When tea reached Japan, Chinese pottery and teaware were used to prepare and drink tea. It was only in the 15th century with tea master Murata Jukō that Japanese tea wares started to replace Chinese ones and a more rustic – and sometimes rough – style developed in tea ceremony. During the 16th century, when Sen no Rikyu […]
Noticing a growing interest in Japanese tea, this year we held the Japanese Tea Master Course twice. The second course took place in September. September can be tricky with the weather as it is called the typhoon season in Japan. This year luckily, they let us carry on without interruption. This time the course was […]
Nihoncha Award is a Japanese tea competition. It aims to select and award the best Japanese teas in various categories, such as: Sencha, Gyokuro, Kamairicha, Hojicha, free-style tea and others. The winners are selected after several rounds of evaluation. First two rounds are done by tea professionals, and in third round the general public is […]
In the middle of August one street of Kyoto – Gojo, becomes particularly lively, as it hosts the annual pottery festival. Gojo has always been known as a pottery area in Kyoto. The famous Kyoto pottery styles– Kyo-yaki and Kyomizu-yaki have been produced in this area and sold in numerous pottery shops on Gojo street. […]
The interest in Japanese tea has been growing over the past few years and many people are looking for opportunities to learn more about it. Japanese Tea Master Course is likely the only opportunity to get immersed into Japanese tea and learn about it in English. It is the third year to organize the course […]
Between 10th-12th May Shizuoka held a tea festival called – World O-CHA(Tea) Festival. Tea festivals in Shizuoka are held every three years. The first festival has held in 2001. In 2019 is the 7th time to organize it. This year the plan is to organize the festival twice: in spring and autumn. Spring festival was already held in […]
On 11th May Anna was invited by Jenny Chih-Chieh Teng from Mellow Sheng to join one of her beautiful tea ceremonies in Barcelona. As they both share a passion for kombucha and fermentation, Anna was asked to brew Goishicha! The ceremony started with an introduction of the teas – and the brewers – and went on […]
Even today a lot of tea in Japan is sold in tea auctions. The first opening of the auction is always a big event. It gathers people from all walks of the tea industry. Tea buyers – usually big tea wholesalers, are the key participants of course. But you can also meet tea farmers, agricultural […]