Exclusive tea ceremony

Miwa (alias), one of our classmates from tea school held a private tea ceremony at her place.  Four guests; our master, another classmate, my wife and I were invited.  Big open tea ceremonies are not bad, but I realized that this kind of exclusive ceremony is more enjoyable.  

I found great hospitalities at Miwa’s ceremony, not only on her performance of the day, but also on the preparation.  Miwa thought about the menu of cuisine for weeks, and prepped it from the day before.  She cleaned her house and garden.  She picked fresh flowers from the field in her neighborhood in the morning.  Those unspoken efforts delight the guests.  The same kind of preparations is needed even for open ceremonies, but I was touched when I think of what she has done not for anybody but for us. 

Moreover, I was surprised to find out that she made the confectionary by herself!  I wonder how long it took her to prepare all these things.  The sweets were beautiful and looked like a seasonal flower, hydrangea placed on an actual leaf.

Miwa used a teabowl and tea container which she got from our master previously.  I think this was one of her consideration selecting guest’s related items.  It stimulated us to talk about the utensils and flowers. 

I feel that at the big open tea gathering, I focus on the ceremony itself.  I mean that I tend to care about manners and how the ceremony proceeds.  On the other hand in the private ceremony, the focal point is on the people and it has a friendly atmosphere.  I was able to simply enjoy the time with familiar fellows.

The homemade sweets

The meal served in the ceremony

Tea gathering at home

What utensils do you need to serve matcha?  If you want to hold a formal tea ceremony, many kinds of proper utensil are needed.  But, once it comes to a casual occasion at home, you can prepare matcha with few essential wares.

The other day, I had some friends coming over to my place, and we enjoyed matcha.  Nothing formal; No tea room, No brazier.   I brought some basic utensils onto the table and served tea to my friends.  This is nothing compared to a formal tea ceremony, but still people can enjoy the essence of the ceremony.    I think that those basic utensils contribute in creating the right atmosphere.

The Essential items for matcha preparation

1.    Tea bowl

2.    Tea whisk

3.    Natsume, tea container

4.    Tea scoop

5.    Thermos bottle

6.    Small linen cloth (to clean a tea bowl)

7.    Wasst-water receptacle

Only with these seven items, you can already enjoy casual tea ceremony at home.

I let each of my friends prepare their own tea on the second servings.  With awkward halting movements, they were able to perform the ceremony almost perfectly.  They seemed to really enjoy doing it.  We talked, whisked matcha, played with kids, savored tea and laughed!  It was a peaceful moment in Sunday afternoon.

Bright porcelain wares

Bright porcelain wares will make the ambience cool and refreshing.  They look good on your home for summer afternoon tea breaks.  You can proudly offer tea to your families and guests with the coming season.  

New products are available on our shop! 

Enshu’s tea room

One of the reasons that I wanted to visit Ocha-no-sato tea museum is a tea house and garden by Enshu Kobori.

The garden has ponds.  You can walk around the ponds and enjoy different sceneries of the garden.  This is not really my type of garden, but it is elegant and beautiful.

The house is a restored architecture of magistrate's office and traditional house with tea rooms.  The design of Enshue’s house is formal and geometric compared to Rikyu’s natural rustic tea room, Taian.  Both of them are simple and nice.

You can have matcha in one of the Enshu’s rooms.  When we visited there, we were the only guests.  We sat on tatami-mats and waited for the tea to be served.  The photo above is taken from the position where I sat.  There was a delightful surprise, there!  At most of tourist spots that serve matcha, the tea is usually prepared in another room and is brought into the guest’s room.  But here, the host appeared with tea utensils in our room, and stared preparing the tea in front of us!!   I was so excited about it.  An assistant served sweets and talked to us.  It was pretty much a casual tea ceremony!   In the meanwhile, another big party of guests came in and joined us.   The host prepared a few servings and the rest of bowls were prepared in the back.  It was a quick 10-15 minutes, but we are very much satisfied with it.  

This is a rare place for tourists where you can see actual matcha preparation.  If you have never seen it before, this is a good place (500yen)! 


Ocha-no-sato tea musume (Japanese): http://www.ochanosato.com/guide/chashitu.asp

Matcha milling

Have you seen how matcha is milled?  At Ocnha-no-sato tea museum, you can try milling *tencha into matcha. They give you a small pouch of tencha.  (Tencha is steamed and dried tealeaves, which is the ingredient of matcha.)     

You put tencha into a hole on the top of the stone mill.

Hold the handle and turn the mill slowly (about 1 turn in 1 second).  It is a little heavy, but turns smoothly with a comfortable sound.  You should not turn it too fast for good quality tea.

In a short while, you will find that green fine powders spill from the rims.

After several minutes of milling, you have a pile of matcha on the tray.  Then, the turning sound slightly changes, and you won’t find any more tea coming out of the slit. 

You can take your own milled tea home.

