Perfect place for casual matcha

Do you have any idea where you can have matcha casually in Japan, besides at home? 

What I can think of are some Japanese cafés and temples.  They usually serve matcha with a confectionary at around 500-900yen.   I like enjoying matcha while taking a look at the beautiful surroundings of the temples in Kyoto.  Finding those places are a little difficult than finding a coffee shop.  (It might not be true in Kyoto, though.)

This might sound like a much rarer occasion, but there is actually another place where I enjoy casual matcha. 

It’s a ceramic festival in my town!  Last weekend, I went to the festival, and found two booths that served matcha.  Of course, I tried both … as expected of me (^0^)  

What I enjoyed most were the tea wares.  They served tea with various ceramics made by the different artists of this area.

Tea bowls by up-and-coming potters used at the first place we stopped by

This place was operated by high school students.

Sweets were from my faovrite shop, Azumaken^^

This is the second place.

And the sweets

The tea bowl was superb. 

Moreover, they were reasonable.  They cost 400yen for the first place and 300yen for the second place.  

99 years old and tea

I took my 99 year-old grandpa to cherry blossom viewing this weekend.  We parked our car by the trees.  We opened all the windows and viewed them from the car.  I prepared matcha at the little space between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.

As my grandpa drank the tea, some petals came in from the window onto his shoulder and lap.  How peaceful!

  

He was so happy with the blossoms and tea, and thanked me many times.  He sometimes doesn’t remember things, even my name.  However, he talks about the tea that I served at the past blossom viewings.  I think he enjoys the tea so much and it has a huge impact that it remains in his memories.   I hope the memory of this picnic will be with him as well.

Tea is not enjoyed only for time together

There indeed exist a tea enjoyed in one’s private time.  When do you have tea on your own? 

I have it when I read books, and also at work.   I often bring a small teapot and a cup to my desk.  Once in a while, I fill the pot with hot water. 

What type of tea do you often have in such occasion?

In my case, it depends on the season and my mood.  I enjoy different tea at my private time, but I especially like sencha or gyokuro.  Most of those cases, I don’t have sweets, and just enjoy the rich flavor of the concoction, which is good enough to satisfy me.

I uploaded a new article “Casual fine tea without a teapot” on our Facebook, Japanese Tea 101.  I introduce an easy method that I sometimes enjoy.  I think this is perfect for your private time.  Please check it out and try!   

I hesitate to ask it.

For a change, I now have photos from my tea lesson.  I wanted to show you an item that I used this week.  Can you guess what it is in this picture?

It’s tsurigama, a hanging kettle! 

We use the sunken heath for winter (Nov. – Apr.) and the brazier for summer (May – Oct.).  At the end of the winter season, a hanging kettle is often used.  Instead of placing the kettle on a trivet, we hang it from the ceiling.  I don’t know the reason why we use the hanging one, or why it’s used for this season.  But, I like it anyway.  It becomes a nice accent of the room and creates a more attractive atmosphere.

There is a hook on the ceiling.

During the ceremony, you usually rest the ladle onto the kettle.  There is no problem with ordinary kettles, but it’s not the case with the hanging kettles.  Because, they swing!  

This is the resting position of the ladle.

(This is not with a hanging kettle, but it’s basically the same)

In my turn, I tried to place the ladle onto the kettle quietly.  But still, it moved a little and kept rocking slowly.  My master held the handle of the kettle to stop moving.  There are a few chances to place the ladle in a ceremony.  Every time I placed the ladle, my master would hold the kettle.  Did I do it so badly?   I would have wanted to practice placing the ladle gently by myself, but if she holds it …    Anyways, I think that it is out of her kindness to ensure safety and convenience.  So, I hesitated to ask her not to, hahaha (^^;;  Maybe next time♪

Book: THE SPIRIT OF TEA

At our city library, among a lot of Japanese books at the shelves for The Way of Tea, I found a book written in English.   It is entitled “THE SPIRIT OF TEA” by Sen Soshitu XV, who was the Urasenke grand master.

