It’s the season for sakura-mochi!

Sakura means cherry blossom. Cherries will bloom in about a month in Japan (^-^) Now, it is the season for my favorite sweet, sakura-mochi! Some Japanese sweets have their season. My best sweet for spring is sakura-mochi and for fall is kurikinton (chestnuts confection). Sakura-moch is wrapped in salted cherry leaf. You can eat the leaf as well. Sakura-mochi has sweet bean paste inside of the rice dumpling. I love the rice part which is a little sweet. I could have a bucket of it ψ(｀∇´)ψ

Our master usually buys five pieces of confection for our lesson. We consume only three pieces in the lesson, which are for the master, my wife, Hiro and me. Usually two pieces remain. Our master is so generous that she gives us the remaining ones sometimes. This is what we had from this week’s tea lesson.　I had it with matcha yesterday’s tea time at home, and I was so happyヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノ Have a good weekend!

I practiced tsutsujawan

I loved how our master arranged the flower and hanging scroll last night, so I took a picture of them. I have mentioned about tsutsujawan, tall tea bowl on the past entry. I used it in the last night’s lesson. The tsutsujawan that we used has a small diameter. It was a little difficult to move the teawhisk in it. Due to that, I had to whisk in shorter and finer strokes. With that strokes that I did, the appearance of the foam got finer and nice (^-^)

When you pick up an ordinary tea bowl, you hold the bowl from the side. However, in the case of tsutsujawan you hold it from the top. This is the major difference on the manner of handling tsutsujawan. I’m so used to holding a bowl from the side. That is why my hand habitually goes to the side. So during the lesson, I commited some few mistakes on the holding of the tea bowl., ha ha ha… Some of you might wonder why Japanese are so keen at details. I think that’s Japanese sado, The Way of Tea.

Left: ordinary bowl, Right: tsutsujawan

Night with teas

How many types do you think there are in Japanese tea? Sencha, Gyokuro, matcha, hojicha… Actually there are thirteen major types of teas. Last night, I gathered all kinds of Japanese tea to take pictures of their leaves and brewed forms. I think I had too much tea last night (^^;

Can you tell what tea this is?



Yes this is genmaicha!


How about this? I’m so mean. This will be difficult for you to determine …



This is kabusecha, he he he..^^
It looks very similar to sencha and gyokuro. You might not be able to tell just by the appearance.

I often have sencha, kabusecha and gyokuro at home. I rarely have some of other types. I liked the kukicha (twig tea) I had last night. It originated from mixture of gyokuro and sencha. I can find gyokuro flavor in its taste but it is never heavy. That is, the tea has a clear taste. And also sweet aroma like gyokuro came through my nose. I realized how nice kukicha is.

Demono tea, one of categories of Japanese tea

Have you ever tried demono tea? Demono may not be a common name for tea category. I had not heard of the name before studying Japanese tea. How about kukicha (twig tea), mecha (bud tea) or konacha (flake tea)? Have you heard of them? Some of you guys may have tried them. Those teas are regarded as demono, which is by-product tea. When sencha, kabusecha or gyokuro is produced, some unnecessary parts are sifted out. The collection of those parts are the demono. For example the tea made by a collection of twigs is called kukicha. Generally demono teas are more reasonably priced than original tea. Price of demono depends on which tea it is originated. Kukicha from gyokuro is usually expensive than kukicha from sencha.

From left: kukicha (twig tea), mecha (bud tea) and konacha (flake tea)

When you feel like trying some different teas, why don’t you try demono. The tastes are quite different from original teas but at the same time you will also find some hints of original tea in their taste. Aren’t they interesting? If you want light and sweet tea try kukicha. If you prefer rich tea, try mecha or konacha. Konacha is the tea served at many sushi restaurants. Have fun!

Japanese tea goes with jazz

Do you know what sound you can hear in Japanese tea room? No music is played. Other than the sound of people talking, the calm room is occupied by sounds such as the high whistling pitch of boiling water from an iron kettle. And once in a while the sounds from tea scoop and tea whisk for preparing tea may fill the air. Sometimes you can also hear the sounds of nature, like the sound of rain or branches swaying from the breeze. Please try to imagine how peaceful it is.

