Tea tasting: Homemade black tea blend

With absolutely no experience in tea blending, I tried to replicate a nice cinnamon spice black tea I had drank before. I only knew from memory that the ingredients of the said tea contained black tea, ground cinnamon, dried orange peel and cloves. The only black tea I have at home currently is a tin …

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Tea tasting: Homemade genmaicha

This was an experiment that turned out well! I had wanted to drink genmaicha, but had none at home, so I decided to try making my own genmai. I started by looking on the Internet for any tips or recipes for homemade genmai, and came across a blog post by Ricardo. Both the post and the …

Experience: Making wasanbon sweets

When I was in Takamatsu, Kagawa, I had the opportunity to go for a hands-on workshop in making wasanbon sweets. This is a type of higashi (Japanese dry confectionery) that is made of high quality fine sugar and shaped in wooden molds, usually depicting traditional seasonal themes. Wasanbon is produced only in the two Shikoku …

Happy 2017!

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2017 ahead, a year filled with good fortune, good luck and good health. 新年明けましておめでとうございます! 今年もよろしくお願いします。 Following a traditional custom of Kyoto, I made myself obukucha (大福茶) to welcome the first day of the new year today. 今日は大福茶で新年を迎えました。 Obukucha is tea containing umeboshi (pickled plum) and a strip of dried kelp tied …