Chiki Tea

Shipping the finest Matcha and loose leaf Japanese green tea from our café in Kyushu, Japan www.chikitea.com

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It’s time to CHILL!

Japan boasts a tapestry of some of the most beautiful seasonal landscapes in the world. Imagine the snow covered pagodas of Kyoto in winter, then the entire country turning pink with cherry blossoms, to water cascading down the mountains after the rains in June, to a canvas splashed with burgundy, burnt sienna, and Mikado yellow in autumn.

It’s now June and while the seasonal landscape is absolutely gorgeous, in reality, you have to be a virtuous monk to survive a summer here. The heat and humidity are so high and relentless that book pages are always soggy, mosquitoes dive bomb even the dog, and your skin is sticky from June to September. Then just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, that favorite tea beverage you’ve been sipping for most of the year has suddenly gone AWOL from any café or restaurant menu!

We are into our second summer running the Chiki Tea café in Kyushu, and I now know exactly why menus are so sensitive to the weather over here. The ever-present moisture makes baking simply impossible. Ice cream melts 10 seconds after being pulled from the freezer and condensation is a given which is Matcha’s silent killer!

Sensitive Matcha needs special care in summer as moisture and condensation on the tin can suck the freshness right out of it.

Chiki Matcha Tip: Wipe your tin and allow it to come to room temperature before opening it. Trust me, your Matcha will love you for your patience.

We did our best to deal with these logistical challenges but our customers just cared about cooling down! So last summer we went back to the drawing board and re-engineered our entire menu. Here are two of our most popular summer drinks to help you stay cool this summer…

Enter Frosteas and Iced Matchaccinos…

Some of you may be familiar with the term “Mizudashi” in relation to Sencha. Mizudashi means “cold brewing” and the best Mizudashi Sencha comes from using leaves specifically produced for cold brewing. This involves a deeper “firing” in the final stage to yield a stronger brew when extracted in ice or cold water. Using standard Sencha often produces a slightly stale or even fishy odour and taste.

The Chiki alternative to Mizudashi Sencha is Iced Kabusecha. When we first tried this, everyone was surprised at the true depth of flavor and thickness of brew! Kabuse means covered (or shaded) and the range we carry, hails from Chiran, Kagoshima, where the Sakurajima volcano burps ash into the atmosphere on a regular basis (a good thing for tea – think mineral rich!). Don’t worry, our farmers wash the tea before processing it!

To re-engineer our “Mizudashi”, we needed to think out of the box…literally! Our ice box needed as much space for keeping everything from chocolate chips to ice so having huge containers of iced tea was NOT an option! So here’s what we did…

Single-serving Iced Kabusecha:

• Steep 10g of any Kabusecha in 200ml water at 75ºC for 1 minute
• Pour into a shaker (we use Ball Mason jars)

• Add a couple of ice cubes and shake vigorously to cool the tea and diluting the tea concentrate


• Shaking it produces an evenly chilled tea with a foamy head


• Add extra ice and ENJOY!

Iced Matchaccinos and summer are synonymous. Our regular Matchaccino uses steamed milk to give that special froth. For the iced option, we use a HARIO milk shaker. Beware using strongly flavoured milk such as almond and coconut milk as these can smother the delicate Matcha notes. Even rice milk can come through a little strong. Dairy or soy milk is the best for this recipe.

To make a Chiki Iced Matchaccino:

At the café, we use a mixture of premium grade and culinary grade Matcha to get our signature flavor. If you want to keep it simple, our MYSTIC is going to be fine. Make it in the order below – this is key to avoid lumps!

• Add 100ml cold filtered or bottled water to a lidded jar

• Add the Matcha (we use 3g), a few ice cubes and shake it like crazy!

• Add about 6oz milk and a dash of vanilla essence – shake it again!

• Add a few more ice cubes and set the drink aside

• Pour milk into the HARIO milk shaker and shake to get the frothy top – this takes practice so don’t panic if your foam ends up on the counter or floor first!

• This puppy is best enjoyed with fun coloured straws and good friends!

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Shaken, not stirred!

