Tales of a Travelling Tea Sommelier
A solitary cube of ice swirls in the middle of my blue-green matcha frothed to perfection. I’m sitting on a table facing a thatched window in the Kaboku Tearoom at Ippodo. A light breeze slips in with the afternoon sun. Sitting along the famous Teramachi shopping street, Ippodo has been serving tea in Japan for
Samovar tea lounge in San Francisco is exactly how you’d expect Silicon Valley would do tea. Not with fancy tech and gadgets. Oh no, that would be too on the nose. But, with precisely catalogued organic offerings, and almost scientifically perfected food pairings. My ‘green ecstasy’ matcha-sencha fusion arrived in a glass vessel reminiscent of
When it comes to making matcha tea, using a proper bamboo whisk is key. It’s the only way to get that frothy, smooth, clump-free, delicious matcha. These unique bamboo tools were created in a small Japanese mountain village almost 500 years ago, and today it’s still the best place in the world to get a
Japan’s tea farms are one of a kind—relentlessly manicured and groomed, tea bushes kept exactly 40 years at which point their diminishing yields require replanting by newer, younger bushes. The easy waves and rows of bushes, rounded by cutting machines, offers an environment it’s hard to feel stressed in. Surrounded by calming green, in a
Once in the late spring I took a train trip to the misty environs of Wales in the United Kingdom. Shooting away from the London train station and into the outer countryside, I found myself transported back in time to a place the evoked the romance of Welsh fairytales. A place where you wouldn’t be surprised to
Kyoto’s famous golden temple is one of Japan’s most popular sites. the old Japanese capital’s most-visited sites. While it’s not hard to miss the sun-catching, gilt Zen Buddhist temple at the centre of things, what you don’t want to miss is the cute little tea serving frothy, green matcha on crimson tables near the exit
The afternoon shadows were long when we arrived in Dubrovnik. The orange rooftops of the Croatian city add to the continuous glow. Even during the day, the rustic stone walls and adobe colours lend an air of nostalgia to the town. Walking into it feels like walking into a dream, or getting a postcard from
Whenever you go to Japan, you should always check and see if there will be a festival where you are. I don’t mean the major holidays—golden week, and so on. I mean the niche festivals—or matsuri, as they’re called. The more obscure, the better. Some little shrine holds a yearly dance-off? I’ll be there. It’s
The city of Uji in Japan is famous for its green tea. The phrase “Uji tea” carries a unique history and promise of quality amongst Japanese tea lovers. Located half an hour south of Kyoto by car or train, Uji lies in the heart of the country’s western tea corridor. When I came to this