When you scoop the matcha in temae, you should scoop it at far side of natsume in an across straight line.



After use, the matcha should be scratched at the far side and have a cliff.

Sweets of the day, Feb.24 Sakuramochi

Sweet on Feb 24 lesson was Sakuramochi, which is rapped with cherry leaf. You can eat it with the leaf. Sakuramochi is popular in the spring, and one of the most favorite confectioneries. I especially love the pink sticky rice cake part. When I was a kid, I snitched just the rice cake when my mother was cooking sakuramochi. It is so good.

Matcha latte at Gusto

The other day when we went to Gusto, Hiro had matcha latte. I tried a ship of it. It was sweated and the foam on the top was fine. It was milkier and milder than matcha latte at Mos burger. Hiro liked this sweet matcha latte!

Matcha latte at Mos burger

Today we went to a hamburger shop for dinner. Mos burger is one of the popular hamburger chain stores in Japan. I like them because they have originality, and value quality rather than selling cheap.

I had matcha latte that wasn’t sweated. It had substantial matcha flavor with rich bitterness. It was rich and premium. I liked it, but it would be much better if it had more milk.

Black bean tea at Gusto

The cold weather is coming and going these days, here. I’ve bet that snow season is over, and I changed my snow tires to regular ones this weekend. How is the weather like in your town this season?










We liked Gusto, so went there again this weekend. This time I tried sencha and black bean tea.



Sencha was from Sizuoka. The leaf was looking good for this reasonable restaurant. The aroma was okay, and the taste was nice. I could not find so much umami, but it had a good distinctive bitterness. Somehow, the tea brewed yourself tastes better than tea just served.






I had never seen black bean tea. It looked like coffee beans, and had roasted soy aroma. The brewed tea was brown, and the taste was mild and did not have bitterness. It tasted like watery coffee. Oops, watery coffee does not sound delicious, does it? I didn’t mean that. It was pretty good. Let’s see, I could say it was similar to hojicha and had rich soy flavor and faint sweetness. I liked memorable roasted flavor.


I had hamburger in stew with rice and miso-soup.

Flower of the day, Dec. 16 – Feb 17

Here are flowers displayed at our tea lessons. All of them are Camellia. Our master has different kind of Camellia trees in her backyard.

Dec.16












Dec.28










These are the flower and rice bale ornament at hatsugama on Jan 6.












Feb.1











Feb.3










Feb.10











Feb.17

Japanese green-tea online shops

Where do you purchase your green tea? At tea shop or supermarket in your town? Or at online shop? One of our customers from Sweden told me that it's difficult to find good tea stores in Sweden. It seems most tea stores there don't know how to handle tea. How about teashops in your country?
I don’t usually buy my tea on the internet, so I don’t know any good online green-tea shops. But, I though Japanese tea shops could know how to handle tea better than some green-tea shops oversea like in Sweden. So, I looked for online teashops located in Japan that have English website and do international shipping. I thought I could find some shops that are not popular internationally yet, but appear on Japanese internet search. Surprisingly, it was difficult to find that kind of teashop. I could find some online shops offer international shipping, but most of them don’t have their English site. Here are a few tea shops in Japan I found, which have English website and international shipping.

IPPODO >>> http://www.ippodo-tea.co.jp/en/index.html
They are a tea retail shop from Kyoto. They have nice informative webpage.

Yamechanosato >>> http://www.yamechanosato.com/index.html
They are located in Fukuoka prefecture where is well known for Yame tea. They produce tea themself. Please find a “English Here” button at the upper right on their home page. It will translate the pages.

I’m sorry that I am not responsible for the products or services from the listed websites. Please visit them if you are interested in. You might or might not find good Japanese tea (^-^)

Tokoname teapot artist, Yokei

Tokoname is one of the poplar ceramic production regions for teapots in Japan. There are many skilled craftsmen there. It is said that Tokoname teapots are well designed not only for beauty, but also for utility. The details determine the quality of teapots, such as the angle of handle, shape of spout tip, strainer, and fitting of lid and body, which are well-done with Tokoname teapots.

