Tea Horse is a British online tea store that sells a variety of loose leaf tea. This is the first time that I feature a tea company from the...
Guide to Re-steeping Japanese Green Tea
Did you know that once brewed, you can still get more flavor out of your green tea leaves? You do so by re-steeping. Basically, all you have to do...
Shincha: Japanese Green Tea from the First Flush
Shincha (新茶, new tea) sounds like a type of Japanese tea and is easily confused with sencha, but it has more to do with the time of harvest. You’ll...
Mellow Monk Top Leaf
Top Leaf is a first flush tamaryokucha from the Aso region of Kumamoto prefecture. It comes in a 100 gr (3.5 oz) resealable bag and as as you can...
Podcast 007: Tea for me please
In a sense, Nicole Martin is my tea blogging mentor. She helped me out with some questions I had when I started this blog, and she is also active...
Sakao Enterprise Fukamushicha
After my podcast with Reina Sakao of Sakao Enterprise, I was fortunate enough to receive a variety of tea samples from her store. Thank you Reina! The first tea...
Podcast 006: Mellow Monk
Mellow Monk is an online tea company that sells Japanese teas from the Kumamoto prefecture. I interviewed Paul Kotta, Mellow Monk’s founder, who personally meets and buys from artisans...
Why are there Electric Fans in Tea Fields?
If you look at a Japanese tea field, you’ll often see what looks like tall posts with small fans on top. Have you wondered what they are for? The...
Ice Brewing Gyokuro
I’m sure that you’re familiar with iced tea, but did you know that you can brew tea using ice only? Ice brewing, or ice steeping, is called kooridashi (氷出し)...
The Tea With the Highest Saponin Content: Saponincha
Did you know that there’s a tea that’s mainly drank for its saponin content? It’s called saponincha (サポニン茶, saponin tea) in Japan, and it’s a real tea in the...
How to Make Kaga Boucha at Home
Have you tried kaga boucha before? It’s basically roasted kukicha and it’s named after Kaga city in Ishikawa prefecture. Other names for it are houjikukicha (焙じ茎茶) and kukihoujicha (茎焙じ茶)....
The Persimmon Tree Sencha
I’ve been enjoying this tea for the past weeks, it’s almost over now. Sencha is the second tea that I drink the most, after genmaicha. The Persimmon Tree Sencha...