Matcha particle are about 1-20μ(micrometer).  The particles of fine quality matcha range 1-5μ.  Too high friction heat of milling can deteriorate the hue and flavor.  Stone is still the best material for the mill even in the modern time.  Auto-mills at tea factories also use stones.  Slowly turning the mill is nothing exciting, but it is a great experience to try actual matcha making^^

Ochano-no-sato tea museum (Japanese):  http://www.ochanosato.com/

Ocha-no-sato Tea Museum

Have you heard of the name, Enshu Kobori (1579-1647)?   He was a feudal lord and tea master.  He added brightness and beauty on former tea masters’ “wabi-sabi” style, and created his own tea.  It is called “kirei-sabi”, or gracefulness and simplicity.  He held about 400 tea ceremonies and invited 2,000 guests in his life.  What impresses me is that he was so versatile.  He was talented not only in tea, but also in calligraphy and poetry, and supervised in pottery making, building gardens, tea houses and even castles.

The other place we stopped on the Shizuoka trip was Ocha-no-sato tea museum, which has a tea house and garden designed by Enshu.  It is not a large museum, but I think it’s an interesting place for tea lovers.  It is the place where I experienced tea picking (seasonal activity).

At the café there, you can enjoy different teas that you cannot usually try at ordinary cafe.  Most of teas sold on the market are blended different teas, so you don’t have many chances to try single breed tea.  But there, they serve different breed teas (such as; yabukita, asatsuyu, saemidori and so on) and also teas from different production regions (such as; Simada, Makinohara and kawane).   For a tea enthusiast like me, it is kind of exciting to choose a tea from that selection.  What I had was yutakamidori breed iced tea.  I wanted to tell you the taste of tea, but it was a few weeks ago.  I only remember that it was good but don’t exactly remember how good it was, haha.  Sorry (^^;;

The menu

You prepare your own tea

Yutakamidori

Beautiful!

  

Ocha-no-sato tea museum (Japanese): http://www.ochanosato.com/

Enshu's Tea school: http://www.enshuryu.com/English/index.html

Tea picking

There are some places where you can experience tea picking for recreation. 

I had chance to try it on the trip to Shizuoka on Apr. 30.

Traditional clothes for tea-picking (The lady in the center)

You pick one bud and two leaves from the tip, which is one of the ways of picking.

Fresh foliages are still soft, so you can easily pick them by lightly pinching and pulling.  I believe that you can also tell  from the photo that the leaves are delicate.

We picked a bag of tea in 20 min.  When you smell the inside of the bag, it has a fresh green aroma which goes through up your nose.  It is quite different from the dry leaves.  I guess that the aroma comes from the odor of leaf alcohol (one of the substances of tea).  

You can take them home.  I wanted to make homemade tea, but I was so tired when I got home. So, I just sautéed them for a dish but I was a bad cook. Hahaha (^^;; 

Importance of brewing conditions

I don’t think that there are many places where one can have gyokuro.  I had the chance of having gyokuro at Gyokuro-no-sato, a tourist spot.  You pass through a classic gate.  You can enjoy the beholding sceneries like the soothing-to-the-eyes pond and the eye-catching green maples, which will definitely amuse you as you walk on the steppingstones approaching the tea house.

We were lead to a large room, and tea wares were displayed there.  But, they didn’t prepare tea in that room.  Tea was prepared in another room, and a staff brought in confectionary and tea.

The staff told us to have the sweets after we enjoy the first serving of tea.  Did you know that you enjoy sweets first at the tea ceremony for matcha, but with gyokuro or sencha, you usually enjoy the tea first?  I think that it makes sense when you consider the thickness of the teas, and it is the best way to relish both tea and sweets.

The served gyokuro was absolutely my taste.  Its roundness was perfect and it smoothly wet my mouth.  Moreover, it had an exquisite balance in flavor.  In preparing gyokuro, brewing conditions have huge impact to the taste.  This tea was slightly lighter than the tea I usually prepare.  It reminds me that this way of brewing is also excellent.

More amount of water was definitely used when compared with the way I do it.  Fewer leaves might have been used, and the temperature must have been pretty low as mine.  I’m not sure for the brewing time.  I’ll have to try some combinations myself.  I’ll get into finding a good recipe at home for a while, haha.

It is good to have tea out.  It inspires me!

The second serving came in a small teapot

Gyokuro-no-sato (Japanese):  http://www.gyokuronosato.jp/

Memorial trip

I have had the same brand of car for twenty years.  This year, I’m thinking letting it go.  Before that, I wanted to go to a memorable trip with it.  We headed to Shizuoka prefecture where you can view Mt. Fuji!! 

  

One of the places where we stopped by is Gyokuoro-no-sato that has a small garden and a tea house.  Let me introduce some photos.

It is located in a country side surrounded with greens.

You can walk around the garden for free.

  

There is a tea house. 

 Only the people who pay for tea can get in.Of course, we had tea there.After having tea in a large room, you can look around the house.  This tea house also has a small tea room.  I got to see it. 

Preparation room

Small tea room (about 4 tatami mats)

hanging scroll and flower at tokonoma alcove

Elaborately designed ceiling

 

Nijiriguchi, crawl-in entrance

 

Position where the host prepares tea

  

I found a pretty unique thing there.Look at the sign.  Can you read Japanese?

It is gyokuro ice cream!!

I have seen matcha ice cream or green tea ice cream, but never gyokuoro’s.

 Its flavor … um … I didn’t find significant difference from regular green tea ice cream. But, it tastes really good, and it has actual tea on the top as sprinkles^^  

On the next entry, I’ll introduce the gyokoro we had in the tea house.