Let me introduce one of artists from Tokoname. It is Yokei. He studied at a ceramic school in Seto. His father was also a teapot craftsman in Tokoname. After graduation, Yokei worked with his father, and was trained. Now he is one of experienced teapot artists in Tokoname.


Here is a good example of Yokei’s work, Yohen flat teapot. He creates great yohen pattern, discoloration of ceramic. After first firing, he adjusts and finishes the fitting of lid and body, then he fire the teapot again with rice husks. The rice hanks create the beautiful yohen. Each piece has unique yohen hue and pattern. It is the one of a kind, and makes each teapot special.
Ordinary teapots have a hole on lid. He places two holes for balanced design to this spacious lid. The holes give interesting accent to the teapot. Other details like spout or strainer are also carefully crafted.

Yokei’s products at our shop, Everyone’s Tea
Yohen flat teapot by Yokei
Yohen fukurogata teapot by Yokei

Genmaicha at Gusto

Yesterday, we went to a new casual restaurant in my town, called Gusto. They serve beverages in buffet style. At the drink bar, there are soda fountain, coffee & espresso maker, and many tea selections, which make me excited.

They had sencha, hojicha, genmaicha, some English teas, some Chinese teas, organic teas, beans tea, and some herbal teas. I wondered where to start!














What I had was genmaicha. Genmaicha is roasted brown rice blended green tea, which is not expensive type of tea. It is casual tea like hojicha. Do you see roasted brown rice with sencha in the picture? Little white staff is popped rice like popcorn.
















My genmaicha is the left one in the picture. The one in the middle is sencha and the right one is Oolong tea. Hiro put too much sencha leaves, so sencha was little too bitter (^_^;)












This is genmaicha. The color was peal brown and little muddy. I smelled nice roasted rice flavor, and noticed slight of sencha aroma behind it. This tea is a mixture of sencha and rice, so I think genmaicha has depth in the taste, and you will find a flavor of sencha and also roasted flavor like hojicha. I enjoyed the rich roasted flavor with this tea.

Hojicha-latte?

I walked though a Starbucks the other day. I found an interesting new item on their signboard. It was Hojicha-latte. What? I have never seen a latte with hojicha. That’s new! I guess this is an original item at Japanese Starbucks. I wonder how it tastes like. I assume it’s like milder chai? Hojicha does not have as much bitterness as English tea has, so Hojicha-latte would be milder. I didn’t have time to stop by, so next time, I’ll try it.

The air brews delicious green tea? 3

I did the tasting of tea with two kind of water. Today’s blog is a sequel to the past two blogs, please check them.

***Common Conditions***
Tea leaves: Deep-steamed sencha 4g
Water: 70 degree C 160ml
Serving : Two cups at one brewing (70ml*2cups)

***Result***
Unfortunately, I could not find significant difference in these teas. Brewed tea color, density and aroma were almost same. I also tasted the same elements of flavor from both teas, and the tastes were in the same direction. The slight difference what I notice was the feeling. I felt the same qualities as the waters I tasted yesterday.
Theory A: Tea by water with less air
The flavor came straight. It was clear and bold, and little heavier than Tea B. The tea naturally conformed to my tongue. I felt faint sweetness in the aftertaste.
Theory B: Tea by water with much air
When I drank this, my mouth was filled with the tea. It had a longer tail, and I could feel comfortable bitterness for a while.


30 minutes later, I tested the same teas which got cold. I could not find any difference in them. They were the same.

I can’t say which tea is better or more delicious. It depends to each his/her own taste. I think they are almost the same, but Tea A is straighter and Tea B has longer finish. I need to try and learn them more. With the feeling I got from today’s tasting, I would have Tea A when I want to enjoy tea itself. I would try Tea B at meal, because the tea that remains in your mouth longer could refresh your mouth better. What do you think?