Tea tasting: Sawamizuka cultivar (Hagiri Tea)

Happy new year! Here's hoping that 2023 be an awesome year for all of us! For fellow tea lovers, may our cups be abundantly filled with great tea! Today I'm writing about this sencha that I've opened last month. I've bought it sometime in October. Usually I don't buy sencha this late in the year, …

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Tea tasting: Organic black tea (Nukumori-en Yururi)

This tea was one of several Shizuoka black tea gifts that I received recently. Nukumori-en Yururi is a traditional farm in Ogouchi village, Shimizu Ward, central Shizuoka, operated by the Nishiyama family. The closest train station would be Okitsu Station on the Tokaido line, but you'd need a car to reach the place. The Nishiyamas …

Tea tasting: Koganemidori sencha (Koganemidori Chaen)

Revisiting the taste of this unique hakuyoucha or white-leaf tea after I have first tasted it in November 2019. To learn more about the previous tasting experience, click HERE. Koganemidori, just like its name 'golden green' implies, is characterised by its golden-coloured leaves that don't look like any regular tea leaves. However, it is still …

Japan Tea Week Malaysia 2022 (World Ocha Festival special!)

I was feeling kinda down because I couldn’t make it to this year’s World Ocha Festival, which is currently happening in Shizuoka. I thought I could make it there, but as August crept by, I knew I couldn’t get any affordable flights to Japan even if it reopens fully before the festival (for a recap …

Tea tasting: Kahori Second black tea (Masuien)

This tea is one of the many gifts of Shizuoka black tea that I've received recently, without the obligation to blog about them. But of course I must. Just delayed. I'm actually almost finishing this tea. Too busy in RL lately. Anyway, Masuien is an organic tea farm in Kawanehon-cho, central Shizuoka. I've previously featured …

Tea tasting: Hand-rolled green tea

This is just a short post (and photo dump) for a delicious hand-rolled tea I received as a gift last week. In Japan, there are farmers who produce hand-rolled tea, usually in small amounts and sold at premium pricing. Also, as I have previously posted, some even offer the hands-on experience to visitors, at a …

Tea tasting: Sunrouge Kamairicha (Moriuchi Tea Farm)

Getting reacquainted with the Sunrouge cultivar, which I first tasted during a trip to Shizuoka in 2018. Also bought a sencha made from this unique cultivar that year. This cultivar is a cross between Camellia Sinensis and Camellia Taliensis, which produced tea leaves with a reddish purple hue. It is rich in anthocyanins, the antioxidant …

Special Focus on Shizuoka: Traditional hand-rolling experience at a tea farm

Before the advent of tea-making machineries, sencha was hand-rolled. This manual method known as temomi was invented in 1738 by Nagatani Souen. The method resulted in high quality and refined green tea with leaves that are bright and needle-like in shape. Today, temomi is no longer widely practised in Japan, but are preserved as a …

In the news: Japanese tea plantation in Thailand

A recent TV Shizuoka news feature caught my eye. I learnt that there's a Japanese tea plantation in Thailand. I suppose Thai tea drinkers may have known about it, but it's new to me. Scroll to bottom for embedded video report (in Japanese). While sales of tea continue to be sluggish within Japan, a tea …

Tea tasting: Bancha Mix (Mitsui Norin)

This is the second out of two Nihoncha Award 2021 winning teas I bought earlier this year. Called Bancha Mix, this tea is actually a winner for the Jury's Award (equivalent to bronze prize) under the "Liberal" category. Having a keen interest in bancha in the past one year, naturally the name of this tea …

Tea tasting: YABU-kita deep (Wumin’s Clan)

The Nihoncha Award generally has three awards. Besides the highly coveted Platinum Award (which is usually the highlight of the annual event), there are also the Fine Product Award and the Jury's Award. The latter two are equivalent to silver and bronze prizes. Recently I bought two Jury's Award winning teas from the 2021 list. …

Special Focus on Shizuoka: A Tea Dyeing Experience in a Former Post-town

The historical district Mariko in western Shizuoka City was one of the 53 authorised post-towns on the ancient Tokaido road connecting Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto. A post-town was where travellers find food and rest before moving on to their next destination. It is also known to be where Japanese black tea or wakoucha was …