Japanese Tea -Biwa cha-
JAPANESE FOODS
12.02.2019
Before travelling to Japan and the living in this amazing country, I never thought so much about nature, agriculture and tea.
Once here I had the chance to meet very interesting people who showed me the endless world of tea and infusions existing in Japan. I met a lot of farmers in the last months and one couple of around 80 years old manage to teach me one of my favorite hobbies I have, making Biwa cha (Loquat tea)
The couple kindly taught me everything about biwa trees and its fruits which are famous in Japan for being tasty and curative at the same time.
After this pleasant guided tour and lecture the old woman offered me an infusion which at first sight I thought was normal black tea. But it wasn’t, from the gentle fruity taste to the pinkish colour it wasn’t any normal black tea. It was that good I had 5 minutes of deep meditation, its gentle taste was the perfect representation of the Japanese attention to details along with its humble approach to the unknown (the palate), so I asked her to show me the brand because I wanted to bring it to Italy and make my family enjoy the same experience I was having in that moment.
With great surprise the she replied in Japanese it was Biwa cha and I couldn’t buy it anywhere because it was homemade, and the leave were coming from the tree we saw previously.
Suddenly, my inner, hippie, eco-friendly spirit started to make me want to know everything about that unexpected delicious infusion coming from mother nature, and that’s how I ended up browsing around the island to find the best biwa trees and proudly make my own biwa cha.
Now after more than 500 grams of biwa cha shipped to Italy and making my friends in Japan taste it, I’m still making my own Biwa cha during my free time to reconnect my mind to the nature which is always giving these precious presents.
＜＜HOW TO TASTE IT＞＞
| 1; I personally boil the water together with the biwa cha bag I prepare and leave it there for 10 minutes.
2; After I use the tea beg I cover it in paper and I store it in the fridge because in the meanwhile it will ferment a little bit and the second time you will use the infusion the tea will become sweater and pinker.
3; Then I will store it again and I will use it for one last time. This time the tea is going to be more yellow an even more delicate.
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I am Michele Bezzi, 29 years old and I come from Bergamo a small town in the northern part of Italy. I love playing football, futsal and basketball every week with my friends. I also love hiking Japanese mountain during my days off. In the last years I started to love gardening and in general growing edible plants thanks to the passion Japanese people have for agriculture which they transmitted to me. I came to japan in April 2017 just to discover a new country and challenge myself in a totally different environment. After few weeks I decided to stay for 3 months until the end of the tourist visa and in the meanwhile I had the luck to be in contact with Pasona Group which later hired me to join an amazing project with the goal to solve society’s problems.
