It's All About Tea

Japan doesn't leave much time to relax. As soon as the breathtaking cherry blossom season is over, comes the start of a new time of year — Shincha season. 

For many Japanese tea lovers out there May is basically a holy month!

Tea connoisseurs flock to the markets to secure for themselves some of the year’s limited supply of first flush... (Read more)

Overall there are two main types of tea ceremonies in Japan: an informal tea gathering chakai, and a formal tea gathering chaji. Chakai is a more simple tea gathering which will include some sweets and thin tea (usucha). While chaji is much more formal, usually including a full-course kaiseki meal followed by sweets, thick tea (koicha), and thin tea. A chaji is often times around four hours long, with guests taking small breaks to walk around in the garden by the tea hut.

Aside from the two main types of tea ceremonies there are also many other kinds of tea ceremonies which are held in Japan depending on the occasion, season, and time of day. (Read more)

So we have been getting this question a lot - which tea is the best substitute for coffee? 

We have compiled a list of the teas that we carry specifically for this purpose, to introduce people to other options. We will not be getting into the health benefits of tea in this post, but more so focusing on the caffeine level of the following teas...  (Read more)

The Japanese tea ceremony follows two main concepts — wabi sabi and ichigo ichie. Wabi-sabi, although hard to define literally, is a concept centered around the appreciation of imperfection. While ichigo ichie is an idiom meaning “one time, one meeting” and emphasizes the fact that each and every meeting is special in that it can only happen once. (Read more)

Chinese vs. Taiwanese oolong. This is a tricky topic. And for the most part, it will depend on the specific type of oolong. Of course, oolong was originally born in China, but the growing conditions and skills of the farmers allowed for Taiwanese oolong to quickly catch up to China’s quality within a couple centuries. (Read more)