Greeting between the host and guests

The host and guests greet each other by bowing silently at the chumon gate in the garden and after getting into the tea room they finally exchange words and courtesies.  Today, I would like to talk about a philosophical aspect of Chanoyu.  Why don't you greet with words for the first time you meet?  I guess that there are not many tea people who can answer this question.

When you as the guests get in the tea room, the host won’t be in the room yet.  After entering the room, you go to and look at the hanging scroll, flower and utensils and then you take a seat.  The host would appear when all the guests have been seated.  There is another interesting rule at this point.  The host opens the door and tries to greet from outside of the room.  Then you say “Please come in”.  The host will come in and have the greeting in the room.  Why do you need to give the host permission to come in?  You were invited and came to the host’s place.  The tea room is the host’s property.  Isn’t it a little weird?  It is said that the tea room is prepared for you, so the host tries to express his hospitality by practicing a humility and showing you respect.  I first thought how complicated it is!  But now, I can understand it if I think it as a relationship between the guest and the staff at a hotel, hahaha. 

Let’s get back to the first question.  Now in the room, the host and you as the guests make greetings with words while expressing the gratitude of invitation or participation.  Why have you kept silent on exchanging courtesies at the chumon gate?  I read one explanation which satisfies me.  The idea might be quite spiritual.  The tea room is considered as a cloistered sanctuary.  The host from the tea room or the inner-garden is a purified man.  On the other hand, you as the guests are people from the real world which is different from this sanctuary.  It could be considered that the people from the different worlds cannot talk nor have a common channel to communicate.  This is the explanation for the silent greeting.  After the greeting, you purify your hands and mouth and get in the room.  Now, the host and you are finally in the same world and can vocally communicate.

Tea people may enjoy this kind of spiritual concept.  When I think that way, the perspective of the tea world becomes much more firm and exciting.  This is just one idea.  If you know different explanation regarding the silent greeting, please let me know.

Before getting into the tea room

The tea ceremony doesn’t happen only in the tea room.  Before it starts, there are some things that you go through.  The pictures below are from the ceremony I attended the other day at Bosetsuan in Toki.

Yoritsuki is a waiting room where the guests get together before the ceremony begins.  At a formal ceremony, hot water in a tea cup is served in this room.  But at the ceremony where I attended, there was no hot water.  Instead, sweets were served in the yoritsuki.  The theme of the hanging scroll displayed in the room was associated with the rainy season.  

From yoritsuki (waiting room), the guests will be heading to koshikake, a waiting bench in the garden.  Usually there are traditional sandals for the garden prepared for guests. 

This is the koshikake, the place where the guests will wait until they see the host approaching to the gate called chumon.

The gate, chumon, separates the inner and the outer-garden.  When the host comes to the gate from the inner garden, the guests also go there from the outer garden where the waiting bench is located.  They meet and greet in silence by bowing across the chumon.

The guests will be heading to tsukubai, a water basin in the inner garden.  They purify their hands and mouth with water.  Then, they are ready to get into the tea room finally. 

These are the things you go through before the ceremony starts.  At a casual inexpensive ceremony, there might not be “greeting with the host at the gate” or “purifying your hands and mouth at tsukubai”.  The guests will wait in the waiting room and then just go straight to the tea room.  The ceremony in which I attended was inexpensive, it only costs 500yen, but I could experience these proper steps before getting into the tea room.  I don’t have much opportunity to practice those procedures even at my tea school.  So, I really appreciated and enjoyed this gathering at Bosetsuan.   

These procedures isolate or escape you from real life and take you to the world of tea.  Taking the time before a ceremony helps your mind to be ready.  Appreciating the scroll at the waiting room, silent greeting and purifying your hands may have important meanings.  I might not truly understand their essence yet, but I simply feel good waiting for the ceremony calmly.  

The tea room, Bosetsuan (Japanese) >>> http://www.city.toki.lg.jp/wcore/hp/page000000600/hpg000000577.htm

Water temperature for Matcha

I didn’t find the matcha that I prepared at home as tasty as the sample that I tried at a tea shop.  The sample at the shop had a very mellow but rich flavor with a mouth-filling umami, which is not bitter at all.  It was my favorite type of flavor that I'm looking forward to find in matcha.  When I tried it at home,  the rich umami was still there but the tea also became a bit of not so good taste.  It happens sometimes.  Even though, I get the same tea, it doesn’t taste good when I prepare it at home.  Have you ever experienced this kind of stuff?  You may think of various reasons, it could be the water, utensils or how you prepared it. 

When the lady at the shop was preparing the sample matcha, I noticed that she cooled down the hot water with a yuzamashi, ceramic bowl.  I got it!  Water temperature!  I didn’t give much attention to the water temperature when I prepared it at home.  Now, I got curious what would be the best temperature for this matcha. 

I prepared this tea with four different temperatures; 90, 80, 70 and 60C (194,176,158 and 140F).  What do you think about it?

From Left: 90, 80, 70 and 60C (194, 176, 158 and 140F)

I started to sip from the 90C tea.  I expected it to be bitter but it turned out quite great.  It has a rich flavor but it’s never bitter.  I love it.  I realized the excellent potential of this tea.  I tried tasting 80, 70 and 60 in turns.  They were getting milder as the temperature gets lower.  Each tea had a good sweetness.  The 90C tea has both sharpness and complexness in its flavor, while the 60C tea highlights its rounded umami mainly.  I found that the 90C tea was the tastiest at first impression and the 60C tea was too mild.  But then, when I tried them in the inverse order, from 60 to 90, I found a slight unpleasant taste in the 90C tea, and the 60 was the best.  The order has a big impact to my impression.   As I repeatedly tasted them, I got confused and I couldn’t tell which one I like the best.  Moreover, the teas seemed to get stronger and created more bitterness as the time passed.  

These four tea that I prepared today were relatively good when comparing with the tea that I had prepared previously.  The cause for the bad tea at home might not be the water temperature.  There might be some other reasons.  The difference between the previous preparation and this time is sifting.  I didn’t sift the matcha last time because it was a new tea that I just bought from the shop.  I found some lumps in the tea, so this time I sifted it before making the tea.  I guess that sifting has much to do with the taste of tea.

What I learned from today’s test are ..

-Sifting can be an important factor to serve a good tea. 

-High temperature water makes crisp tea with delightful complex flavors, and low temperature water makes mellow tea with abundant milky umami.

-I should consider the idle time after tea was served until the one to be drunk.  The tea gets stronger and bitterer during the period. 

Each tea was unique and attractive.  I can’t simply say what temperature is the best.   The temperature is only one of the many factors to serve a precious bowl of tea.   

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.