Wintertime

Winter is still sending more snow to my place. It´s an unusually cold one for us this year. Even better when you don´t have to leave the house too often. I rather have endless numbers of nice cups of tea, while reading interesting books. Reflecting on whether to, or not to, put some posts on food on this blog. Since i´ll be a future chef, this might be quite an idea. But still i like to keep it simple here. It should all be about tea, shouldn´t it?

However there are exciting months ahead, and i´m willing to take the challenge.Hope all is well with you guys out there.

Keep up posting and commenting my page, i really appreciate it!

Regards Stephen

Review: Ippodo´s Matcha “Horai-no-mukashi”

Well, Matcha, right….i didn´t have any good Matcha for a long time, although my love for greens started with a matcha kit. The tea that came with it was Keiko´s “Kabuse No.1″ which i prepared totally wrong…and then was forgotten forever, in some kitchen cupboard.With my knowledge on tea growing and having had loads of sencha cups the past year, I brought the very same matcha back to live. Mmmh, not excactly, but i tried to. As you might figure, there wasn´t much going on any more…the tea was way too old…lacking mostly everything you´d normally expect it to taste like.

So i scraped my last pennies together and bought a new Matcha from Ippodo´s Webshop…recently i was kind of broke, having spent quite some money on two brilliantly handmade Raku Chawans. The only stuff i bought from Ippodo so far were some nice Senchas, and a Gyokuro tea i really liked.

Got to say it again, it´s so much fun ordering from Japan. Everything seems to be treated with a lot of care, beautifully wrapped…so many nice little details. And it´s even cheaper than buying my teas here.

Matcha “Horai-no-mukashi” is one of Ippodo´s Premium Quality teas.

Vendor description:

“For the matcha lover who likes a rich umami flavor with slightly less aftertaste, Horai-no-mukashii is a good choice. Attractively priced, this premium matcha is also an excellent choice for preparing the thicker koicha. This matcha was named by Jimyosai-sosho XIV, the grand master of the Omote-Senke family of tea masters.

This grade of matcha is the same as that used for Sayaka-no-mukashi, which was named by the Ura-Senke family of tea masters.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matcha preparation might seem tricky for beginners, maybe it is…but take your time…don´t rush, and you´ll succeed soon.

First thing i do, is to preheat my Chawan (bowl) and Chasen (whisk). Place some boiling water in your bowl and put the whisk in there. That helps the water to cool off and the Chasen brushes to soften. 

It´s useful to sift your Matcha before putting it into the chawan. So all the lumps can be removed. You could use a special Matcha sifter for that. Instead I use a steel tea filter basket from my old Tetsubin (iron tea kettle), and it just works fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you´re done with that put the Matcha powder (1 teaspoon)  into the Chawan, pour about 60 cl. cooled-off water over it, then start whisking your tea. First slowly, than brisk. Always triying to whisk the letter “M”. Don´t go in circles. There are lots of videos and descriptions all over the web, on how excactly to do it. When you´re done, your tea should be frothy on top…without any big bubbles.

And….Wow! What a cup. What a difference to my old matcha! But even compared to a fresh one, this would be a lovely tea. It´s sweet, no bitterness at all, lingers in your mouth for a long time. A very thick matcha, smooth an elegant. But most dominant are those, let me call them, “maritime” flavours. There is “Nori”, grassiness…aromas you could also find in japanese food. 

I´m really glad i found this tea, and i´ll definately prepare it as Koicha one day. 

Feel free to give me some feedback. And ´til then enjoy your teas!

 

Christmas Special: Raku Chawans from Artist Janus Gunder (Bronzeart)

So here they are…my first real unicum, handmade chawans.

I was surfing up and down the web looking at new teaware for decades. Found a nice piece here and there, but mostly they were too expensive. Plus there wasn´t too much good Raku stuff from Japan, i could find. So i put my focus on local german artists, such as Janus Gunder. 

I got to his page by accident, but fell in love with his raku work right away.

Mister Gunder was born in 1963 in Selesia, and is working on his very own art since the early 1980´s. His first studio (JaGuDesign) opened up in 2001. Focussing on works made of  artificial and natural stones. Since 2004 he is also creating brazen scupltures. The same year traditional Japanese Raku Pottery became part of his oeuvre.

After having had a close look on his webpage, and those lovely chawans displayed, i had a very friendly chat with mister Gunder. Showing him the pieces i liked most, a package arrived at my door in basically no time. Thanks for that again!

From this day on the chawans have been good companions, making my teatime a real treat.

Excited?

Here are some pictures of the red chawan, i usually use for senchas.

 

 

 

And here´s the blue one….used for Matcha only!

 

 

So that´s a beauty!

Janus Gunder Website