Yamatomidori (やまとみどり、大和緑）is a tea cultivar as old as Yabukita. Yamato was originally a region in Nara, and then it became the ancient name of Japan. Now, it’s pretty much...
4 Reasons why your Matcha Doesn’t Foam
I’ve received questions by readers regarding the foam of matcha. First of all I must warn that some schools of the Japanese tea ceremony prefer less foam or not...
Ocha & Co. Organic Sencha
Ocha & Co. is an online tea store that ships worldwide from Japan. The tea for today’s review is an organic sencha from Shizuoka prefecture. It comes vacuum-sealed in...
Green Tea (Book Review)
I bought this book at the World Tea Expo. Kevin Gascoyne, one of the authors, was there and he signed it for me 🙂 This book was originally published...
Podcast 025: Cooking With Tea
In this episode I interview Robert Wemischner, author of Cooking with Tea. Robert is a pastry chef and a culinary educator. His vast knowledge of using tea as an...
The Fuushun Tea Cultivar
The tea cultivar Fuushun (ふうしゅん,富春) means “rich spring”. This cultivar is more resistant to cold weather than Yabukita and has a greater yield, even if using less fertilizer. Normally,...
Cha Doraku Kaori
I received this rare Japanese tea from Cha Doraku, a tea company located in Canada. Kaori is an ichou (sligh withering, also called bihakkou) asamushi (light steamed) sencha from...
Podcast 024: Den’s Tea
Den’s Tea is a tea company from California that sells Japanese tea. In this episode I interview Den Shirakata, a third-generation tea merchant and owner of Den’s Tea. We...
The Taste of Tea Lounge
At a recent trip to Sonoma county with my family I had the pleasure to visit The Taste of Tea in Healdsburg, California. I had previously reviewed some teas...
DoMatcha Organic Ceremonial Matcha
This tea was give to me by Gislinde Bronson of DoMatcha when I met her at this year’s World Tea Expo. I hadn’t tried an organic matcha before, so...
Podcast 023: Compounds in Japanese Powdered Teas
Noli Ergas from Sugimoto America tells us the results from the analysis of their powdered teas: high and low grade matcha, houjicha powder and genmaicha powder. How much calories,...
Podcast 022: Urasenke School of The Japanese Tea Ceremony
The Urasenke school of the tea Japanese tea ceremony is the most popular, in terms of number of members. To learn more about it, I interviewed Reina Sakao of...