Green in the Land of the Rising Sun

What is it about Japanese tea that gives it such a special place in my heart?  Like most other tea producing regions of the world, tea came to Japan by way of China.  As early as the 8^th century, Buddhist monks returning to Japan from studying in China are known to have brought tea back with them.  It wasn’t until the 12^th century, however, that Japan began cultivating its own tea and tea culture thanks to the Buddhist monk known as Eisai who first established tea farming in Japan when he brought back tea plant seeds from China.(1)

Japan is known for green tea, in fact, most of the tea produced and consumed in Japan is green tea. It differs from Chinese green tea because of different processing techniques. One especially unique Japanese technique is the steaming of harvested leaves to halt the oxidation.

Rona Tison, green tea expert and Vice President of Ito En tea company, discussed the five main Japanese teas to an audience of tea lovers at the San Francisco International Tea Festival 2014.  Here’s what I learned about them at her presentation:

Matcha

Photo by Hattie Hagedorn

Matcha is a powdered green tea used for the Cha-no-yu, which is the traditional Japanese tea ceremony.   It is prepared for drinking by adding hot water and using a fine toothed bamboo whisk to whip the tea liquor into a froth.  This style of tea was first created in China during the Song period (960-1279 AD), but lost popularity in China in subsequent years.  Nowadays, it is considered quintessentially Japanese.

Sencha

Photo by Masa Sinreih in Valentina Vivod

Sencha is green tea brewed from whole leaves.  The leaves are carefully chosen from tea plants fully exposed to the sun as they grow, not shaded.  About 80% of the tea produced in Japan is Sencha.(2)


Hojicha

Hojicha green tea is made by roasting bancha tea at a high heat instead of steaming.  Bancha are leaves and stems harvested in the later part of the year.

Genmaicha

Photo by Chahltd

Genmaicha tea is bancha or sencha with roasted rice kernels mixed in.  During roasting some of the kernels pop open like popcorn.

Gyokuro

Photo by A Girl With Tea

Considered the caviar of teas, Gyokuro is the highest grade of Japanese tea.  The leaves for this tea are harvested once a year during the late spring.  About two weeks before harvest, the entire tea plant is covered to shade it from sunlight until picking time.  This treatment is believed to bring out exceptionally rich flavors in the leaves.

So, what is it about Japanese teas that I like?  Perhaps the flavor of the steamed leaves, or the thick liquor of a whipped brew of powdered matcha, or the savory notes when roasted rice is mixed in, or perhaps just the beautifully refined cha-no-yu culture.  For me it’s all good.

Tison's presentation was a good start for my forays into Japanese teas.  Explore for yourself, if you haven’t already.  Here’s a link to a video where Christine Savage, tea expert at the Samovar Tea Lounge, introduces several types of Japanese green teas.  She gives a great overview on how the teas are processed and what their particular characteristics are.


Click the image for link to video.



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1. Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties, by The Camelia Sinensis Tea House (Kevin Gascoyne, Francois Marchand, Jasmin Desharnais, Hugo Americi. Firefly Books Ltd, 2014, p.90
2. Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties, by The Camelia Sinensis Tea House (Kevin Gascoyne, Francois Marchand, Jasmin Desharnais, Hugo Americi. Firefly Books Ltd, 2014, p.116

3rd Annual San Francisco International Tea Festival

The 3^rd annual SF International Tea Festival was held this past Sunday in the iconic Ferry Building of San Francisco.  There was quite an enthusiastic showing of vendors. Some came from afar, but most were small, California based, specialty tea companies.  Here are some of the tables I stopped by…


Ghograjan Tea Estate, Assam, India

 

The Imperial Tea Court, San Francisco, CA





Tea Xotics, El Dorado Hills, CA  



Chado Tea Room, Los Angeles and Pasadena, CA



The Tea Room (tea infused chocolate!), San Leandro, CA



Red Circle Tea, San Francisco, CA

Eat your tea!...Laphet Thoke

Laphet Thoke - tea meal unmixed

At the Rangoon Ruby restaurant in Palo Alto, I had the best tea and didn’t even drink it!  I couldn’t actually drink it because it was a salad.  While eating tea leaves is not common in most parts of the world, it is a popular tradition in Myanmar (formerly Burma) in the form of tea leaf salad.  There, tea leaf salad, Laphet Thoke, is a typical part of family meals.[1]



