Treating chasen

I’m sure that people reading this blog know what this item is for.  Yes, it’s a chasen, tea whisk.  It is use to mix matcha powder and hot water in a tea bowl.  But, do you know of any correct way of treating this utensil?  Which do you think is the right way of positioning the tea whisk among the three pictures above?

The tines are fragile.  Careless treating may shorten its lifespan.  If you think from the aspect of safekeeping tines, you will naturally see the answer.  Yes, the answer is “C”.  Tea whisk is usually kept standing upright, in a tea ceremony as well.  Resting it on tines may damage them.

Another tip is leaving the tea whisk in water for about 30 min before each use, if possible.  Soaking will make it more elastic, less likely to break, and of course just last longer.

After use, wash it with water and air dry well to prevent molding.  Keep it standing or hanging even in storing.  Take a look at a picture below.  What can you observe about the tea whisks?  It may not seem to be apparent on the picture, but in the tea preparation room, there is actually a straight-shaped hook where you can insert the tea whisk for storage.

Tea bowl exhibition in the museum

Is “change” good?  I had this question after I went to a tea bowl exhibition at Matsuzakaya Museum (http://www.matsuzakaya.co.jp/nagoya/museum/2011tyawan/index3.html).  The exhibition was about the Japanese domestic products from origin to contemporary pieces.   You can see the history of raku and Mino wares.

Most impressive piece for me was the raku tea bowl named “Kamuro” made by Chojiro.  It was very simple and rustic without any decorations.  The texture was earthy and size is smaller than I thought.  I could not imagine how perfectly this bowl fits in the Rikyu’s tea room, Taian.

In the end of the exhibition, there was a panel with a comment from Raku Kichizaemon XV.  I don’t remember the exact phrase, but he was saying something like “Tea is enjoyed more casually and freely nowadays and will be that way in the future. But, there won’t be the spirit of *Rikyu or **Wabi-Sabi there.”   I was shocked with his warning.  I’ve been thinking that enjoying tea casually is good thing, but it might not be totally correct.  I find his products very distinctive, and I thought he is a kind of person who is trying to create something new or something different.  But, he is actually worried about our tea culture.   I may need to learn from the past and create new for the future.

*Rikyu: the most significant tea master in the history who has perfected The Way of Tea

**wabi-sabi:  Japanese beauty found in simplicity and rusticity.

Efficiency of partial storing in the freezer

This is a test for the efficiency of partial storing in the freezer.  Imagine storing your tea in freezer.  I suppose you take out the tea from the freezer once a week to transfer some into your daily tea caddy.  In this case, your tea is repeatedly thawed and frozen, and more over, it is exposed to the fresh air which may encourage more oxidation.  So, my assumption is that partial storing can reduce those risks and I wanted to know if it is worth the effort.

Condition

Term: 28days

Sample:  Sencha and matcha

Container:  Triple packing (small plastic pouch, tin tea caddy, plastic bag with zipper)

Sample H: Opened once a week  (Once a week, it is taken out from the freezer and opened for a few minutes and returned into the freezer.  Every time before opening, it is left in room temperature for one hour to avoid gathering frost and moisture)

Sample J: Not opened,  (Kept in the freezer for 28 days and not opened)

According to my theory, J will be in better condition than H after one month.

H: Opened once a week

J: Not opened

Sencha

Matcha

Result

Well, I could not find any significant differences between the two samples.  For sencha, Sample J was slightly better than H and I could not distinguish which is better for matcha.  There is a certain effect from the partial storing, but the impact is very limited for a span of one month.  I would like to conclude that in this test partial storing in the freezer is not so worth it for my casual tea considering to the effort.  (If you want severe storing for your expensive teas, this might work.)

Jake-gai tea

Have you ever bought a CD or record because of the attractive jacket even if you don’t know the artist or its contents?  This action is called jake-gai in Japanese slang.  It is a diminutive form of Jacket-gai (gai means buy in Japanese).   Nowadays, people can listen to samples and buy music online.  So, Jake-gai may be an obsolete phrase.

However, I have a tea that I bought in jake-gai this year.   In June, I went to Shizuoka prefecture, the biggest tea-producing region in Japan.  At a tea store, they have a large selection of Shiuoka teas and I found one which is nicely displayed.  I instantly fell in love with its cool package.  It was kabusecha and a 60g pack costs 1,575yen which is more expensive than my budget.  But, I decided to buy it because of the cover.  It’s a typical example of jake-gai. Ha,ha,ha^^

When I opened the package at home, a nice sweet aroma of kabusecha pleased my senses.  The leaves are very fine so I think they are deep-steamed.  The brewed tea was beautiful greenish-yellow.  It has refined sweetness and umami.  One thing that I wasn’t expecting though was the bold bitterness, which was different from what I wanted.  It is one of the fun parts of jake-gai.  Sometimes, your expectation leads to disappointment and sometimes you find a great piece!

Green Espresso

Can you guess what Green Espresso is?  Recently, there is a TV commercial that catches my attention.  It shows one samurai and ink paintings.  I like the commercial because it’s very artistic visually.  It says Green Espresso but doesn’t explain much why.  I got so curious about what it is.