I love the peaceful moment that I experience in the tea room. But we can also enjoy Japanese tea differently in today’s lifestyle. What if you play music while having Japanese tea? What music do you listen to on your tea time? Hip-hop? Classic? Rock? I definitely go with jazz. Japanese love imperfection in things and find beauty in them. That’s why I think the random note of jazz fits for Japanese-style. Take out your CDs or iPod, and enjoy music with Japanese tea. As you relish coffee and jazz in a fancy café, you will enjoy Japanese tea with jazz. You will notice jazz is not only for a cafe or bar. Music can create a totally different world of Japanese tea. Why don’t you try it after today’s dinner?

Green tea coke??

It’s the season for strawberry!! The other day, we joined a package tour to Shizuoka for strawberry picking. Shizuoka is the biggest tea producing prefecture in Japan, which is located next to ours.

I found an interesting bottle of beverage in some shops in Shizuoka. It costs 200yen which is a little expensive for a bottle of coke or tea. It is named as Shizuoka Cola.　　I believe that it’s a local drink. Green beverage is in a nostalgic-designed bottle. It has an image of Mt Fuji with tea fields on the top of the label. At the center part of it, it shows "茶 " which means tea. So, I wonder if this cola has green tea flavor.

I know there was green tea coke from coca-cola and have tried it. The taste was very much in coke and had only a little hint of green tea. (My past post: http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-tried-green-tea-coke.html) This Shizuoka cola has more grotesque color. I was very much curious about it but I was not in the mood to challenge the weird drink at that time. So I didn’t try it. I’m still interested in that mysterious drink. Will you tell me if you have tried?

Tsutsujawan, tall tea bowl

Our master showed us these bowls at the last night lesson. I hope you can see the difference that these bowls are a little taller than ordinary types. These tall tea bowls are called tsutsujawan used in a certain season. Do you know when they are used?

Tsutsujawan is used only during the winter. Maybe you are wondering why? Our master told us that the shape of bowl keeps the tea hot longer. I think it is the main reason for it. Tsutsu means tube in Japanese, tube tea bowl that is. It sounds strange right? So I consider calling it tall tea bowl. I hope it describes the item better. Now it’s already spring season on Japanese calendar so it is no longer applicable to use tsutujawan. Even it’s not in the winter now, my wife, Hiro, used tsutsujawan on the lesson just to practice how to use it.

Hero seemed to have the difficulty moving the *teawhisk in tsutsujawan. (*teawishk: a special utensil made of bamboo used for preparing matcha) The tustsujawan that Hiro used had the smaller diameter and taller rims, which are restricting its whisking latitude, I think. Using tsutsujawan needs time to be practiced before getting used of it. I will use it on the next lesson and see how it goes (^_－)－☆

Chinese and Japanese green tea

Do you know what distinguished Chinese and Japanese green tea? Have you tried both? Well, I have tried only one kind of Chinese green tea, but I definitely found differences between the Chinese and Japanese tea.

Left:Japanese, Right:Chinese

The needle-shaped Japanese tea, sencha has dark green hue. It looks tightly curled and its texture is somewhat glossy. Despite the Chinese green tea I tried in the workshop, it was flatter with a subtly-textured surface and the color is brighter. My impression of Chinese green tea was clearer and has milder bitterness than sencha. The Japanese sencha has more umami. The Chinese one had greener aroma, but still the green tea and its bitterness tastes most similar to Japanese tea which out of the six types of Chinese teas I tried.

The major difference of Chinese and Japanese green tea is of its heating process when they are produced. Green tea is heated right after harvested. The leaves are usually roasted on Chinese style and steamed in Japanese, which create slightly different character green teas. So, which do you prefer?

Chinese tea workshop 2

The six teas I have tried at the Chinese tea workshop were …

White tea: 白毫銀針


Yellow tea: 霍山黄芽


Green tea: 得雨活茶


Ooolong tea: I forgot its name as well as taking a picture of its brewed form (^^;;.


