It's All About Tea — tea ceremony

When you want to make your matcha in the traditional Japanese style, it's essential to invest in a proper Japanese tea set. A basic tea set will include a chawan (matcha bowl), chasen (matcha whisk), and chashaku (matcha scoop). If you want a complete Japanese tea set, however, you should also get a furui (tea sift), and a kusenaoshi (chasen holder). By the way, this is only if you want to enjoy matcha at home, casually. If you're going to make matcha as per the ways of Chado, you need much more equipment. So, if you want to make a proper bowl of frothy green matcha, if nothing else, you should always have quality matcha tea powder and a chasen. So how do we take care of the matcha whisk to ensure its longevity for years of umami-rich tea bowls to come? (Read more)

In a couple of our recent posts, we have mentioned these obscure words — Hui Gan. But what does Hui Gan actually mean? Indeed, it’s as elusive as many of our favorite terms in this mysterious world of tea! Hui Gan, Cha Qi, Wabi-Sabi… they are all tricky to describe but really hold what we find is the essence of the tea ceremony. (Read more)

Any tea advice blog you turn to will say the same thing. Never use soap to wash your teaware. This is absolutely correct. Soaps and detergents can impart unfavorable flavors on delicate teaware. Usually, a quick rinse with hot water should suffice. However, what about those times that our teaware needs a little extra cleaning? (Read more)

While not being limited to animals, tea pets are small clay figures used during gong fu cha for various purposes. Most often, they are used by tea drinkers as decoration, but also for good luck, or to test water for the right temperature.

Tea pets have a long history, dating back to the Yuan Dynasty (13th century China). Tea pets are not only used for aesthetic purposes. Their meanings and positioning are actually closely intertwined with feng shui. (Read more)

Nowadays, boiling tea is often seen as a way to spoil perfectly good tea leaves. However, if done right, this method of brewing tea deserves much more credit than it gets.

Boiling tea leaves is the most ancient method of making tea.
Back in the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907), when tea culture was gradually at its rise, tea leaves were boiled for prolonged periods. Sometimes they were cooked together with different spices. Different kinds of herbs, roots, fruits, and even chili and scallions weren’t uncommon accompaniments to tea leaves. (Read more)