You can’t learn about the preparation of tea or how to conduct a tea ceremony from this book.  But, the great importance of this book is that you will be able to understand what we enjoy in The Way of Tea.  This book talks about the SPIRIT with a great quality of photos.  I realized that there is no other culture in the world which you talks about the SPRIT of beverage drinking this much.

In my tea lesson, I always practice the ceremony only by role playing in a tea room, and I don’t study these spiritual theories in a class room.  This book has some answers for the wonders I had on things in the tea ceremony.    It also taught me things that I have never realized. 

But, in some other parts, the ideas are abstract and difficult.  For example, description of wabi is pretty different from the other books I read.   That makes it more difficult for me to understand what wabi is.  I believe that the descriptions will differ depending on one’s point of view even if we are looking at the same thing.

In this book, Soshitu mentioned:

“The way of tea, chado, must be acquired by means of the movements of your own body and through one’s own experiences.  It cannot be learned by observing and listening to others thus by imitating them. There is no other method than this in pursuing chado.”

I think you also have to find out and understand these spiritual aspects all throughout your experience.  However, this book tells me about some of them, and helps me understand these essences a little faster than discovering them by myself.  This is one of the books that I want to re-read sometimes as I carry on The Way of Tea.   I’ll recommend this book for those who want to know more about Japanese way of tea.

Japanese Amazon >>>

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language/product/4473019071/ref=dp_change_lang?ie=UTF8&language=en_JP

Look for your own tea ware

In tea history, there are some tea bowls made for other purposes originally, but some tea lovers used them for tea.  I as a tea enthusiast sometimes try to experiment using some table wares for tea.

The other day, a unique figure spoon rest caught my interest.   It is a small plate and has a dimple on its rim that looks like a spout.  I tried using it as a small personal teapot for gyokuro.  I know it doesn’t have a lid and the figure isn’t anything like an ordinary teapot.  But, I thought it is big enough for a single serving of gyokuro. 

I placed 4g of leaves, and poured a little amount of lukewarm water.

And waited for 2 min.

I poured tea into a small cup

The tea is a very small amount.

It had a rich flavor and I was very satisfied with it.  

I didn’t have any problem on the first serving, but on the second brewing I had some drips from the spout when I poured tea in to the cup.  I guess it only works if you use small amount of liquid.  I am disappointed that this spoon rest is not perfect as a tea ware.  But, this kind of experiments is fun!  Do you have any table wares that you are using as a tea wear?

Which tea has the longest history, sencha, gyokuro or matcha?

Do you know since when we have been drinking tea in Japan? 

I have attended a lecture for Japanese tea history.  I learned that some classic beliefs don’t have corroborative evidences, and some of them may not be true.  This lecture taught the history by introducing historical sources of the time.  It was pretty interesting and I learned the modern understanding of the history.

The oldest historical paper about tea is Nihonkoki.  In the document, it is said “Eichu served tea to the Emperor” (815A.D.).  You cannot tell exactly what kind of tea it was, but it was decocted tea.  So, you can say that the history of our tea started about 1200 years ago, at least.   

Then, what do you think of the question in the title of this entry?  When the teas that we enjoy nowadays: sencha, gyokuro or matcha were born?  (If you are not familiar with these teas, look at the note at the bottom of this entry)  Which has the longest history?   Tea cultures were originally introduced from China at times, and they were uniquely developed in Japan.  We created sencha, gyokuro and matcha here.

The answer is : (From the oldest)

Matcha - around the 16^th century

Sencha - around the 18^th century

Gyokuro – around the early 19^th century

Matcha is the oldest, and surprisingly gyokuro is yougest in the tea history. 

We had powdered tea that is prepared by mixing hot water since 12^th century, but its tea plants were grew only under the sun.  I guess the people were drinking much bitterer tea than now (^^;;  The matcha with covering cultivation like nowadays were started around the 16^th.  At the beginning, the covering cultivation was not for improving the taste, it is originally to prevent frost damage.

