Iced Hoji Cha

Finally, summer came to Seattle. It's about 80 degree now, and the bright sunshine shines in through the window. From my office, I could see many people eating lunch out today.

Traditionally many Japanese drink barley tea during summer. Because it is caffeine free, many parents let their children drink barley tea. So did my mother.

Today, I love to drink iced Hoji Cha. Its taste is very similar to barley tea, but Hoji Cha has more smoky flavor. Also, Hoji Cha has catechin, which many studies showed its health benefits, so I can say iced Hoji Cha is healthier than barley tea.

It's very easy to make iced Hoji Cha - just make strong hot Hoji Cha and put ice cubes in a cup. Or, if you would like to brew Hoji Cha with cold water, please use a little bit more leaves than usual and steep for 5 minutes. Cold-brew Hoji Cha has much sweeter than hot-brew Hoji Cha because theanin (sweetness) is extracted more than tannin (bitterness) in cold water. Our website has a little bit more information about the balance of theanin and tannin (please refer the "water temperature" section).

Seattle's summer is short. I will enjoy it with iced Hoji Cha!

World Tea Expo 2010

World Tea Expo 2010 was held from June 11 to 13 at Las Vegas Convention Center. First of all, I want to thank all the customers who came to our booth. We received many valuable feedback from our customers, and we are sure that these feedback will help us to improve our tea quality and service. It was our 3rd consecutive year to have a booth at this show, and we were very pleased that many of the attendees already recognized our company as a quality tea supplier.

This year, the Tea Maestro and his wife (my father and mother) came to help me. My father had talked with many customers and explained about his teas, and my mother had prepared more than 800 cups of tea samples for 3 days. It was great chance even for me to listen what my father talked about his teas and also see how my mother brewed each tea respectively.

From this show, we started offering 8 kinds of bulk loose leaf for customers such as tea houses, cafes, restaurants, and hotels. All of the teas were traditional green teas in Japan, but some teas were quite new for here in the U.S. As a Japanese tea specialist, we would like to continue to introduce unique Japanese teas for American tea enthusiasts!

For inquiry regarding to the bulk loose leaf, please contact us.

World Tea Expo 2010 is just around the corner.

World Tea Expo 2010 will be held from this Friday until Sunday. This year, our tea maker, Tea Maestro Sugimoto, will come to help us from Japan. If you are coming to the show, please stop by our booth #529 to talk with him. This is a great chance to learn about Japanese tea from the Tea Maestro.

For more information about World Tea Expo, please visit their website.

Temomi Shincha 2010 Brewing

Today, I finally had a time to brew my own Temomi Shincha. Temomi Shincha is once-a-year enjoyment for me and lets me remember fond memory of my grandfather. When I was working for my father's tea factory, my mother occasionally made Temomi Cha just for fun. She sometime shared the tea with my grandfather, and he was delighted with it. Every time he drank Temomi Cha, he said "Kyohei, this is the tea I drank when I was kids. It is delicious!!"

The following is the way I enjoyed Temomi Shincha 2010.

I didn't have a special tea pot for Temomi Cha, so I used a regular 12 oz. tea pot. To be honest, this tea pot was too large for brewing Temomi Cha properly.

For the 1st infusion, I used 100F water and steeped for 3 minute.

After 3 minutes, tea leaves were partially opened, so I waited extra minute.





After a minute (total 4 minutes), I poured the tea little by little into 2 cups. *Remember the last drop is the most flavorful, so make sure no water remains in your pot.

For 2nd infusion, I used 130F water and steeped for a minute.

In the 2nd infusion, we could enjoy much more astringency than the 1st infusion. This was because most of the sweetness (amino acid) in the leaves had been extracted into the 1st infusion.

After the 2nd infusion, tea leaves were completely opened and changed back into whole leaf. Of course, we could enjoy 3rd infusion, 4th infusion, or more.


If you see the open leaves closely, you can see how suavely my mother kneaded the leaves. Surface of the leaves are so beautiful, and there is no damage on it.

I made Temomi Salad, too. After the 3rd infusion, I steeped the leaves in boiling water for more than 5 minutes. This took bitterness out from the leaves and made the salad smooth taste.

As a salad dressing, I recommend a little bit soy source and vinegar. It may surprise you to know how chewy the leaves are.

Enjoy!

Dear Temomi Lovers,

On April 23, our Temomi artisans gathered at our factory in early morning and started making 2010 Temomi Shincha with great care. As I posted, Shizuoka was hit by big chill at the end of March, and it largely affected the growth of young tea leaves. Even on that day, some tea plants hadn't matured yet, so the artisans had to observe each tea plant and make a careful selection of leaves. After the hand-pick harvest, steaming, kneading, and drying process took a place. All of the processes were done only by hands, and of course, no machinery were used.

My mother, Kazue Sugimoto, has 15-year experience as Temomi technician. In 1995, she started making Temomi Cha just for her enjoyment, but now she recognized importance to preserve this traditional craft art for the next generation. She is very pleased to have this opportunity to present Temomi Shincha to American tea lovers.

Japanese Sweets (Wagashi) and Tea Tasting

Under the support of Takumi Ono of junglecity.com and Viv of SeattleBonVivant, we had a small Japanese sweets (Wagashi) and tea tasting on April 3. Wagashi and green tea are traditionally enjoyed together in Japan, and it's one of the beautiful and proud cultures of Japan.

For this event, one of the best wagashi makers in Seattle, TOKARA, provided her beautiful and delicious wagashi. She makes traditional style wagashi and surprisingly brings many of her ingredients all the way from Japan. See the photo above. Her work is just like art. Not only how it looks like, its taste is very traditional.

I made a presentation about Japanese green tea. Now many people recognize health benefits of green tea, but I think not so many people preciously understand what Japanese green tea is. Japanese green tea is different from other teas in many ways. Especially, how to prepare tea and how to store tea is big matter if you would like to fully enjoy Japanese tea. As Japanese tea adviser, it is my preasure to have this kind of educational opportunity. If you are interested in having this kind of event at your home, store, or restaurant, just contact us.

Big Chill Hit to Shizuoka

From the beginning of this week, Shizuoka prefecture, where our teas come from, has been very cold. And on March 30, the temperature of the tea fields dropped to below freezing, and buds were largely affected by it. This doesn't influence tea quality, but the harvest date might be slightly delayed.

Recently, my father, Tea Maestro Sugimoto, has visited to his tea farmers very often. He makes sure that each tea plant grows their buds with energy and talks with his farmers about this year's harvest. Tea farmers are diligently taking care of their tea fields. Soon, tea fields will change their color to brilliant green.

In Japan, there are many tea producing regions. Well-known regions are Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Mie, Kyoto, and Shizuoka. Just like a wine, every regions have different taste characteristics, and each region is equally respected by people. Shincha harvest will begin from South region of Japan. So, Kagoshima is usually the first; the last year, they began the harvest from the end of March. And Fukuoka, Mie, Kyoto and Shizuoka are following.