Teas from the region of Wuyi is one of the most well known in history, hailing back to 479 AD…
The upcoming tea tour is happening Oct 17 through 25th, stay tuned for the fall harvest blogs!
We have 2 spots left for the tea tour, contact us at info@teance.com if you want to go!
One more day in HK and I am done with my tour, the last 5 days not much about tea but, as that stairwell above says at Narita Airport-Dining, Shopping, Dining, Shopping. And lots of things in between. To be sure, I had travelled to 2 countries, 2 half countries, 16 or so cities, 10-11 tea mountains, tasted around 250+ samples of teas (at least)and knocked down around 9-10 bowls of ramen, in the past 22 days. What I most admire about Japan is its success in preserving as well as advancing, its rich and deep culture from folk art to theater to cuisine, while moving with the speed of bullet trains through the modern world. I heard the first fully communicative and functional companion android has just been birthed there. To be sure, their Abe led government is scary and Tokyo is a concrete jungle, the birthrate is alarmingly low and the population is the oldest living in the world, and the social pressure of being in line and doing the right thing is omnipresent. But your opposite extreme of China, with its hellish government, repression in all fronts except corruption (until recent year), strange illogical financial systems, and every man out to sink or swim out of the polluted cities, without respect for its arts, cultural heritage, nor formal agrarian lifestyle, is not remotely preferable. The only anomaly is tea. There, it is thriving, improving, as if all the yearning of perfection is exercised in this non-threatening cultural icon.
I feel that in being a small part of keeping the tea tradition alive, I am helping China save something precious for humanity for another time.
If not for thinking of that purpose, my work in tea would just fall back into: Dining/drinking, Shopping/buying tea.
My favorite Japanese actors all in these Sapporo posters. Well, Fukuyama ( shown with ocha/tea beer) is an accomplished singer and at best J pop actor, while Mifune and Yamazaki are acting gods in universes reserved just for them.
Actors and actresses have been enlisted to help sell tea too in China, particularly for Tieguanyin and other prestigious teas that have brand names. Attempting to make a brand of tea is difficult- most are brands of teashops in China. In Japan, because vending machines rule, and teas are in PET bottles, and celebrities endorsement still mean something, even serious actors are enlisted for promotions.
A curatorship brand like Teance- I wonder…. There’s always Hello Kitty?
Beer adventure today. Have to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum of course, the first beer company in Japan and hailing back to the 1870s. Had a beer ice cream, and a flight of 3 beers. The water here is very crisp and cold, and the hops have the intense bitter aroma. Love those old bottles and graphics.
There’s no good tea in this town- just some bottled tea in ubiquitous vending machines, or hot Sencha with powdered matcha to give it the green powdery color, but in reality, Sencha is yellowish. Or that it’s neither Sencha nor Matcha but cheapest hojicha. The problem with Asia is that free tea is everywhere so people think Sencha should be served boiling hot like these restaurants do. In Uji, one should be hitting Sencha at 50-60 C or the tea police will ambush.
Sapporo Beer is an everyday beer that hits the spot after a long day of walking. And matcha/Sencha free tea goes down well if it’s free, but any China beer other than Tsingtao is undrinkable, and any perfumed scented tea is also undrinkable…..says my palate. Perhaps other professionals might agree.
Continuing my adventures- in food, possibly beer and sake. At Sapporo today where sake and beer are the replacements for tea. It’s usually so cold here people consume a lot of sake. It was a great comfort to end up in an AirBNB that was a modern traditional Japanese house where we can make tea. Out came my travel tea kit complete with fine porcelain cups, Baochong oolong, and an outrageous cheese mousse tart completes the day. My stomach has been stretched to the max.