Shunmei (春茗, しゅんめい) means “spring tea”. The name implies that it is an early budding tea cultivar. On a warm region, it will bud four to five days earlier...
Green Tea and Grapefruit Cocktail
I made this cocktail with a recipe that my friend Kayoko taught me. She found it in a Japanese magazine, if I’m not mistaken. The original recipe uses a...
Sugimoto Tea Organic Sencha Saemidori
Sugimoto Tea has continued to sell their single cultivar series for wholesale clients. This first harvest fukamushi sencha from the Saemidori cultivar comes from Hioki city, Kagoshima prefecture. The...
Learn from Zero! How to Enjoy Japanese Tea (Book Review)
The original title of this book is ゼロから分かる！日本茶の楽しみ方. It’s written by Oscar Brekell. I wanted to read his three books. This was the one I was missing. It’s only...
Stacking Tea Infusions
Stacking infusions means that you re-infuse a given tea and then mix it with a prior infusion. Why do this instead of drinking each infusion separately? One reason might...
Maruchu Fukamushi Sencha
Many thanks to Webexpoo.com for sending me this sample. Maruchu (丸忠) is a tea company in Kakegawa city, Shizuoka prefecture. They cultivate the tea using a sustainable farming practice,...
The Yutakamidori Tea Cultivar
I hadn’t written about Yutakamidori because it’s not an officially registered cultivar, but it ranks second after Yabukita in terms of cultivated area in Japan. Yutakamidori (ゆたかみどり) means “abundant...
About the Color of Black Tea
Black tea looks very different from green tea because of its oxidation process. Let’s take a look at this from a chemical point of view. Polyphenols are compounds naturally...
Japanese Green Tea Company Ceremonial Matcha
I received a special matcha sample, just in time to review it for my birthday. This ceremonial matcha from Japanese Green Tea Company won and award in the straight...
The Harumidori Tea Cultivar
Harumidori (はるみど) means “spring green”. This tea cultivar can be cultivated in all tea producing regions of Japan and thrives in cold weather. It is meant for sencha production....
Podcast 039: DoMatcha
I’ve reviewed teas from DoMatcha before, they have all been very good. But I hadn’t recorded a podcast episode about this company until now. In this episode I interview...
Yannoko Tea Wakoucha Sora
Yannoko Tea has added many Japanese black teas (wakoucha) to their website. Among them is this tea from the Yabukita cultivar made by Dokodemosora in Wakayama prefecture. Although they...