Ordinary bottled tea comes in a plastic bottle, but I can tell the Green Espresso is caned.  So, I guess it’s a little different from ordinary bottled tea.  Maybe, it is sweated green tea late?  I was so excited to try it.  

I went to a convenience store and got one.  It says “shake before opening” on the cap.  So, I did.  I opened the bottle and smelled it.  It smelled normal.  Then, I had a sip.  Wow, it is not a green tea late.  It’s not sweetened either.  It is more like an ordinary tea but has more flavors.  I looked at the description on the bottle.  It says Kabusecha and Matcha.  Humm, it makes sense.  If you mix brewed kabusecha and matcha it would taste like this.  It sure has the sweetness of tea and it’s kind of new type of bottled tea, but I personally didn’t like it so much.  I appreciate the good TV commercial and the effort to come up to a new product.

Feature design with my persistence

I’ve just got the samples of my originally designed tea cup.  It took a long time before they got here, after a lot of revisions in the drawings and remaking of the plaster samples.  The biggest challenge was the cost, because everything that I want to do has an additional charge.  I didn’t just want to make reasonable and ordinary tea cups.  I wanted to make them simple but have well-thought and elaborate details.  They may not be inexpensive, but I wanted to make them affordable.  Let me introduce a few details of my persistence.

The most favorite of my work is the texture. I wanted to make stylish white tea cups, but I think that white porcelain cups are sometimes too shiny to accompany a pottery teapot.  So, I got the outside of the cup bisque-finished and sanded.  (FYI: Bisque-finish refers to a non-glazed finish)  The texture is matte but smooth.  The contrast to the shiny glazed inside is beautiful.  It can go very well with pottery teapot by reason of the matte outside.  This procedure costs a lot and which is one of the reasons why pricing higher.  But I think it is worth it.

Another work that I adhered was the logo mark at the bottom.  I actually wanted to print the logo but printing is expensive.  So, I decided to have it engraved, which is more reasonable than printing.  Nonetheless, the engraved mark turned out pretty great.  It is way nicer than I expected.

Overall, I was very much satisfied with the samples especially with the details.  I will probably be able to manage the affordable pricing.  I may need a few months before releasing the products.  I can’t wait!  ^^

Tea production regions far from Fukushima

Tea that contains more than 500bq/kg radioactive substances is restricted for distribution in Japan. So, tea sold on the market is basically safe.  However, as I introduced on the previous post, there were two special cases of defects on the inspection in June.  

Some of you might want to know tea producing regions far from Fukushima.  Listed prefectures are top ten producing regions (except Shizuoka) and I have not heard about any contaminated tea from the areas.

2. Kagoshima (Ei, Chiran, Makurazaki, Ariake)

3. Mie (Ise, Mizusawa, Suzuka, Kameyama, Iga)

4. Miyazaki (Miyakonojo)

5. Kyoto (Uji, Ayabe, Ryotan, Wazuka)

6. Nara (Yamato, Tukigase, Yamazoe)

7. Saga (Ureshino, Karatsu)

8. Kumamoto (Yabe, Izumi, Sagara, Kahoku)

9. Aichi (Nishio, Toyota, Shinsiro)

10. Nagasaki (Ureshino, Sonogi, Sechibaru, Goto)

Information on the Great East Japan Earthquake at Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (English) go to >>> http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/topics/2011eq/index.html

My past entries about the radiation and tea

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/05/is-tea-from-japan-safe.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/05/restriction-of-tea-leaves.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/06/do-you-know-of-aracha.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/06/controversy-over-radioactive-test-on.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/06/controversy-over-radioactive-test-on_08.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/10/tea-and-radiation-in-japan.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/10/tea-and-radiation-in-japan-2.html

Chakabuki, tea tasting competition

How confident are you with your sense of taste?  Can you tell different teas by blind tasting?  I attended a chakabuki event this weekend.  Chakabuki is a competition or game of blind tea tasting.  The game originated in China.  It got popular in Japan about 700 years ago.

You blind-taste 5 different kinds of tea and tell what they are.  You repeat it 5 times.  We tally the points and whoever got the most correct answers after 5 rounds wins.  (We actually did 4 rounds only, instead of 5.)  In this game, we had sencha, deep-steamed sencha, gyokuro, kabusecha and roasted tamaryokucha.

One of the most difficult parts is that you don’t taste and compare all five at once before answering.  You've got to give the answer one at each tea.  For example, you have to answer right after you taste the first tea even if you haven’t tasted the other four yet.   

Another is the tea preparing method.  In this game, all tea was brewed with boiling water for one minute, which is not ordinary way of preparing.  The tastes differ from what you usually have at home.  Have you ever tasted gyokuro brewed with boiling water? 

At the end of the contest, the result was announced.  You know what?  I got the best score among all 12 contestants and won the first prize!  Yes!!  Is it because of my talent or was I just lucky?  I hope I did not spend all the luck for my whole life, hahaha.

Small cups are used

You can take a memo and check how you did on each round.