Kyushu is as solid as a rock! We may be shaken but we are not stirred… The ongoing earthquakes certainly make for interesting fodder over endless cups of tea, but a recent visit to our new farmer friends in Kitsuki (Oita Prefecture) overlooking Beppu Bay, reveals the absolute resilience of these hard-working, warm-hearted people.

Master Kitagawa, a dear tea friend from Oita City, introduced us to the Oita Tea Masters. Fifteen of them descended upon Chiki Tea and, as a thank you, presented us with a gift of tea from the historic samurai town of Kitsuki. I had heard of Kitsuki and knew it had a tea garden or two but not much more than that.

Well, the asamushi tea with nods toward Hon Gyokuro, made me fall head over heels in love with Kitsuki tea! The sweetness in my mouth lingered for almost 2 hours. Artisan tea that is so close to me physically (30 kilometers) and yet I had no idea it existed. It’s like a secret society and I’ve just been given the keys! I’m here in Japan to sniff out these obscure artisan masters, so why hadn’t I tried the tea or even visited Kitsuki?

This samurai village dating back to the Edo period is Oita Prefecture’s most famous farming district, and as I recently discovered, is as much known for its tea as its mikan tangerines. But the farmers I met admitted that no one really knows about Kitsuki tea outside of Oita Prefecture! It’s a tight-knit group of tea masters and artisans creating stunning and stop-you-in-your-tracks tea, but there is simply no one to buy it. Because these artisan producers have such small farms, larger companies shy away from buying their tea, worried about the ability to satisfy demand. As a result, these healthy, happy and energetic folks produce and drink some of the finest tea Japan has to offer. I hasten to add that several of the tea fields are even award-winners yet they rarely get the kudos!

Sitting high in the mountainous terrain overlooking the ocean, it has the ideal conditions for cultivating healthy and hardy tea plants. There is no need for the tall “frost” fans because the ocean keeps temperatures warm enough with the mountains protecting the plants from behind. We had pretty horrendous snow this year, a first for many parts of Kyushu, so everyone was excited to see the brilliant buds of spring, frost-free!

This year, conditions are the best they have ever been, says Yukio Sato, Oita Prefecture’s Tea Agency Advisor and Master Instructor…and the nicest guy you will ever meet! He told me that in his lifetime and the lifetime of the farmers we were meeting, they had never seen shoots behaving just like they wanted…a perfect, even, slow growth to maximize the amino acid Theanine, keeping caffeine in check, so the leaves produce the smoothest tea imaginable and in abundant quantities.

He told me this as we were inspecting the Surugawase tea cultivar, which probably doesn’t mean a thing to you! That’s because you may have never heard of it and neither had I! This cultivar is the rarest, and possibly the only remaining producing field of its kind in Japan. The tea garden is tiny, probably about an acre, and has been passed down to young Nori-san, whose family has been producing artisan tea in Kitsuki for generations. Their Surugawase plants have been producing for around 50 years in this spot.

On Sunday, Nori-san covered half of his plants using a silver jikagise (specialized netting) to shade the leaves to produce a Kabusecha (covered tea, but not Gyokuro). The other half, uncovered, is destined for Sencha. He estimates that the covering for his Kabuse will be about 10 days but the growth of the buds will dictate how long…as with every covered tea in Japan. So much information is out there that says a Gyokuro is shaded for a month and Kabusecha for two weeks. Well, folks, that is just not correct. It is true that a Gyokuro is shaded longer and hovers around a month and that Kabuse is shorter but it is absolutely the leaves that say when enough is enough! Think about a baby being born – when it’s time, it’s time! I was hoping to help with the harvest on May 2nd, but Nori-san smiled at me and said, “well, ask the leaves please!”

One point to mention is that the tea I’m referring to is not Benifuki, though Kitsuki does produce this as well. Benifuki is regarded as the hay fever tea to stop the miserable symptoms. I’m talking about the incredible green teas, cultivated with love, and masterly produced.

