Are tea people taciturn?

This is the entrance towards my tea school (shown on the picture). What I found there was a trace that someone intentionally watered the pathway. Can you guess why? I think that my teacher sprinkled water over the path before the class started. I’m not the first student coming to the class so the path was not completely wet when I came. Anyway, the wet pathway is the sign for “I've been expecting you. Please come in.” The host sweeps and cleans the entrance before the guests come. Then, she sprinkles water. If you see the wet entrance, you can tell that the host is ready for the ceremony and you can get in. The sprinkled water is called “mukaemizu” which literally means welcome water.

In Sado (The Way of Tea), we highly value wordless actions and there are some rules for the non-verbal communication. The same rule similar to first given sample is keeping the door slightly open. It is the sign from the host that it’s ready and you can enter this way.

Tomeishi-stone or Sekimoriishi-stone also leads you to the correct trail in the tea garden. The stone is the sign for“do not go any farther than here”. If you see the stone, you have to go the other way. Without a map or instruction, you can still reach the destination where the host wants you to come. (Past entry about Tomeishi >>> http://everyonestea.blogspot.jp/2011/05/what-is-tomeishi-stone.html)

There is a rule also for the guests to tell the host their intention. When guests enjoy the kaiseki cuisine, the host is not in the same room; he/she is waiting in the next room. So, when the guests finish eating, they drop the chopsticks on the tray and make a sound all together. It is the sign for they are done. Then, the host comes into the room and clears away the dishes.

These rules can cut off idle words and make the ceremony smart and simple. I found it very interesting; tea people try to eliminate not only unnecessary objects from the tea room but also words.

Form of ash

From this month, a brazier is used in the tea lessons instead of a sunken hearth.  It’s the common style for summer.

The charcoals are placed on ash inside of the brazier.  The tea people even care about the form of the ash.  You paddle the ash to create a beautiful figure like a landscape using spatulas before the guests come.  There are different styles of the form.  I have not learned about it yet.  I can imagine that it will take time to create it neatly.  You put your mind and effort to the thing that doesn’t last; the flower arrangement in the tea room as well.  You pursue the short-lived beauty and that’s why the tea gathering becomes so precious.  It may be one of the secrets that the tea ceremony attracts people.

My teacher prepared the ash before the class started.  She said that she was not satisfied with her ash work that day.  Well, Sado, The Way of Tea is so profound and I still have many things to learn. 

Images of 灰形 or ash form on Google

Confusion between your sense of taste and sight

I was so astonished when I saw a California roll for the first time!  Rice and seaweed are inside out and it has avocado inside.  It was a way extraordinary idea from mine or Japanese common sense.  But, it’s actually quite good!   Nowadays, sushi is popular all around the world.  There seems to be gorgeous creative rolls and wraps enjoyed in other countries.  What type of sushi can you have at sushi restaurants in your country? Can you have those many innovated sushi or Japanese traditional ones?

 

 

I appreciate those new types but I also love our classic sushi.  I think that sushi is made simply to enjoy the taste of the ingredients.  There are various types of fish and shellfish used.  Can you name those different kinds?  I personally love hirame(bastard halibut), akagai(ark shell) and uni(sea urchin).   Akagai and uni taste differently depending on price or restaurant.  Cheap uni can be bitter or has chemical flavor while good uni is sweet.  What sushi do you like? 



Ikura

Today, I did not intend to talk about sushi.  I saw these sushi on TV the other day and I took pictures of them.  Don’t you notice something weird?  They are not real sushi.  They are all made of wagashi, Japanese confectionery.  Can you believe that?  They look so real but it is actually very sweet if you eat them!  Of course, they are special and you can’t buy them everywhere.  I don’t want to see them in a tea ceremony.  My brain will be confused with the difference between its taste and appearance, hahaha.  Wagashi often depicts a flower, scenery of the nature or a seasonal object.  The beauty of formative design is in the realm of art.  The technique and ideas to create an admiring wagashi is superb!  They can even make sushi out of it!!