The tea has been improved in the long history.  You can say that canned and bottled teas are inventions of our contemporary time.  I’m looking forward to new tea!

Note

	Description	Form	Preparation
Sencha	Most common green tea	Needle shaped leaf	Brewing in a teapot
Gyokuro	Premium green tea
Matcha	Powdered green tea	Milled powder	Mixing with hot water

Cheerful drink

Can you guess what the liquid inside the glass is?  Today, I’m not writing about tea.  

It is sake!  Japanese rice wine, which I had at a restaurant.  A waitress brought an empty glass to my table and poured sake into it from a big bottle in front of me.  As you might have noticed, there is a square wooden cup underneath.  She filled the glass up, but didn’t stop pouring immediately.   Some sake overflowed into the wooden cup.  What is this all about, and how do you drink it? 

You sometimes see this way of serving at some restaurants and bars in Japan.  Filling the glass to the top rim can be considered as generosity of bars.  The overflowed sake in the square is bonus.  This is not a formal way of serving sake, but I love this playful service.  When I see the glass in wooden cup, I always look at the manner of pouring with a greedy eye for how much bonus I can get, hehe (^^;; 

Since this way of serving is not decorous, there doesn’t seem to be a proper way for drinking it.  Some people drink it separately from the wooden cup and the glass.  Others take some sips from the glass to make a room first, and then transfer the bonus back to the glass.   Anyway, it is a cheerful moment at a Japanese bar.  I enjoyed it with good sashimi (sliced raw fish) and sushi.  This is sea urchin sushi (^0^)/

Kaga-bocha

When I opened the package of Kaga-bocha (roasted twig tea), bright roasted aroma amused my sense.  It is never like a burnt odor, and it is pleasant and brilliant like Chinese tea.  The appearance is also bright.  The hue is beige, which is more whitish than dark brown from the common hojicha (roasted tea) sold in my area.

 

I have prepared the tea by following the instruction on the package. 

Tea: 3g

Boiling water: 130ml (4.6oz)

Brewing time: 20sec

 

The brewed tea has a clear golden color.  And its aroma got more profound than the leaves.  The flavor is creamy and sweet.  It also has a slight distinctive flavor behind which I don’t find in common hojicha.  I can’t tell what the flavor is, but I assume it is a greenish flavor like sencha.  Anyway, every time I sip, the air that rises to my nose brings a rich aroma.  The refined flavor smoothly glides on my tongue to the back by leaving a mild long trace.

I pretty much like this tea.  I think that I want to enjoy this tea with a nice cuisine.  It must be great! 

Stick tea for the Emperor

I got Kaga-bocha, as a present.  Kaga is an area in Kanagawa prefecture; while Bocha literally means stick tea.  It is actually a kind of hojicha (roasted green tea) made of twig tea. 

I found an interesting episode about the origin of their tea on a note which came along with the package.  Let me introduce some abstracts from it.

Maruhachi is the tea producer

Spelling differences: Bocha = Boucha,  Hojicha = Houjicha

*** Abstract ***

Boucha is a specialty of Kaga, Kanazawa.  In Kanazawa, tea is synonymous with Houjicha, especially Boucha most of the time.  It is drunk commonly everywhere: at home, work and gatherings.  (snip) 

There used to be a clear-cut understanding in the tea industry in Kanagawa including Maruhachi that Matcha and Gyokuro (refined green tea) are the best Japanese tea and Boucha is the tea for the common people since it doesn’t require high quality materials for production.  However, “the quest for delicious Boucha” started when Boucha was offered to the Emperor Showa, who only drunk Houjicha.  When the Emperor visited Kanazawa in 1983, he requested the best Houjicha and his hotel contacted us for help.  The request made us wonder what the best Boucha should be like.  It might sound somewhat out of date, but this was the start of our quest for a gentle and well-developed flavored Boucha.