With all the excitement of “shincha” (new tea), there is also sadness in Kitsuki. Due to the aging population, now just 30,000, many of the tea farms are going “extinct” as there are no young people to take over the gardens. My heart stopped when I found out that two of the award-winning gardens we visited were having the last harvest this year. The two farmers are Suzuki-san, 84, and Shimoeda-san, 82. Her husband passed away but she has kept up the family’s 5-acre garden by herself. When we met, she had been weeding for 6 hours in preparation for covering the entire 5-acres for Kabusecha. She is 82! She was explaining how the jikagise are rolls of netting that are draped over and clipped at the bottom of the tree. They come in a continuous sheet, weighing what seems like tons. Luckily some strapping lads are planning to help her!

As I was driving home, I couldn’t stop thinking about how we could help keep these tea gardens alive and producing. If you have any suggestions, advice or want to get involved, please post a comment. Suzuki-san offered to teach his skills to someone who wants to take over but it needs commitment, not a summer job.

I will likely rabbit on about this new discovery because Kitsuki’s tea is a gem hidden so deeply in Japan that most tea Masters in this country aren’t familiar with it. We will defiantly be acquiring some Shincha from our friends so please leave a comment if you are interested in getting some of it. There is not a lot produced so I’m talking a few kilos probably…and I’m definitely scoring some!

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Tips for a frothier Matcha!

In his latest post for TChing, First Experiences with Matcha) , Michael Haavaldsrud touches on a few of the difficulties we all face when dealing with Matcha for the first (or second! Or even third!) time.

Truth be told, it’s not the easiest, most intuitive tea to prepare if you’re new to Matcha…but once you get the hang of it, the art of whisking a good creamy cup couldn’t be simpler. In fact, you could argue that preparing a high-quality Matcha shot is easier than brewing a cup of coffee (if we’re talking proper, freshly ground coffee!).

Tips for the perfect frothy cap:

• SIFT your Matcha before whisking it. This is a key step to keeping the Matcha from clumping when you add the water and start to whisk. High-quality Matcha is ground to a particle size as small as the smoke from a cigarette! Sifting makes all the difference.

You can either sift it directly into your drinking or prep bowl or use a special Matcha “furui” designed specifically for Matcha sifting. This is a can with a sifting screen and a cute wooden paddle (sometimes metal but not recommended) for raking the Matcha through the fine mesh screen.

Even when you make a serving of “thick” Matcha where you add a few drops of water and create a paste before whisking into a drink, you still need to sift it! (FYI, there are two types of Matcha beverages served in the tea ceremony: “thick”, akin to a soupy pudding, and “thin”, the most common and palatable for Westerners.)

• TEMP of the water makes a big difference to your frothy cap! Make sure your water is between 158ºF – 176ºF (70ºC – 80ºC). Any cooler and you’ll find it harder to whisk. Any hotter and you’re at risk of scorching the Matcha, which will obliterate the taste, make it bitter, as well as potentially remove some of the healthy goodness from the tea. At the café, we use a long-handled bamboo tea scoop, (called Hishaku) to measure and cool the water.

• HEART is a big part of getting the best out of your Matcha! You just need to have fun! As Matcha becomes more popular, various theories on how best to whisk it are emerging. Some say you need to form an “M” or a “W” as you whisk…or perhaps a “Z”, a “K”, or a “J”?! Or maybe you’re even more of a ninja and you’re writing Shakespeare in Arabic or Cyrillic. Well, there’s no right or wrong. In fact, at the Matcha bar in Chiki Tea most of the staff simply whisk in a straight line (fast!) in order to create that perfect, frothy head, as taught by our local tea ceremony teacher. So relax, have fun, don’t take it too seriously, and enjoy it – replicate and improve on what works best for you.

Here’s our 9-step guide to whisking Matcha, Chiki style. At the end are a Slideshare, Pin and video links to give you more explanation.

Equipment:

• prep bowl

• Whisk (chasen)

• Tea Scoop (chashaku)

• sieve (Matcha Furui)

• cloth

Step 1: Heat bowl

Heat the bowl with boiling water. Putting Matcha in a heated bowl helps open up the flavors. Keep the hot water in the bowl for step 2

Step 2: Heat whisk

Use the hot water in your bowl to soften the tines of the whisk to avoid damaging or breaking the tines. Turn the whisk over several times to soak every tine.

Step 3: Dry bowl

Pour out the water and thoroughly dry the bowl. This is important (!) in order to avoid your Matcha sticking to the bottom.