Uni

What  is he making?



Red bean paste into a container




Coating the surface with rice flour




Pour more of the bean past on top of it




Repeating those steps and Forming layers with the red past and rice flour




Slicing it like sasimi




Ta-dah!  Tuna sushi!!



モーニングサービス at local cafes

There is a unique service at cafes in our area, Aichi.  It is called “モーニングサービス” or “morning service” but it means breakfast special.  We often call it Morning.  You can have the service usually at kissaten, cafes with waiters/waitresses, not at self-service cafes.  We don’t have the custom of tipping in Japan, so you don’t have to worry about it.  The breakfast special is that if you order a cup of drink burring the certain hours in the morning, it comes with snacks or light meal such as a piece of toasted bread and a boiled egg.  You can have a light breakfast just with the price of one drink.  Isn’t it a great deal?!  

 

It seems café culture is well developed in our area.  The rate of café among the entire eating and drinking establishments is quite high.  (National average: 24%,  Tokyo: 18%,  Our prefecture, Aichi: 42%!! –Wikipedia)  This type of breakfast special got popular and it has been so common here that until recently I’ve never thought that this is a unique culture of our region.   Now the breakfast special seems getting popular nationwide and evolving its services.  It used to be simple, like a cup of coffee with toast and egg.  But now, some café offer a better meal, some offer for a longer hours and some even offer it in buffet style.  The more popular it become the better the services we get.

 

 

 

This is the Morning Service I had the other day.  They have a regular breakfast special (drink+bread+egg), but also you can add mini-salad, yogurt and a piece of bacon as an option if you pay additional 120yen.  A regular breakfast special is not totally satisfying as a breakfast for me.  I quite like this option system. 

 

You may not see many cafes that offer this type of breakfast special in Tokyo.  If you have a chance to come to Aichi, go to a kissaten and save your money and enjoy your morning!!

As good as Starbucks or even better

There are only three tea rooms that are registered as a national treasure in Japan;  Taian, Mittan and Jyoan.  There is a replica of the Jyoan in Nagakute which is situated next to my city.  The tea room is called Koshoan.

 

You walk though the tea garden and purify you hands and mouth at tsukubai, the water basin.  Then, you enter the tea room from the short crawl-in doorway.  It is a small tea room uniquely designed with 3.5 tatami-mats.  You will find flower and hanging Zen words scroll displayed in the tokonoma alcove.  You sit in the tranquility.  The sweets are served while you watch the host preparing the tea for you. 

 

It will be an ephemeral 15 minutes.  You can experience this in Koshoan on every second Sunday of the month.  I love enjoying coffee at Starbucks, but having tea in the replica of a national treasure is also good.  If you know, this costs you only 250 yen, you would think it’s even better than Starbucks!!  Can you believe the price?!  It is the most reasonable tea ceremony that I ever know.  Attending this event every month is my trivial enjoyment these days.  Do you have any pleasing spot in your neighborhood?

Preparing eight servings of tea with an ordinary teapot

If you only have a regular size teapot and if you have many guests, how do you serve tea? 

It’s good to have a large teapot if you occasionally need to serve tea for many people.  Otherwise, for common households, you can prepare the tea only a few servings.  I recommend you to choose the right sized teapot by considering your main use.  For special occasions, try the method that I introduce today.  You can serve the double number of serving with your teapot.

The method is adding and blending the first and the second brewing, which allows you to serve twice of the amount at once.  You can achieve the same quality for all the servings.

 

What you need (8 servings)

Tea leaf: sencha 8 grams (2g per serving, Prepare your tea for 4 servings which is enough for the teapot and you have to do it twice to prepare 8 tea cups all in all.)
Hot water: 560ml (8 servings)
Teapot: 280ml (make it twice to make 8 servings)
Pitcher: 560ml or larger
Tea cup: 8 pcs

 

 

 

1. Put 280ml boiled water each into the teapot and the pitcher

 

2. Transfer all of the water from the teapot into the first four cups for the first brewing. Have the water in 80C/176F

 

3. Put the tea leaves into the teapot and pour the hot water into the pot from the four cups

 

4. Leave the pot for one minute. While waiting, transfer the water from the pitcher into the other four cups for the second brewing.



