Japanese tea

Hi, how are you doing? Do you have some plan to travel in this summer? If you have no plan, I recommend you come to Japan and enjoy wa-shoku, Japanese food. Japan has many kinds of wa-shoku. Today I would like to introduce Japanese tea.

Japanese enjoy many kinds of tea, ryokucha (green tea), mugicha (barley tea), hojicha (roasted green tea) and so on. Have you ever drunk some of these? I heard that foreigners put some sugar into tea. But Japanese people add sugar to coffee or western tea such as Earl Grey but don’t add it to Japanese tea. So Japanese tea is not sweet.

I would like to introduce history of Japanese tea. This is deeply connected with Japanese culture.
When did Japanese people come to drink tea? It is said that Japanese missions to Tang China and Buddhist priests who studied in Tang China brought tea back to Japan in Nara or Heian era.(710~1185) In that age, tea was so rare and expensive that only the priests and the nobility could drink. But the custom to drink tea went out of vogue. However, In Kamakura era, Eisai, Buddhist priests brought tea back from China again and told people effect of tea. The nobility, priests and samurais come to drink tea. In Azuchi-Momoyama era, Sen no Rikyu brought Japanese tea ceremony, sado to perfection. In edo era, the easy way to drink tea was introduced from China and ordinary people came to drink tea.

one scene of the tea ceremony, sado
(http://free-artworks.gatag.net/tag/%E8%8C%B6%E9%81%93)

Would you like to drink Japanese tea after you know the history of Japanese tea? It’s easy for you to try Japanese tea when you travel in Japan. Tea is ubiquitous in Japan. In some Japanese restaurants, they serve you a cup of tea for free! And tea is so familiar drink for Japanese people that we can buy tea bottles in convenience stores and supermarkets. And Japanese tea, especially mathca (one of green tea) flavored sweets are also popular in Japan. You can enjoy matcha flavored chocolate, parfait, ice cream and so on. When you come to Japan, I recommend you try these sweets!

You can enjoy mathca in Japanese style café.

If you would like to try to matcha, there are one-day sado class for foreigners in Japan. Taking part in this kind of class will be good memory for you. And in some café, we can enjoy matcha casually.
And some tea farms hold tea tours. The contents of the tour depend on farms but you may be able to try hand tea picking and taste several kinds of tea.

I am happy if you get more interested in Japanese tea and food!

References
http://www.ocha.tv/
http://verdure.tyanoyu.net/rekisi.html
https://obubutea.com/services/japanese-tea-tours/