I am happy to drink tea. I am much happier to have tea with some
sweets or food.
How do you enjoy tea and sweets? I mean which is first. Of course, you
can do whatever you like. But this is the way that the tea people recommend.
When you have Matcha, it may be better to have sweet first. Matcha is
strong and powerful since you consume the whole leaf. If you drink Matcha when
you are hungry, it might bother your stomach. Also Matcha is a bit bitter.
Having sweets first makes its bitterness milder. Actually, if you attend sado, or the
traditional tea ceremony, sweets are served before tea. So you have to have
sweets first whatever you say.
When you have Sencha or Gyokuro, the story is different. You don’t have
to finish the tea, but drink the tea first at least one sip. The tea like
Sencha and Gyokuro have a very sensitive aroma and flavor. You don’t want to
miss those, do you? If you eat sweets first, you wouldn’t taste the delicate character enough, which
is shame. Savor the tea a little first, then sweets. This is more
recommendable to enjoy both tea and sweets.
I had Matcha toast at a tea room in Kyoto. It was not Matcha-ish, it was real Matcha toast as you can see from the pic. Plenty of good quality of Matcha powder and Tencha (the Matcha leaves before being ground) spread a wonderful aroma even before I took a bite.
In this case…. Enjoy it whatever you like.:-)