5. When the time comes, pour the tea from the teapot into the pitcher



6. Transfer the hot water from the four cups and wait for about 30 seconds

7. Pour the tea from the teapot into the pitcher containing the first brew

 

8. Stir the tea lightly and then serve into the eight cups!!

The idea is that you mix the first and second brew and double the serving amount of your teapot.  You may do the procedures in some different orders.  It is fine as far as you can serve the same quality tea for every cup.  

How to tie the ribbon on a wooden box

When you buy a good Japanese tea ware, it usually comes in a wooden box.  It is nicely tied with a flat string.  Once you open the box, some of you might have trouble to properly retie the string when storing the piece.  Today, I’ll show you how to tie the ribbon. 

 

One advice!
Keep the string flat always not to twist it.



Place the ribbon like in the picture

Have the strings in the same length for both extending to the right and towards you
In my description, the string is put over the left corner of the box; there is a case wherein it starts with the right corner. If so, do the all the procedure in reversing right and left.



 

 

 

 

 

Try not to tie the knot too tight. It might damage the string

Have the ribbon symmetric

 

 

How to obtain 80C/176F water

You do not use boiling water for preparing most of Japanese tea.  Around 80C/176F is a good temperature.  Because, too hot water extracts a lot of bitterness and you don’t get the best flavor of green tea.  It is said that you should obtain 80C/176F water by cooling down the water once it has kept boiling.  Why is that?

Cooling down the boiled water takes time and it’s a kind of like troublesome.  You might want to skip that.  Can you just add cold water?  Or can you remove the kettle from the stove before boiling?  Some of you might have such wonders.

I think of two reasons for the cooling down water issue.  The first reason is that you can take away chlorine odors from tap water by boiling it.  (Check out the related entry >>> “Canyou take off chlorine smell for tap water by boiling?”)  In Japan, many people use tap water for tea, so this is quite effective for them.  I understand that some people say “I’m fine because I use bottled water” or “I have a water purifier”.  The other reason will work for those people, too.  You cool down the water by pouring it into the teapot and cups, which also makes them warm up.  So, you will always have the teapot in a stable temperature.  It helps you prepare your tea with a steady flavor always.  The warmed up teapot and cups also help the tea not to get too lukewarm during the preparation.  The served tea is still hot and nice.  I believe that these aspects can be quite beneficial for your tea.

 

Making 80C/176F water is not that difficult.  It’s easy!  Let take a look.

 



1.Pour the boiled water into the cups

This helps measuring the right amount of water.
Do not leave it for a long time at this point; the cups might get too hot to hold.

 

2.Pour the water from the cups into the teapot

Then wait for several seconds. Adjust this time by the conditions and for the result you want.

3.Pour the water back from the pot to the cups

That’s it!

 

 



The water in the cups is now about 80C/176F.
The empty pot is ready for you to put tea leaves on!

 

The result will differ by conditions such as the room temperature, servings, and the size and material of pot and cups.  If you want to have higher temperature, you can skip the first step and directly pour the boiled water into the pot.  If you want much lower temperature water, you can add another step using another vessel, yuzamashi or water cooler.  I believe that how to make 80C/176F water is crucial to prepare non-chlorine and steady flavor of tea, and helps to serve the exquisite tea in the best temperature!   It is not that difficult as you think.  Give it a try!


Check out my past entries for more information

- Can you take off chlorine smell for tapwater by boiling?
- Well boiled water makes delicious green tea

 

Alternative matcha recipe 2

I have tried series of tests on preparing matcha since the taste of the tea prepared using the alternative way was not as good as the tea prepared in the traditional method.  The main reason is the temperature.  The alternative tea was lukewarm.  I simply found the hotter tea a lot tastier than the other one.  

