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.

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) :-)

Minazuki - Japanese seasonal sweets -

Shincha of kabusecha with a seasonal Japanese sweets "minazuki”, which is named after an old Japanese name of June. The shape represents ice cube, and red beans on the top means "to drive away evil spirits". People (especially Kyoto and its neighborhood) eat minazuki on the last day of the mid-year, which is June 30, in hope that they will live healthy and happily for the rest of the year after throwing away bad luck of the first half of the year. Must-eat, especially this year!

 

Tea is Jumping!??

Japanese black infused from glossy and big leaves has a beautiful ruby color with round and savory note. Made by Mr Kajihara in Ashikita, Kumamoto prefecture. Benifuki cultivar's tea can be bitter and even harsh, but his tea doesn't go bitter at all even if I keep the leaves in a glass. Rather, more complexity comes out as the tea brews. 

I always enjoy seeing leaves circulating in a pot / glass when brewing, which, what many Japanese black tea people call, “jumping”. 

When tea finishes "jumping", it’s ready!  Together with steamed sweet potato.