Black tea: I also forgot the name of the tea (^^;;


Post-fermented tea: 普洱茶


I refer to Wikipedia for the tea names in English. I hope they are correct. The names are a little different and confusing between Western and Asian. In Asia, Oolong is categorized as blue tea, Black tea (in English) is Red and post-fermented tea is called black tea. Aren’t they confusing, they are?

There were very expensive teas included in the teas I have tried. It was interesting to experience tasting a variety of teas at the same. It has help me to understand the differences among those teas. My overall impression is that Chinese tea has less bitterness and it has a clearer taste than Japanese tea. It's striking that each tea has a distinctive aroma.

What I was most fascinated with was the aroma of oolong tea ☆*:.。. o(≧▽≦)o .。.:*☆ The aroma in the tea pitcher茶海 was fabulous. It was elegant like perfume and soothing like flower aroma. When I drank it, the aroma gently went through my nose and filled my senses. I love it so much.
 

Chinese tea workshop

I studied a little about Chinese tea when I took Japanese Tea Adviser certification. Aside from oolong and jasmine, I haven’t tried any other chinese teas. Maybe you know a lot about Chinese tea more than I do. Yesterday I joined a Chinese tea workshop. I was so excited about itψ(｀∇´)ψ I saw a chagai demonstration and also tried 6 different Chinese teas.

The movement of chagai (or should I say the Chinese Way of Tea) is more elegant than Japanese. The Chinese movements have more curves like dancing. It’s really beautiful. I think Japanese movements are rectilinear, simple and natural. It reminds me the difference between Chinese kung-fu and Japanese karate.

Green tea for metabolic syndrome?

According to the TV show I mentioned yesterday, the mortalities at Kakekawa-shi is 15% lower on cerebrovascular disease and 30% lower on cardiac disease from the Shizuoka prefecture average.

There was a big research in Kakekawa to prove a causal relationship between green tea and health benefit. They checked the effects by giving examinees pills for three months. The pill used on the research contained the condensed green-tea essence of about 600ml (21oz) of brewed tea. One group was taking the green-tea pill and the other group was taking the fake pill. The people who took the green-tea pill got 9.02 points lower on bad cholesterol and 1.86cm (0.73in) smaller on their waist size in the average. The group of the fake-pill did not get much impact. It is amazing to get the result without any special exercise or diet restriction. The effect of green-tea pill is as good as taking medicines from doctors. So, they concluded that green tea has huge effect on improving and preventing arteriosclerosis and metabolic syndrome.

Most Kakekawa green-tea lovers prefer to have a deep-steamed type. Deap-steamed sencha looks dark and has fine floating pieces in the brewed tea. The floating pieces contain beta-carotene, vitamin-E and chlorophyll which you don’t find much in regular sencha. So, drinking deep-steamed sencha daily is good for health benefits.

When you drink deep-steamed sencha, the fine pieces remain on the bottom of cup. I am not so comfortable with the muddy part of tea. But according to the TV program, it is best for your health. On the show, Kakekawa people were moving their cup in circular motion to agitate it as they drink the tea. So you can drink whole essence of green tea. Maybe I should try it ヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノ

I drink about 600ml (21oz) of green tea almost daily. I hope I’ll have the health benefit as Kakekawa people have. It seems that consuming the tea leave itself has the benefit. Then I wonder if drinking matcha is more effective.

Does green tea prevent cancer?

I don’t really want to talk about health benefits of green tea on my blog. But I saw an interesting TV program and I could not ignore it.

Kakekawa-shi in Sizuoka prefecture has the lowest death rate from cancer in Japan. Also their healthcare costs of elderly citizens are 20% lower than the national average. It is an amazing figure. There is something in common between the 7 cities nominated in the top 15 on the ranking for the low cancer-death-rate. They are production regions of green tea! But Kyoto and Yame which are regions for high-quality tea are not included. The nominated cities produce regular quality tea which is consumed daily. The daily tea has a lot of catechin, which might have something to do with the health benefits.

The effect for cancer prevention of green tea is not sure yet. There are studies that show effective results but there are also some that say it's non-effective. Anyhow, it is a fact that Kakekawa-shi, where a lot of green tea is drank has the lowest cancer death rate in Japan.