If I could only drink one tea for the rest of my life, I would choose sencha. Of course, I like to drink teas from other countries besides Japan....
Cyber Chakai
On January of this year, an event called Cyber Chakai (サイバー茶会) was held in Japan. It is sort of a tea ceremony but with the use of a projecting...
The Sawamizuka Tea Cultivar
Sawamizuka (さわみずか) is a late budding cultivar with high yield. Its name comes from an alternate reading for the Chinese characters of the region where it was cultivated: Sabaka...
Senbei
Senbei (煎餅) is a Japanese rice cracker that often has a flat and round shape. This confectionery pairs well with green tea. Although the origin of the word is...
Tales of The Tea Trade (Book Review)
This book was published a few years ago by Michelle and Rob Comins. They own Comins Tea, a tea house in the UK. The first chapters introduce the authors,...
Podcast 050: Matcha Kanaya
I was contacted by a new online tea store: Matcha Kanaya. Osami Ogai and the owner Tsutomu Sugiyama tell us about Shimada city in Shizuoka prefecture, their matcha, and...
The Asahi Tea Cultivar
Asahi (あさひ), which means morning sun, is a tea cultivar from Kyoto prefecture. It is especially suitable for tencha production. Other cultivars from Kyoto that are commonly used for...
Sugimoto Tea Benifuuki Sencha
This tea is an asamushi (light steamed) sencha from Kagoshima prefecture. It’s also organic, and from the first harvest of 2021. Many thanks to Sugimoto Tea for giving me...
Classification of Japanese Pottery
In the West, the three main types of pottery are earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. But in Japan, there are four main types with different definitions, so that there isn’t...
Uiro
Uirō (ういろう) is a steamed cake made with flour and sugar. This wagashi (Japanese traditional sweet) looks similar to yōkan but it has a more chewy texture. The flour...
Grow Your Own Tea (Book Review)
I had this book in my wish list for more than a year. I hadn’t read it because I thought that I should own a tea plant first. But...
Regional Brands of Japanese Tea
Japanese tea has regional brands for marketing purposes. Sometimes it is a historic name, and sometimes it is registered through the Regional Collective Trademark System (地域団体商標制度). Since these trademarks...