Before the game starts, you have a quick chance to observe dry leaves.  Each tea is passed around on a tray one by one, and you don’t see the 5 at one time.

In the game, tea is served in random orders and you smell and taste it.

You have five chips with symbols, which represent each tea.

You drop one of the chips for your answer into the ballot box.  After answering, the next tea is served.

Tea and radiation in Japan 2

The other day I learned two cases about radiation-contained tea found at France and Tokyo.  Both cases happened in Jun 2011.  I’m sorry that I did not know about them when I wrote the previous entry about “Tea and radiation in Japan”.

Case in France

The tea was found in an inspection at Charles de Gaulle Airport in France.  The tea was imported from Shizuoka Japan and it contained 1038bq of radiation.  They were discarded.

Source: J-cast News (Japanese) http://www.j-cast.com/2011/06/19098848.html

Case in Tokyo

A mail order company, Radish-boya in Tokyo found the tea with radiation on their self-imposed test.  The tea was from Sizuoka and 521-569bq radioactive cesium.  Shizuoka prefecture has requested the manufacturer to recall it and stop further distribution.

Source: J-cast News (Japanese) http://www.j-cast.com/2011/06/10098144.html?p=all

The Japanese safety limit for tea is 500bq/kg of radiation.  The tea on both cases was over the limit and they were both from Shizuoka prefecture.  I looked for the cause and measures in response to these incidences, but I could not find any additional information about them.   I also searched on the internet if there are any other cases, but I could not find any.  So, I believe these are not frequently happening cases but I thought that you should know that there were defects on the inspection.  If I find more information about the radiation on tea, I’ll introduce them on my blog.

My past entries about the radiation and tea

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/05/is-tea-from-japan-safe.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/05/restriction-of-tea-leaves.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/06/do-you-know-of-aracha.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/06/controversy-over-radioactive-test-on.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/06/controversy-over-radioactive-test-on_08.html

http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/10/tea-and-radiation-in-japan.html

Edited on Nov 4

New entry about tea and radiation
http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2011/11/tea-production-regions-far-from.html

Tea for meal

After we did all through the tasting for sencha with variety of food, we wanted to explore a little more.  We prepared hojicha and tried it with some leftover foods.  What was interesting about was that we got pretty different result from sencha’s. 

Konnichiwa, it’s Koheiヽ(^。^)ノ  I didn’t like dried raisins and peanuts for sencha.  The raisins created a yucky bitter flavor with sencha.   The flavors of peanuts and sencha existed separately in my mouth and didn’t match well.  But, I didn’t find those negative tastes with hojicha at all.  Hojicha was not bad with fat containing food either.  I could not find a perfect mariage for hojicha this time, but it seems that hojicha is very versatile for many kinds of food.    I surely understood why hojicha is popular for meals.   I can recommend it.  Jah!

Green tea for aperitif

Have you yet tried sencha with anchovy paste?   We have discovered that sencha goes well with salty and umami-rich foods.  Our hypothesis is that umami from green tea and umami from food enhance each other and make a great combo.  Then, how about gyokuro?  Gyokuro has much more umami than sencha.  It must be good also. 

Konnichiwa, it’s Koheiヽ(^。^)ノ  So, we tried Gyokuro with anchovy paste.  Uh-huh… we were right!  Gyokuro made an excellent harmony with anchovy.  You can enjoy them at your tea time, but more innovatively, how about serving a shot of gyokuro with anchovy before gourmet cuisine?   Don’t you think it is fancy serving premium green tea like an aperitif?  I’m sure that the umami will stimulate your appetite and it will be a very memorable dinner.  Jah!

Mariage for green tea

After a couple hour tasting, we were tired and getting relaxed.  We talked more about what theory we can find from this test. 

Surprisingly, Gouda cheese went well with sencha.  The flavors from both tea and cheese made a great harmony and filled my mouth.  Other cheeses were not excellent but still good with sencha.  We wondered why, even if cheese contains fat.  Another surprise was that dried tomato went also well.  Of course, dried seaweed was good as well …  Can you think of any clue?

Well, we made a hypothesis that umami and salty flavors are something in common among those foods and go with green tea.  We named some other foods that have umami and salty taste.  What we had there was dried laver seaweed and anchovy paste.  We tried them.  The laver was not excellent; it may need more salty flavor, but we were all delighted by the anchovy paste!  Can you believe that anchovy goes well with green tea?  Umami from tea and anchovy enhanced each other.  They generate a synergistic effect and create a perfect mariage.

You don’t have to eat a lot of anchovy.  Take a very little bite as seasoning and have a sip of tea.  The umami will multiply on your tongue.   If you don’t like umami flavor, don’t try it.  It’s going to kill you.  But if you love umami, you have to try it!  I’m sure you can’t help smiling.

To conclude this test, for sencha, I find that …

Good:  Sweet, salty, and umami

Not good:  Sour or fatty

In addition, I liked sweet for bitter tea and umami for mellow tea.  But again, the foods for tea depend on your personal taste.  So, please enjoy finding your perfect mariage!  Jah!