Near the end of March I had the honor of attending the Urasenke-Foundation hosted Founder’s Day Tea Ceremony at Shoseian (“Arbor of the Murmuring Pines”), inside of the Seattle Japanese Garden. The following month I attended the lecture/demonstration of Chanoyu at Seattle Art Museum, again sponsored by the Urasenke Foundation. Details on these two experiences [...]
Market researchers continue to predict the continued rise of tea consumption in the US. Of course, this will mean that a wider audience will come to experience teas, but there are few predictions about the depth of those experiences. In order to more fully appreciate the hundreds of teas available, here are 10 that will [...]
While I do generally try to avoid anthropomorphizing inert pieces of manmade stuff, I still find it kind of distressing when a nice piece of teaware languishes unused in the back of a cabinet – even if that cabinet is a beautiful antique Japanese tansu, dramatically striped and accented with richly hued persimmon wood. But [...]
I generally scoff at combinations involving tea and alcohol (or food, for that matter), but I sometimes make exceptions when I’m feeling inventive, and as long as no really high quality tea is harmed in the process. The particular cocktail shown in the photos is shochu with jasmine pearls infused into it. The drink does [...]
Shinobi-Cha is quite an unusual method for preparing high-grade Japanese green teas. Instead of using hot water, it uses ice, which has a profound effect on the character extracted from the tea leaves. Technically, the method is quite simple: place dry tea leaves in a pot cover the tea with ice cubes wait The result [...]
Are you feeling writerly on a scale even smaller than one hundred and forty character micro-blogging? Consider entering Ito En‘s haiku contest. Ito En is the company that manufactures a lot of the bottled and canned green and oolong tea sold in Japan and the United States. Submissions are due by July 6th, 2009. I’m [...]
A couple of nights ago, as I sat pondering the stark range of contrasts in flavor and character among the three types of shochu I was drinking (rice, barley and buckwheat) in a Japanese izakaya during happy hour, I listened to a brief exchange about tea between the two patrons at the table next to [...]
Closely tying in to the last post, I wanted to provide some details on the Banko-Yaki Houhin teapot that I referred to. I wasn’t really in the market for a teapot in this style when I came across this one several months ago, but I really liked the look of it so I bought it. [...]
Mellow Monk’s Top Leaf is the first flush (Spring picking) of a type of Japanese green tea processed differently from most, as a type of Sencha called Tamaryokucha. It is a lovely tea and one that exhibits signs of having been processed with care and attention. Mellow Monk buys all of its teas from small [...]
Tea Fight (Dou Cha) was released in 2008 and directed by Yeming Wang. I haven’t seen it myself yet, but will very soon. It’s a curious and fast paced melange of Japanese and Chinese tea cultures merged into contemporary and legendary story lines. It appears to be quite overblown, and a little absurd, but there [...]
