Professional tea tasters in Japan have their own way to evaluate teas. One of the main goals is to identify flaws, because unrefined teas are evaluated by the wholesalers...

Okuhikari (おくひかり) is a cultivar used for sencha and kamairicha. It offers a good color and aroma. Regarding its name, oku means that it is a late budding cultivar....

Yōkan (羊羹) is a wagashi that’s basically a type of jelly. In its most common recipe, it consists of agar (a jelly made from algae), red bean paste, and...

Koushun (香駿, こうしゅん) has such a different aroma and flavor, that anyone can tell that it is different from the Yabukita cultivar. Nowadays, this cultivar is well-known among lovers...

Daifuku (大福) is a very popular wagashi (traditional Japanese sweet) that has many variations. Of course, this sweet is usually paired with green tea. It’s essentially a stuffed mochi...

Kurasawa (くらさわ) is a cultivar usually made into sencha, but occasionally it can also be found as a black tea. It’s not widely available, and unfortunately there’s few information...

Ochauke (お茶請け) is the Japanese word for tea snack. The idea is, on one hand to avoid drinking tea on an empty stomach, since tea contains caffeine and catechins....

Nowadays it’s fairly easy to find buy a tea plant to keep at home. But I hadn’t heard of a tea plant bonsai until recently. Bonsai (盆栽) is the...