The Tea Harvest Seasons of Uji

Like Toku said,the first harvest season of Japanese tea is beginning.The tea plant is very vigorous.If you pick tea leaves off the tea plant, the new sprout appears in the plant soon after picking.So tea is picked about three-four times a year in Japan.

The first season is from early-April to late-May.The tea harvested this season is called Ichiban-Cha or Shincha(first picked tea) and tastes even better than other harvest seasons.Because it contains a lot of nourishment saved from autumn(last harvest season) to spring in tea plant. Ichiban-Cha is rich in taste and flavor.

The second harvest season is from mid-June to late-July and the third harvest season is from early-August to early September.The tea quality is getting worse as fall approaches.Sweetness and taste decreases , and bitterness and astringency increase.

In Uji, tea is picked only two times a year.Uji tea made of only first picked tea and second picked tea.So the annual harvest of tea in Uji(Kyoto) is only 3% of Japan’s total harvest but Uji tea has a lot of confidence in the taste.

» Read more about this topic.

Other posts you might be interested

• Genuine Uji Tea
• Matcha Flavored Chocolates
• Beautiful Festival in Japan
• Ice Extracting Gyokuro Tea
• 2010 New Year Sale!

Water For Tea

One of the requirements to prepare tasty Japanese tea is selection the water .

It is important for good tea to select soft water.

This point is not familiar to Japanese people because almost every type of Japanese water is very soft water.And, very soft water is suitable for Japanese tea and Japanese cuisine.

The tea using hard water won’t taste so good and lose flavor.

There is plenty of hard water in Europe.And,hard water is suitable for  Europe cuisine.

Hm mm, it is interesting.

Anyway,I recommend soft water !

Water hardness indicates the amount of the calcium and the magnesium in the water.

Very soft: 0-60 ppm
Soft: 60-120 ppm
Hard: 120-180 ppm
Very hard > 180 ppm

Japanese water hardness is　about 20-30 ppm

Below is the list of popular mineral waters of soft water.

Table1.Popular mineral water of soft water

Furthermore,I made the list of more soft waters of the world.

» Read more about this topic.

Other posts you might be interested

• Ice Extracting Gyokuro Tea
• The Effects and Components of Japanese Green Tea
• Black Boiled Egg in Hakone
• Tea Incense Burner (Cha Kouro)
• Beauty and the Japanese Tea

Took a Video of Matcha Tea

Last Sunday,I met my friend Shige and his wife Yoshiko to learn about how to prepare matcha tea from her.

Yoshiko is currently studying Japanese tea ceremony called “Sado” or “Cha-no-yu “.
Of course she knows how to prepare tasty matcha tea.

She is great teacher.

There are two types of preparation of matcha tea: koicha (“thick tea”) and usucha (“thin tea”).
May be usucha is more popular than koicha.

She taught me both.

Shige took a video of “how to prepare matcha tea” and Toku and me are editing it now.

We will upload  this video after open AKIBA MART  ! Please wait!

Be that as it may,
Shige and Yoshiko !  Thanks a lot for helping me !
Love you always !

If you want to know how to prepare tasty matcha tea now, please refer this page “How To Prepare Matcha”.

usucha

koicha

DAI-SEIKOU!! (Big success!!) Yoshiko and Shige and me

Related Links

• Zenchas blog says “ Review: Ippodo´s Matcha “Horai-no-mukashi””

Other posts you might be interested

• Akiba Mart Is Open Today!
• Matcha Flavored Chocolates
• Genuine Uji Tea
• Matcha Parfait
• Ice Extracting Gyokuro Tea

Japanese Green Tea Is Natural Supplement!

Today,I researched about nutrient content of Japanese green tea.
Japanese green tea is great!  (^^)v
Japanese green tea is like a natural supplement!

If you eat 2 grams of sencha leaves at one time three times a day ,you can take in a lot of nutrition from table1.

» Read more about this topic.

Other posts you might be interested

• The Effects and Components of Japanese Green Tea
• Beauty and the Japanese Tea
• Relax with Japanese Tea
• Tea Keep You Awake
• Sterilize by Japanese Tea

Tea Incense Burner (Cha Kouro)

Have you heard of an item called Tea Incense Burner (Cha Kouro)?

Yesterday, I went to Odaiba. Odaiba is located in bay area of Tokyo, which is famous for dating spot. Ah, don’t ask whether I went there for dating. Odaiba is also a good place for shopping where there are many shops and good to find out cool stuffs.

In one of the shop in Odaiba, I found a good tea incense burner (in Japanese it is called “Cha Kouro”). I knew that there is such thing, but I’ve never tried it. So I purchased one for my home to have a try. Burner is very simple, it has a little tray to put the tea on and a little space underneath the tray to put a candle. The way it works is same as aroma oil burner, but the tray is little more larger and shallow.

» Read more about this topic.

Other posts you might be interested

• Relax with Japanese Tea
• Sterilize by Japanese Tea
• Green Tea Coke
• Japanese Green Tea Is Natural Supplement!
• Genuine Uji Tea

The Effects and Components of Japanese Green Tea

Today, in order to create contents of Akiba Mart, I’m researching about health benefits of Japanese green tea all day.

For the moment,I have made a table of the effects and components of Japanese green tea .

I’m very tired to making this table….

Too many health benefits ….

» Read more about this topic.

Other posts you might be interested

• Beauty and the Japanese Tea
• Japanese Green Tea Is Natural Supplement!
• Sterilize by Japanese Tea
• Relax with Japanese Tea
• Japanese Tea Helps Your Diet