The best gyokuro by appearance??

Hello, everyone! How are you today? We have the rainy season before summer, which lasts about a month. It just started this week. But today it’s sunny, a break from the rainy days. It will be very hot and humid today. I hope you taker, and have a nice day!

I had a chance to see many different teas at the meeting I joined this weekend. There were three gyokuro in the selection. We had to decide the best gyokuro out of the three. It was blind testing. There was no information about the breed, producer, or production region. We just checked the leaves and brewed tea by watching, smelling and tasting.

Appearance of the leaves
Tea “O” had a profound color and luster, and I thought “O” was the best in the appearance. Tea “N” was a little yellowish and dryer on the surface, and I thought “N” was not good.

Color of the brewed tea
Tea “O” had the typical whitish gyokuro color, and I thought “O” was the best in the color.

Aroma of the brewed tea
“O” and “P” smelled nice to me. Good gyokuro should had the smell called “Oika” which is something similar to the smell of green laver.

Taste of the brewed tea
Despite the good looking leaves, Tea “O” was not so good in the taste. “O” was kind of weak. “P” had a matured favor, but not great. “P” was not bad, just okay.

<<< Click here for the large picture

I could not decide which one is the best. I was kind of leaning toward to “O” because of the good looking leaves. The experts who attended this meeting also could not find the crucial advantage in any teas, or nail down the best. There was a striking comment that one of the experts said in the end of the meeting. It was “At many tea fairs, people tend to concern much about the appearance of tea, and involuntarily give better points on good looking teas. So it’s important that you really try to see the actual aroma and taste.” I realized that I had the preconceived opinion by the appearance.

We had another chance to taste the three gyokuro later again. This time the teas were repaired with warm water, like the practical brewing. (Boiled water is usually used at official tea tasting) I was sure this time, “O” had the rich umami and well balanced flavor. It was very good, and I voted “O” for the best gyokuro. Eventually, “O” was selected for the best, and the good looking tea was the best tea this tea meeting. But can you really select a great tea by the aroma and taste? I thought I want to experience more tea tastings.

Selecting the sample teas for tea workshops

Nihoncha (or Japanese tea) instructor association has some sample teas to provide instructors and advisers, which are used for tea workshops. There was a meeting this weekend to select this year’s sample teas, and I joined it. Some tea producers brought some teas, and we did tea tasting. We decided one tea for each type, sencha, deep-steamed sencha, tamaryokucha, kabusecha, and gyokuro.

We checked the teas from different aspects, such as appearance of tea leaves, and color, aroma and taste of brewed tea. I was very excited to see and taste many different teas at the same time. It was very important experience (^-^)

Powdered genmaicha at kaiten-zushi (sushi-go-round) restaurant

There are two reasonable kaiten-zushi (sushi-go-round) restaurants in our town. One is Kappazushi. The other one is Sushiro, which is our favorite. We love Sushiro’s sushi better, and often go there. The other day, we went to Kappazushi for the first time in a long time.

I found a very unique tea at Kappazushi. It was powdered genmaicha (brown rice tea)! I believe I’d never seen one before. I have seen powdered green tea at many other places. I have introduced the powdered green tea before, which was served at the Sushiro.
But this is powdered genmaicha.












Putting the powder into a cup by shaking the container a couple of times












Kappazushi also has a hot-water faucet at each table.












It was nice brown. Surprisingly, it tasted good! It was almost as good as real genmaicha.













At Kappazushi, you can take plates of sushi from the conveyor lane, like at ordinary kaiten-zushi restaurants. But, Kappazushi has a unique system.
You can make orders from a touch panel at your table.









A miniature bullet train will bring your sushi to your table!! They have another special lane for the trains. Isn’t it cool? Kids must love it!

Teas from the expressway

Do you have to pay for throughways in your country? Japanese expressway is toll way. We drove to Kamakura and Hakone, and took the expressway. The toll from Hakone (Atsugi) to our home (Setoshinano) was about 6000yen. I think it is expensive. The distance was roughly 300km. There are some rest stops on the expressway. At the rest stops, there are food stands, restaurants, and gift shops. You will also find free tea fountains (^-^) You can have free sencha and hojicha. It’s nice. I like it.