******

 

It also says that they have visited fields around the country to pursue research on better “tea stem field” with producers.  They are actually growing stems not tea leaves.  They also think that technique of roasting is craftsmanship.  Everything from temperature, humidity and tea stems’ condition affects the taste.  It is all up to the professional’s skill to make full use of high-tech machines.  They want to care about the taste.

From this note, I learned that the manufactures want to make a delicious tea out of casual tea, and they have made a lot of effort for producing it.  This note made me want to try this tea even more.  I’ll write about it on the next entry.

Maruhachi Tea Webpage (Japanese)  >>> http://www.kagaboucha.co.jp/

Sweets for early spring

We have a funny custom on White day (Mar. 13) in Japan.  On Valentine’s Day, ladies declare their love through giving chocolates.  There is also giri-choco, obligation chocolate for friends or co-workers.  White day is the day that men give women presents in return.  I believe these customs started from commercial promotions of chocolate and sweet makers. 

Cookies or chocolates are often given on White day, but I didn’t want to flow the scheme, haha (^^;;   So today, I went to a Japanese confectionery shop.  Traditional sweets could also be good for this, I guess.  In the showcase, lovely confections are displayed.  In this season, the colors used on them seem brighter than winter’s.  I picked a few items with pastel color for the present. 

I bought another one for myself.   It is dark colored one with a hidden beauty.  You will soon notice that there are white sprinkles and a small flower on the top.  They represent frost and plum bloom of this season.  But, take a close look.  It has an indistinct pattern under brown jelly.  I love the demure design.  I don’t know what this design means, buy it might be trying to express the upcoming bright spring, I think.

Once you put a piece into your mouth, roast sweetness reminiscent of caramel occupies your sense.  Two different texture, chunky jelly and soft paste amuse you.   The sweetness goes away momentary and only its scent remains, which pleases your nose.

It’s cold and I found needle ice this morning.  But, the weather is fair and I feel that it’s going to be a fine day.  Now, mild breeze are blowing.  The name of this confection is Kochi東風, literally East wind.  It means the breeze from east in the early spring.  This is a perfect confectionery for today.  This sweet seems to bring a real spring with Kochi ^^  

What happens if you change the water temperature while brewing?

There are some different ways of preparing gyokuro.  One of the unusual ways is that you put tea leaves into a teapot with hot water.  Later, you can then add lukewarm water, and then wait a little more while.  In this case, you lower the temperature during the brewing.  I wonder how it is different from ordinary even-temperature brewing.  And I also wonder what happens if it is brewed in the opposite way, while adding hot water later in the lukewarm brewing.  What do you think?

I don’t have gyokuro at the moment, so I tried three different brewings with kabusecha in the following condition: 

A, Even temperature (ordinary brewing)

60ml 70C (2.1oz 158F) for 1min

B, Hot ⇒ lukewarm

30ml 90C (1oz 194F) for 30sec, then add 30ml 50C (1oz 122F) and wait 30 seconds more

C, Lukewarm ⇒ hot

30ml 50C (1oz 122F) for 30sec, then add 30ml 90C (1oz 194F) and wait 30 seconds more

I used 3g of leaves in either condition.

These are the teas brewed in the different conditions.  “A” is relatively clearer than the other two.  I think this is because “B” and “C” are agitated by adding water in the middle of brewing.

I didn’t find significant difference among the three, but there are certain differences.

A, Mild

B, Bold and profound

C, Clear but densed

The result is pretty much the same as you can see in their appearance.  When I did a similar test in the past, I liked “A” the best.  But this time, I find “A” as too light and watery.  I like “C” most in this test, and I tasted a well-balanced flavor right after I sipped.  The flavor is never ambiguous and you know exactly what you are tasting.  It beautifully faded out in the end by keeping the elegance.   I think adding hot water sharpened the flavor. 

Now, I have more choices for brewing.  I might sometimes use method “C” as my secret tip.