According to the tea-workshop instructor. one of the advantages of the alternative recipe was supposed to be lump-free.  However, I didn’t find any lumps in the tea prepared with the traditional recipe, either.  You are not able to see the advantage much with the fluffy brand new tea.  So, as for me, the absence of lump formation is not considerable advantage.

This time I was more careful about pre-heating the tea bowls, and made sure not to drop the temperature of the tea.  I stored the matcha for two weeks and made the tea less fluffy.  After words, I tried the same test again.

What do you think the result is? … It turned out awful!  The tea got much bitterer than the first time.  Moreover it was watery and less flavorful.  I didn’t like it at all.  One of the reasons of the failure is probably the pre-heating of the tea bowl.  Even though I used cold water for the first step, the small amount of water was heated up by the hot bowl.  The warmed water helped in extracting the bitter taste from the tea.   What made it worse is that I took a lot of time preparing this tea.  I was supposed to mix it for 40sec at the first step and 10sec at the second, but I actually took 70sec and 15sec respectively because I got busy taking some pictures for this blog.  So that gave the tea an additional time to infuse more bitterness.  

 

 

So, I had another try.  This time, I didn’t warm up the bowl at all.  Instead, I used a boiling water for the second step.  As in the previous tests, there wasn’t much difference in appearance.  The temperature for both tea were about the same, so I could simply compare the flavor this time.  The tea with ordinary method was as good as always; it has a round and rich flavor even though I noticed some lumps upon drinking.  On the other hand, the tea using the alternative method produced light foam and mild flavor.  It didn’t have bitterness at all.  Now I can say that this test is finally successful!  I didn’t find any lumpy stuff either while the traditional tea was a little rough.  It was smooth and easy to drink.  Therefore, I conclude that it is great for matcha beginners.  

The tastes of the ordinary and alternative tea were slightly different, but both were good.  It depends on your preference.  If I have to choose, I would prefer the ordinary way of preparing.  

Even though I didn’t find any dramatic advantage when it comes to flavor with the alternative tea, I found a big advantage in preparation.  That is pre-sift the matcha is not needed.  I have been always thinking that sifting matcha is quite troublesome.  Moreover, you don’t have to pre-heat the tea bowl nor have to cool down the boiling water.  You just put matcha powder and a little bit of cold water and mix well.  Then add boiling water and whisk it quickly.  How easy is that!  I’ll definitely use this method when I’m preparing matcha for myself.  For your casual daily matcha, this alternative recipe will work.

Let me review the recipe.

No sifting matcha, No pre-heating of tea bowl, No cool down of hot water.
First step
- Matcha (1.8g) and cold water (10ml) in a tea bowl.
- Mix them gently until it gets smooth without any lumps.
Second step
- Add 50ml boiling water and whisk it using fast strokes to create foam on the surface.
- Don’t take a lot of time on this step.  10sec will do.

I hope you try comparing both the traditional and this new recipe and see it for yourself.

 

Alternative matcha recipe 1

 

An instructor at a tea workshop has taught me an alternative of preparing matcha. She said the good thing about this preparation is anybody can prepare this great bowl of matcha without fuzz! A failure-proof matcha she said. Of course, it's quite different from the way I've been learning it from my tea school. The instructor even told us that it has two advantages: first, even though you don't pre-sift your matcha, this recipe will give you less lumps in your tea. It would be smoother too. Second advantage is that it has more taste of the rich umami without the unpleasant bitterness. Yet, it also has its minor disadvantage. And that is the tea would be less aromatic.

I have already seen this method in some websites such as Youtube, but I haven't really given it too much attention till now. The instructor even insisted on trying to compare the new recipe from the traditional one at home. So I did and here how it went for me.

In the ordinary or the traditional way, we prepare the tea by mixing matcha (1.8g) and hot water (60ml/2oz) in a tea bowl with a tea whisk. Now, this new recipe involves two simple steps: First, mix the matcha (1.8g) well with 10ml/0.4oz of cold water. This process prevents lump formation. Second, add 50ml/1.7oz of hot water then whisking it more. This new recipe is for usucha (thin tea) but is almost similar to making koicha (thick tea). And voila!! This is how easy to make a smooth and sweet matcha!