When we take the expressway towards Tokyo, we drive through Shizuoka prefecture where the largest tea production area in Japan is. You can see some tea fields along the way. The poles standing in the field have fans on the top of them. They are to prevent from frost damage.




There is our favorite rest stop on the way. It is Fujikawa service area. The reason is Mt. Fuji. You can see Mt. Fuji from the rest stop. We could not see it on this trip because of the cloud, like the picture on the left. We took the picture on the right about two years ago on another tirp.

Gaiwan?? Tea cup with lid

Cups with lid are often used when you serve tea for guests in Japan. They are kind of formal. They have a lid not to get the tea cold easily.



A man who read my blog asked me what is the name for this type of cup. I’ve been calling this type of cup just a cup with lid. Many Japanese tableware shops also call them a cup with lid, which is futatsuki-yunomi or futatsuki-sencha in Japanese (futa=lid, tsuki=with, yunomi or sencha=a type of tea cup). It doesn’t seem there is a certain name for it.

To answer his question, I looked up the internet and my dictionary. The cups with lager lid than the cup body (like this picture) are sold at Japanese table ware shops, and called futatsuki-yunomi or futatsuki-sencha. On the other hand, the cups with smaller lid than the cup body are mostly sold at Chinese tea ware shops, and called gaiwan. Gaiwan is not only used as a cup but also as a teapot. We do use gaiwan for Japanese susuricha, but I could not find the word, gaiwan in my Japanese dictionary. So, gaiwan may not be proper Japanese, and seems Chinese name, used in Japanese as an imported word. Japanese tea culture and also kanji characters are originally from China. We have many similar aspects, so I have never gave a thought if it is Japanese or Chinese.
After all, I could not find the certain name for the tea cup with lid in Japanese. What I can say is that we, Japanese typically call it just a cup with lid, futatsuki-yunomi or futatsuki-sencha.

Pictures from the Hakone trip

Lalique Museum
It was surrounded by greenery. It was a nice place to visit. We didn’t have a time to stop by, but it had a nice restaurant.
Lalique Museum website >>> http://www.lalique-museum.com/eng/index.html








Owakudani
It is the volcanic landscape in Hakone created 400 thousand years ago.
Owakudani website >>> http://www.owakudani.com/modules/mw_top/index.php?ml_lang=en









Hakone Museum
It was a small museum. I was not interested in their exhibitions, but they had excellent gardens. The moss garden was beautiful. It had a sober allure. There was a café in the corner of the garden. We had matcha at the café while we enjoyed the beautiful view. I have rarely had good matcha out, but the matcha was nice there. Even though it was still little thin to me, the flavor was nice. I forgot to take a picture of the matcha with the garden. Sorry.
Hakone Museum website >>> http://www.moaart.or.jp/hakone/index.html

Tea at Senkyoro in Hakone

Hakone in Kanagawa prefecture is one of the most famous hot-spring resorts in Japan. We stayed at Senkyoro in Hakone. Their hot spring water was mucky white and had the smell of sulfur. It was my favorite type of water. Senkyoro and their outdoor bath were in woods. Having a soak in the soft sunlight filtering through foliage was so relaxing. This is the view from our room.



The welcome tea was served at Senkyoro. It was sencha with little sweet. Tea cup had a lid. It was a nice tea.



A tea set equipped in the room consisted with a teapot, cups, saucers, tea leaves, and electric kettle. There were two kinds of tea leaves, sencha and hojicha. I didn’t have either of them during our stay, but the sencha leaves looked good with its profound color.



Senkyoro webpage (Japanese) >>> http://www.senkyoro.co.jp/index.html

A retro glaze from Seto

My town, Seto has a long history of ceramics. There was a very popular glaze used in Seto in the beginning of Showa period (about 80 decades ago). It is an ash glaze, which has kannyu (cracking) on soft beige. It was popular for the versatile color for other colors of table wares. Many products were made with this type of glaze in Seto. The glaze gives a well-rounded ambience to products, and can be appreciated for tea wares.

