I’m going to try a houjicha with a smoky roast for the first time. This tea from yunomi.life is one of the various types of houjicha from the Obubu...
The Saemidori Tea Cultivar
Saemidori (さえみどり), meaning “clear green”, is a cultivar that produces a bright green liquor. It seems to be getting more popular among Japanese tea farmers, although it has still...
The Asatsuyu Tea Cultivar
Asatsuyu (あさつゆ) is a cultivar best known for being “natural gyokuro”. The reason is that it has a taste similar to gyokuro without the need to go through the...
Podcast 012: Organic Certification in Japan
Did you know that Japan has it’s own organic certification for tea? To shed some light on the subject, I interviewed Ian Chun from Yunomi, a marketplace for Japanese...
Mellow Monk Kuma Green 1228
Kuma Green 1228 is an artisanal green tea from the Kumamoto prefecture of Japan. The reason it has 1228 in its name, is that it’s the address of the...
About the Zairai Tea Cultivar
If you like to buy different Japanese teas online, you may have run across teas that are made with the “zairai cultivar”. What kind of tea cultivar is it?...
Confessions of a tea blogger – TAG!
A game of tag for tea bloggers was started by Lu Ann of The Cup of Life. It consists of answering a list of questions in a blog post,...
Wild Tea Hunter (Book Review)
I learned about the Wild Tea Hunter book thanks to a blog post from Nicole Martin. Since I love tea books, it didn’t take long for me to buy...
Tea Studio Matcha Genmaicha
This tea was given to me by Kyle Whittington, along with other Japanese teas that I’ll be reviewing in the future. It’s no secret that I love genmaicha, so...
The Okumidori Tea Cultivar
Okumidori (おくみどり) is a Japanese tea cultivar that while not as popular as Yabukita, it does have many adepts. The Okumidori cultivar has leaves with an elliptical shape similar...
Podcast 011: Whittington’s Tea Emporium
Have you ever thought about buying your favorite teas from different brands on the same store? This is the idea behind Whittington’s Tea Emporium, an online tea store that...
Yabukita: The Cultivar that Changed the Japanese Tea Industry
The Yabukita (やぶきた) cultivar is the most popular in Japan, no other cultivar comes close. It covers 75% of the area of Japanese tea fields (data from year 2010)...