"Discover Premium Green" Year in Kyoto

Through this coming April till March in 2018, Kyoto will be full of tea!

Lots of tea events named “Discover premium green” will be held here and there in Kyoto throughout the year.You will be able to enjoy some hands-on experiences like tea-picking and tea processing, tea-ceremony at a golden house, and have special food and drink at the restaurants and tea rooms or so.

If you happen to visit Kyoto during the special year, you will find the fascination of tea in Kyoto!

"Discover Premium Green" ( in Japanese only)

http://ochahaku.kyoto/

Strawberry Tea + Creamy Vanilla Snack = !???

♪♪　I have a strawberry  tea, I have a creamy-vanilla Pocky (or Mikado) snacks, ah “strawberry layered cake”!????? 　♬ 

.........Can’t be!!

But Kirin Beverage Co.,Ltd,and Ezaki Glico Co.,Ltd, have turned into reality. 

Bottled "strawberry-flavored tea" by Kirin beverage and "Creamy vanilla-flavored Pocky (Mikado)" by Ezaki Glico appeared on the market on February 21st as a collaborative project. They say if you have this snack with this strawberry tea, you will enjoy the taste of  "strawberry layered cake" in your mouth!

This is not the first time for the two companies to work together. It's the third part of the series since the last two collaborative products were very popular. Does it mean they are good???

Whatever it is....it seems catchy especially among younger Japanese people.

Chagayu -Tea Rice Porridge-

I took part in a chagayu get-together hosted by Ms Takemura from a tea shop “Takemura Gyokusuien” in Kyoto. 

Chagayu, literally means tea rice porridge, is unsweetened and savory rice porridge cooked in tea. Rice porridge (called kayu or o-kayu) cooked in seasoned water is very common throughout the country, but chagayu is not. It’s customarily eaten in some areas including Nara, Wakayama and the southern part of Kyoto, not in the Kyoto city.

At the event, three different types of porridge cooked in three different teas including Sencha, Hojicha and very very smoky flavored Bancha were prepared. The nice aroma of teas were coming out while the teas in a bag were being boiled, which made me hungry.

Once tea is ready, put some rice into a pan and boil until ready. Put a lid on and wait for another several minutes. And then, here we are!

*Sencha one (on the left) : It tastes very refreshing.

*Hojicha one (on the right) : The toasty aroma is wonderful!

*Bancha one (on the top) : It's cooked with sweet potatoes: Very very very smoky aroma of the tea, which I love, is really good with the potatoes. It’s bit stickier than the others because of, I think, the potatoes.

Some other dishes accompanied by the porridge were also tasty. They were all made by Ms Takemura. She is really good cook! 

It is said that it's been more than 1200 years since people, mainly the Buddhist monks in Nara, started to eat chagayu. It is a simple dish, but I think chagayu is more than just that especially for people in some areas.

*Web: Takemura-Gyokusuien (in Japanese)   http://www.gyokusuien.com/index.html

They don't serve the porridge at the shop, but they have a great selection of teas. 

Spring Starts! -To the “Hachiju-hachiya” -

It was a lovely day today, an ideal for the first day of the spring!

Yes, today is called "risshun" referring to the first day of the spring 2017 according to the traditional Japanese calendar. 

And, if you are interested in Japanese tea. just wait another 88 days.The 88^th nights from "risshun" is the most important tea day known as “hachiju-hachiya (lit; eighty-eight night)”. In 2017, it falls on May 2. It is believed that drinking green tea made from tea leaves picked on Hachiju-hachiya will bring you good health for the year. So, tea on the day can be called “good luck tea”. 

Tea festivals are annually held at tea-producing areas including Kyoto and Shizuoka on the day. Lately, a lot of tea lovers from overseas will join the event. If you happen to be in Japan on that day, why don’t you visit the tea areas!

Kobe Tea Festival 2017

KOBE TEA FESTIVAL supported by Sir Thomas Lipton was held in Kobe. It was one of the event to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Kobe. The city is well-known as tea-lover's city, but surprisingly, it is the first time to host the big tea event. Luckily, the day I went was very warm and lovely day for the season. Unbelievably a lovely day!! Since the advertisement was not that enough, but so many people came in.

I enjoyed the tea tasting set served by Lipton. It was well prepared. They include Assam, Darjeeling, Uva, Nuwara Eliya and Dimbla together with some food to go well with.

Some tea shops from the area and Tokyo had their booths. People can sample and buy if they like. 

I was surprised to see so many people are in line to sample some tea.

Actually, coffee has been much more popular in Japan. Not many people were excited with tea. However, I can feel it is changing. I think tea will be in! As a tea geek, it is exciting!

Overtake Coffee

Japan is a coffee country. People drink coffee a lot rather than green tea and other tea. But I feel that it is changing. 

People are much more talked about tea, especially black tea including Wakocha, and many tea events held in Tokyo area last year. 

Unfortunately, the situation was not the same in Kansai area (including Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto). However, I feel “tea” will be in more even Kansai area too. Early this month, a special event of Wakocha at a renowned department store in Osaka was a big success. The tea shop owner for Wakocha held several mini-seminars a day for three days. All of them were soon fully booked. A guy, who is a cook, came to the event to look for Wakocha for him to serve at his own restaurant. Some came to get more Wakocha since, they said, they got hooked on the tea recently. 

There will be a big black tea event (both abroad and home) in Kobe for the first time at the end of this month. This spring, another tea event is to be held in Osaka. 

The tea is more than “creating a buzz” now. I’m very curious what’s going on the tea market this year. 

Happy New Year 2017

2017 has begun. 

Fortunately, it's been a lovely and mild weather for this season around my area.Many of Japanese were able to see "hatsu hinode", the first sunrise of the year, which is considered auspicious.

On the New Year's Day, people eat "osechi ryori", special meal for New Year's Day on the morning and go to "hatsu mowde", to visit the local shrine to pray for the year. 

New Year is the most important day for Japanese. When the year starts off auspiciously, we feel happy and relieved, and want to believe that it's going to be a good year. 

I really hope 2017 will be a peacefu year.