Palaung woman prepares to ferment tea leaves
Photo credit: Claudia

“Laphet” in Burmese means pickled tea and “Thoke” means mixture or salad.  Laphet is made by fermenting fresh tea leaves.  Newly picked tea leaves get steamed for about an hour, then spread on mats and hand pressed.  The leaves are then packed tightly into a container (traditionally a bamboo lined pit) and covered with stones or another weight to compress the leaves and squeeze out air.  They are then left that way to ferment for several months to as long as a year.[2]  Laphet as a delicacy was originally created and produced by the Palaung people in the Shan region of northern Myanmar.[3]  Sixty percent of the tea produced in Myanmar still comes from this region.[4]

Laphet Thoke - tea meal mixed

The salad I ate was brought to the table in the traditional way, which is on a single plate with separate piles of additional ingredients - nuts, seeds, lettuce…  It was then tossed together and served.  The flavors were layered and complex with a sweet and sour tang and a little bit of a spicy after taste.  I loved the jumble of textures - soft, crunchy and crisp elements.  It was wonderful.

Laphet Thoke can come in many variations.  Here’s one recipe you might like:

1/3 cup fermented green tea leaves
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1/4 cup peanut oil
2 tablespoons peanuts (coarsely chopped)
2 tablespoons cooked lentils
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (toasted)
2 tablespoons dried shrimp
1/2 lime (sliced or juiced)
1/3 cup shredded cabbage or lettuce

Sauté the garlic in 2 teaspoons of the oil until it starts to turn brown. Remove from heat.  Combine with the tea leaves and the remaining oil in a bowl and knead. Let the mixture sit at least one hour or until leaves soften.  Serve with the other ingredients.

Click here to find Burmese tea salad kit on Amazon.com

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[1] http://www.myanmars.net/myanmar-culture/myanmar-laphet.htm
[2] “The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World,” by Sandor Ellix Katz, 2012
[3] http://www.myanmarburma.com/attraction/549/the-Palaung
[4] https://www.dvb.no/news/tea-industry-in-steep-decline-burma-myanmar/40652

Science Fiction Novel about a Tea Master

If the world runs out of water, make my last cup into tea please.

Click image to go to Amazon.com

It’s not every day that I come across a book that blends my love of tea with my love of science fiction.  With beautiful prose, Finnish author Emmi Itaranta tells a dark tale of a futuristic society where water is scarce and expensive but the tradition of tea survives.  Memory of Water is a dystopian novel about tea masters in a post-apocalyptic future where the water is strictly rationed and the penalty for violating the water quota can be execution. 
The main character is Noria, a seventeen year old born long after the “oil wars” and after the earth’s climatic change that resulted in the loss of most of the world’s drinking water.  She lives in the former Scandinavia, which has become a province controlled by a totalitarian military regime which seeks to own and control all remaining potable potable water supplies.  Noria studies the fine art of the tea ceremony and is to inherit her father’s distinguished position as the village tea master.  Noria learns that Tea Masters have secret knowledge of hidden water sources.

Tea fans will appreciate that author Itaranta gave a good deal of detail on tea preparation.  For example, Noria heats water in a cauldron and watches for the first 10 bubbles of the boiling water.  In real life, the Chinese have traditionally called this stage of boiling water “shrimp eyes.” Shrimp eyes appear at a temperature of 155°-176°F, which is ideal for delicate green tea. [1]

Itaranta’s tea ceremony has a strictly prescribed etiquette and philosophy and is modeled after real life’s Japanese tea ceremony.  In one scene, Noria silently disapproves when certain guests discuss politics during the tea ceremony.  Similarly, in the Japanese tea ceremony, guests are to refrain from talking about topics unrelated to the tea ceremony.  In another scene, Noria is chastised by a senior tea master for opening a second window in the tea house where by rule only one window is to be left open.  She is reminded that this rule is so that guests can “take pleasure in the scent of the tea and the humidity of air created by the water.” [2]  Noria explains her choice to open a second window was for the comfort of her guests and was in fact in accordance with the philosophy of the tea ceremony, which is about “embracing change and accepting the fleeting quality of the world around us.” 

