Matcha Gelato

Rainy season is officially over, and hot, humid and typhoon season has come in my area.

Four Green Leaves ITO EN serves five different intensity levels of matcha gelato ---- from relatively sweet flavour to very rich, deep and intense flavour. Of course, I tried the most intense one. The richest and the deepest matcha gelato I've ever had!! I did enjoy, but I heard some people can't finish it since it's too strong. 

The shop has more flavours including houjicha and mugicha (barley infusion). 

Mugicha gelato, which I've never had, sounds interesting too.

Mouth of Wolf !? - Cream Tea-

It's been raining sometime drizzling, sometime heavy, but anyway, we miss sunny day.

Anyway.......craving for scone, I visited a local British tea room.　

When the scone is well puffed up, you may see the line in the middle of the scone. I don't know why and who created this word, but Japanese call this line “a mouth of wolf”, which we believe is the sign of a well-made scone. Their scones, soft inside and crunchy outside, have a lovely "mouth".

The door is left open, and the number of the tables is reduced to leave more space between tables to prevent the spread of infection.

Kamairicha made by Mr Kajihara in Kumamoto

Japan usually has a lot of rain this time of year. We need it to some extent. However, the situations are getting much worse, much more extreme, and much more fatal every year. We are now facing another deadly torrential rain, causing flooding and mudslides here and there. Kumamoto, a well-known for tea production area, is one of the worst disaster regions. 

 Mr Kajihara’s house is damaged by torrential rain, and some of his tea gardens in the mountains are collapsed. It'll have to take an enormous amount of time and labor to restore, but he himself and all his family are fine. That’s a relief and more important than anything else.  

Unfortunately, he is not only one.

Amid concerns over Covid-19, this awful and stupid lingering rain front is still causing heavy rain and thunder over wider areas of Japan. We are not out of woods yet. Pray for safety.

Green Tea Cold Brew

It's July!! It is time for Mizudashi, cold brew, in our area.

As you may know, when you brew green tea in water, you get more L-theanine, which helps you relax. According to the research by The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Japan, you also get more EGC (Epigallocatechin), which boosts our immune system, more than other catechines such as EGCG, ECG and EC. 

In order to relax, boost my immune system and satisfy my appetite, "Mizudashi "green tea with "Inari-sushi" (sushi wrapped in flavoured fried tofu) :-)