Yame Black Tea

Wakocha (Japanese black tea) made by Kurihara family in Yame, Fukuoka together with a cute calico cat-shaped bread.

Yame is well-known tea producing area, especially Gyokuro. They produce not only black tea but Gyokuro, Sencha, Kabusecha, Genmaicha, Kukicha, Hojicha and Bancha. They are known as a reliable tea producer, having received various kinds of awards. I haven't visited their tea garden yet, but it is one of the tea farms I would love to visit when things get ready.

* Kurihara Seichaen https://www.e-yamecha.com/

*My Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/tomokoh22/

Marishi Cultivar's Tea Flight

Comparative tea tasting is always fun.Especially, it is always interesting to have tea made from a rare cultivar. I had 5 different teas made from the same rare cultivar called "marishi".

All of the tea are made from the same cultivar, but the characters are different respectively depending on how/where they are grown, how/when they are picked, how they are processed etc. 

The one (from Shizuoka) that has a "Goldilocks" umami and thickness with a slight melony aftertaste is my favorite.

*My Instagram   https://www.instagram.com/tomokoh22/

Uji Matcha vs Nishio Matcha Sweets

Matcha is "originally" a drink. Recently, it is more to eat.....What I've found is special versions of longtime bestseller sweets. 

Here is Uji matcha-flavoured mushroom-shaped sweets.

The other one is Nishio matcha-flavoured bamboo shaped one 🤣

Uji one is thicker, while Nishio one is milder. I was thinking to have those with a bowl of matcha, but it can be too much. I picked up Sencha. :-)

Anyway, whether you like it or not, matcha is everywhere now....as sweets.

     * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomokoh22/

Matcha, Anko and Ice cream Toast

It's been extremely hot! This heat is at a dangerous level seriously....

I visited a tea room to seek to cool off. Matcha toast topped with anko, red bean paste. Also some vanilla ice cream is under the anko, which helps get through the heat. 

Together with green tea latte. 

The cafe has a wide variety of pottery made by artists, and food and drink are served with those special pottery.

This tea room attracted so many tourists from overseas. Hope the time when people at home and abroad gather to enjoy tea and pottery will come again.


*My Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/tomokoh22/

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.