Will Noria embrace change or be bound by tradition of the tea master in a world where the military’s designs on water are at odds with survival for all?  I enjoyed finding out and hope the author decides to make a sequel.
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[1]  http://www.teadreams.net/2013/08/some-like-it-hot.html 
[2] Water of Memory, Emmi Itaranta Chapter 8, page 98.

Afternoon Tea at The Golden Tea Garden

Sitting in an oasis of beauty, I had a British style Afternoon Tea service with a friend at the Golden Tea Garden in Hayward, CA.  The owner Beneba Thomas has spared no effort in bringing the tranquility of a lovely private outdoor garden to her inside dining area.  There’s a grand trickling water fountain at the entry and live flowers everywhere along with rose petals (not real ones!) strewn about the floor.  A garden mural covers an entire wall and the white garden furniture is a perfect touch to make this inside area feel like a garden.  And like a real garden, the décor changes in part with the seasons.

Tea was served in a beautiful variety of fine porcelain tea cups, saucers, and pots with floral patterns.  Lavish displays of even more exquisite teaware appeared on extra tables and garden benches.  Only some of the teaware was for sale, some was part of the owner's private collection.
  
The charming owner, Beneba, was there serving her guests when I visited. Along with fine teaware, Beneba knows her teas!  There are nearly 200 options, the menu serves as a basic guide, but Beneba has even more teas available upon request.  I was pleasantly surprised to find she had one of my favorites, a ginseng oolong which is not very common in U.S. tea houses.



Sara & owner Beneba

The Golden Tea Garden also hosts events.  The day I went, I joined a class in the etiquette of Afternoon Tea from the British tradition.  I learned that there are two traditions of tea service taken in the afternoons, one called “High Tea,” and the other “Low Tea.”  High Tea originated in Britain as a late day tea and meal break for the working class, with the term “high” presumably because they had their tea break while sitting at regular sized tables.  This would be as opposed to the “low” tables of Low Tea, which originated as casual social meetings between friends of the upper class where the tea was served on low drawing room tables. The term "Afternoon Tea" typically refers to Low Tea, which nowadays is served on tables of any height.

Whether high or low, I’ll be back either way for more tea at the Golden Tea Garden. 

ZenCha

Mango Bubble Tea at Zencha, Columbus OH

In the window of ZenCha Tea Salon there was a sign  that said "Wanted - Tea Ambassadors."  If I lived in Columbus Ohio, I’d consider applying.  “Enthusiasm” in learning about tea and in promoting tea and tea culture is what ZenCha seeks in its tea ambassadors, a.k.a. tea support staff.  That sounds like me!   

ZenCha on High St, Columbus, OH

ZenCha believes that tea is a common bond between ethnic and cultural diversity across the globe.  To further this common bond, ZenCha offers teas from all over the world and also blends teas to capture the styles of the some of the major tea regions.  For its “Arabic series” of tea, ZenCha combines black tea with spices and fruits found in Arabia.  My favorite from this series is Cardimon Ginger and I buy packets of it in loose leaf to bring home.
  
 

ZenCha in Bexley, Columbus, OH

Recently at ZenCha, I ordered a mango bubble tea made the old fashion way, as explained by ZenCha owner Jean Wu.   Bubble tea is sweet latte tea with a number of tapioca “bubbles” or balls in it.  Bubble tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s and is extremely popular there today.  Zencha’s bubble tea is still made from real brewed tea, real milk, and real natural ingrediants, unlike some bubble tea sellers today, who now use food dye, powdered tea and powdered milk.

ZenCha inside in Bexley, Columbus OH

With a tea philosophy based on the principles of “Harmony, Respect, Purity, and Tranquility,” ZenCha seeks to create environments where customers feel a sense of relaxation for a “Zen” tea experience.  I found that the garden in the window of their High St. location and the art work and soothing colors at their Bexley location both lead me to Zen tea moments.  It must be working for other customers too - judging by the way they linger     

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[1]  http://zen-cha.com/philosophy.html