Available for sale >>> http://www.everyonestea.com/product/120/

Hasedera temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture

Another stop in Kamakura was at Hasedera temple. It was not my favorite rustic type of temples, but s a very nice temple to visit. The garden was carefully maintained and beautiful. It was a little earlier for the season of Hydrangea, but I found many different plants, so the garden will be enjoyed throughout the year round, from season to season. The garden was not only the feature of Hasedera. It had some other things to see and enjoy. There were the huge statues of Kannon and Amida, a path in the trees you can stroll around, a nice looking café, and a cave with many Buddha statues. The admission was 300 yen.

From the left
1.Huge Amida statue　 2.The view from the path 　3.Cafe 　4.Garden

Hasedera webpage >>> http://www.hasedera.jp/

Pictures from the Kamakura trip

Sorry today’s post is not related to tea, just some pictures from the Kamakura trip.

There are shopping streets in the downtown. There were gift shops, cafés, restaurants and Japanese-style confection stores. It was interesting area to visit.



We visited Tsuruokahachimangu shrine. It is a popular place for tourists, but It was not so appealing to me.



We saw a couple having a Japanese Shinto-style wedding at Tsuruokahachimangu. They looked happy. My best wishes for their future happiness together!



We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Matsubara-an, which has been remade from an old folk house into a restaurant. So, it has a very traditional look. Our table was in a tatami room. We loved the house and dishes! I can recommend this restaurant to you.

Kisen-an in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture

We went to a trip to Kamakura and Hakone in Kanagawa prefecture. The first place we visited was Jomyoji temple (admission fee 100yen) in Kamakura. The reason that we visited Jomyoji was for Kisen-an, which is a traditional Japanese house with a nice garden. The house and garden are not big, but Kisen-an has unpretentious graciousness and peace. It is a kind of café, so you have to order tea to get in. Their menu is simple. They only have 500 yen or 800 yen matcha tea set. The either tea set comes with a bowl of matha and confectionery. We ordered 800 yen tea sets. We took off our shoes, and got in the tatami room. We sat and waited for the tea while viewing the garden. This is my favorite garden. I can say that Kisen-an is one of the top three my favorite temples or shrines that I have ever visited. I like very beautiful greens of the garden, and the small tree on the hill in the middle. I love the open-designed architecture toward the garden, which makes a unity with the nature.

Shortly, a lady brought our teas and sweets. The confectionery was so good. The sweetness and texture was very pleasant to the palate. It was one of the bests I have ever had. The matcha was quite thin to me. We enjoyed the peaceful tea time. After we had the tea, we stayed there while and admired the garden. There was a suikinkutsu in a corner of the garden.　Suikinkutsu is a device in gardens to enjoy reverberating sounds of water drops in a big jar installed under the ground. You could hear the periodic beautiful dripping sound from a bamboo pipe placed on the suikinkutsu. We were very much satisfied with the visit.

Nice pictures of Kisenan >>> http://r.tabelog.com/kanagawa/A1404/A140402/14001772/dtlrvwlst/5189/

A tip of controlling water temperature

I have been talking about contorting the water temperature on the past three posts. The points were...

For sencha
Boiled water > Teapot > Cups = 70-80degrees C (158-176F)

For gyokuro
Boiled water > Teapot > Cups > Water cooler = 50-60 degrees C (122-140F)
By taking more time at each step, you are able to even make around 40C (104F) water.

These are just rough guides. The result will differ by the room temperature, amount of water, or tea wares. So, here is a tip for controlling temperature. It is…

Telling the temperature by touching the vessel.


I use a thermometer almost every time when I prepare tea, and found out my own guide of the temperatures. Here is my sense of the temperatures when I hold a tea ware like the picture.

80 degrees C (176F): Very hot, so I cannot hold it, or could hold it only for a second.
70 degrees C (158F): Still hot, so I can hold it only for a couple second.
60 degrees C (140F): The heat gets milder, so I can hold it about 5 seconds.
50 degrees C (122F): Warm and comfortable, so I can hold it indefinitely.
40 degrees C (104F): Lukewarm, slightly warmer than human body.

You will be able to do it with a little practice. Until your hands learn the temperatures, use a thermometer when you preparer tea. Measure the water temperature with the thermometer, and let your hands remember the feeling of the temperature by holding the vessel. It’s not difficult, and you will be able to do it soon.

Once you can tell the temperature with you hands, you are one step closer to the Japanese tea master!!

*Be careful not to burn yourself with hot water or hot tea wares when you practice.