	Ordinary	New
Matcha	1.8grams
Water	Hot: 60ml/2oz	Cold: 10ml/0.4oz  Hot: 50ml/1.7oz
Whisking	20sec	40sec + 10sec

The alternative matcha recipe

Add a very small amount of cold water

Refrain from mixing the matcha vigorously and try not to make it foamy.
Mixing it gently would avoid any lumps.A good 40 seconds of mixing will do fantastic.

The surface gets lustrous and looks very smooth like koicha.

 

Now, you can add hot water and whisk it for about 10 seconds with faster speed to achieve a foamy texture.

Left: Ordinary recipe, Right: New recipe

There seem to be not much difference in appearance as you can notice. But they definitely differ when it comes to aroma. The traditional tea has a richer aroma as the instructor has warned us. When it comes to taste and flavor, I got a totally different impression for the two. This is where it really gets interesting! I was shocked since it's not what I expected. I still found the ordinary tea tastier than the new one. Can you believe that?! The alternative tea was lukewarm. Even though I pre-heated both of the tea bowls, the first step with the cold water made the tea less hot than the traditional tea. I simply found the hotter tea tastier. I tried to find the rich umami sensation from the new recipe, but the umami didn’t matter anymore. The temperature has bigger impact for me to find the tea tasty. It was a bit disappointing for me, since I gave high expectations to the new recipe.

After drinking, I didn’t find any lumps in both tea bowls, though. Is it because I am a really good whisker?? Perhaps, not. It's because I used a brand new tea that I've just purchased. Even without sifting it, it still looks fluffy. That’s why there were no lumps even with the traditional recipe. So, with the brand new tea, I really couldn't see the said advantages of the new recipe. 

I guess I'd have to exert more effort into finding the advantages the instructor told me about this new recipe so I could give justice to what she has confidently told us. I did try to make this new recipe a number of times, but, of course, with my own personal touches!   So, better wait for my next blog entry and will share my story about this.

Measuring green tea

Are you sure that you always use the correct amount of tea leaves?  Doesn’t your tea sometimes get too strong or too weak?  Today, I will give you some tips in solving this dilemma.

 

Tip No. 1

Use the same tea spoon always.  It develops your visual estimate of the amount of tea leaves on the spoon.  This is a regular size teaspoon.  The American quarter coin just acts as an additional basis.

 
Tip No. 2
Try to scoop 2 grams of tea leaves.  It is the basic amount for one serving for the most of Japanese green tea.  This is how 2g of gyokuro looks like.  It is slightly more than the level teaspoon.  This will work the same with sencha and kabusecha. 

The scale isn't really needed every time. Just as long as you manage to scoop the approximate amount of tea leaves with your teaspoon, the size of the teapot nor the number of servings won't really matter anymore.  The most important key here to serve a great cup of tea is to practice measuring 2 grams of tea into your regular teaspoon.

Given the fact that some types of tea require more or less than the usual amount (2 grams), acquisition of the basic knowledge will help you figure out.  Here is how 1g (Left) and 3g (Right) of tea look like.  The middle one is 2g.  One gram will be slightly less than the level teaspoon.  And three grams will be a heap of scoop. 

Tip No. 3

One more thing that I want you to know is that it can differ by the size of tea leaves.  What I have shown above is for the common sized tea leaves, such as sencha, gyokuro and kabusecha.  When it comes to the tea with smaller pieces like deep-steamed sencha and konacha, it will look less.  On the other hand, the lager tea leaves have more volume, which are bancha and hojicha.  Here is one example.  These three types of tea leaves are all measured 2g.  (From Left to Right: deep-steamed sencha, gyokuro,  bancha)  You need to consider the size of leaves when measuring.

After you reading this article, hopefully there will be no too strong nor too weak tea on your table anymore.