Happy New Year 2009

Happy New Year from SA Japanese Green Tea.

Hope you all have wonderful holidays with your family, friends, and loved ones. In 2009, we continue to work hard to serve more tasty and flavorful tea for you.

Freezing Seattle

Holiday season is coming soon, but... what is this weather? Since the last week, Seattle has had snow storm. All flights in and out of Seattle have been canceled, and my friend has been stuck in Las Vegas. I have a lot of things to do in my office, but icy roads and heavy snow don't allow me to go out.

However, since I grew up in Shizuoka-prefecture, where rarely has snow, this snow storm is sort of exciting for me. I have never seen this much of snow falling from sky and roads covering by pure white. Also, this snow storm gave me a precious time. I'm staying at home, drinking my favorite Sen cha, and quietly seeing beautiful snow. (Of course, I'm doing some works in my home. But not that much.) During busy days, I haven't had much time to look out of window and thought how beautiful the nature is.

I do have to go to the office next week by any means, but now I'd like to enjoy this slow time and relax myself. At the end, I hope you all have happy and peaceful holiday with your family, friends, and loved ones.

Intangible National Treasure - TEMOMI

If you would like to try the ancient taste of teas, "Temomi-cha" tea is your choice. Temomi means "hand kneading," and cha means "tea" in Japanese. In short, Temomi-cha can be said that is the 100% hand-made green tea. Its taste and flavor are completely different from teas now we are drinking; it has really deep taste and green flavor. When the Sen cha was invented about 300 years ago, all the process to make the tea was taken by humans' hands. It started from hand pick of tea leaves, and then steaming, kneading, and drying process were performed only by hands. Today, all of these processes are mechanized and the Temomi-technique is almost forgotten.

My mother has striven to preserve the Temomi-technique since 1995. Right now, she has a teaching license and has held the Temomi-cha event for public since 2005. The pictures above are the Temomi-cha event held on May 2008 at my father's factory. I was very sad that I couldn't participate the event this year because I wan in the U.S.

In near future, I'm going to import the Temomi-cha into the U.S. I'd like to have a chance to introduce the Temomi-cha to American audience.