Step 4: Sift Matcha into bowl

Sift 2-3g of Matcha into your bowl depending on taste preference. One heaping scoop is about one gram. Some Western Matcha brands suggest as little as 1 gram but that’s much too weak for us, and our customers.

Step 5: Pour water gently onto Matcha

Use about 100ml water for 2-3g Matcha. Water temperature should be 158ºF – 176ºF (70ºC – 80ºC). Try to avoid splashing as you pour.

Step 6: Get whisking!

Place the softened whisk into the Matcha and slowly move backwards and forwards. Speed up your motion. Try to avoid hitting the sides of the bowl too hard although inevitably you will touch the sides. Completely avoid hitting the bottom of the bowl. Keep whisking until a light green foam appears. Gently pull up the whisk and smooth out any large bubbles on the surface by lightly running the tip of the whisk through the foam. (It might be a good idea to check the video below for this bit!)

Step 7: Pour Matcha into a drinking cup

… or if using a “chawan”, drink straight from the bowl, traditional style!

Step 8: Clean whisk and store Matcha

Clean your whisk by whisking it in pure hot water (never use soap!). Store your Matcha in an airtight can and place it in the fridge. Consume it within at least 2 – 3 weeks after opening.

Step 9: Sit back and enjoy!

Check the Slideshare

See the Pin on Pinterest

Watch videos here on Tumblr

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A healthy, Happy and Creative New Year folks!

This post was originally written for T Ching

I’m often asked why I founded Chiki Tea. Well, it’s a very personal reason and one that I’m happy to share!

You see, in 2012, my darling brother Edwin took his own life. He struggled with labels like ADHD, bipolar, and manic depression and was plagued with allergies, migraines, obesity, sleep apnea, back pain, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

We lived under the same roof but in polar opposite worlds. I was drinking Japanese green tea daily from the age of three growing up in Japan, but when I was born, Edwin had already developed an obsession for Kool Aid, which our uncle invented, and which I believe started the junk food revolution. Edwin had a dead food addiction and look where it got him.

I founded Chiki Tea, a year after Edwin passed. I didn’t, however, set out to create a “health” brand. In fact we serve cheesecake and brownies to pair with the teas! Instead, I really want to inspire people to drink Japanese green tea for fun and pleasure. But I do have a responsibility as an ambassador of Japanese tea to talk about the health benefits.

With the multitude of studies out there, I want to look at a slightly different aspect of it all: happiness. Happiness and health are strongly tied. And when we’re feeling healthy and happy, another important phenomenon occurs: creativity.

I’d like to share with you an except from my book ‘Green is the New Black’ that focuses specifically on happiness and productivity rather than just health:

“… in order to produce dopamine*, certain amino acids are required. These amino acids come to us in foods and drinks. But in order to produce dopamine, these amino acids need to cross what is called the “blood-brain barrier” or BBB. Think of this as a maze to get into your brain. It’s filled with tiny alleyways that block substances from getting through to the brain, like viruses for instance. Most substances can’t cross over this barrier but Theanine can. According to doctors Hidehiko Yokogoshi and Takehiko Terashima (leaders in Theanine-based research) at the Laboratory of Nutritional Biochemistry in Shizuoka Japan, when you drink green tea, dopamine levels are significantly increased in the brain.

It’s worth repeating that green tea is just about the only thing in nature that contains Theanine and lots of it! This means it can boost production of dopamine in the brain when you drink it. These two doctors went on to explain how Theanine also promotes Alpha wave functions** in the brain and this is what causes you to have an alert yet relaxed physical and mental state. In other words, it is your personal stress management system! …

… When I drink green tea, my state is energized, not jittery, my mind is clear, and I’m really in my flow. New ideas seem to be coming from out of “nowhere”, connections are being made, my intuition is bionic and life seems to be sailing along with effortless ease. Some scientists refer to this as “the relaxed yet alert state” but they are missing something essential: creative JUICE! I call this the “Science of Flow” because green tea is the conduit to get you in a state of effortless flow where inspiration is bubbling up from inside of you. I’ve known about it for years and so did Bruce Lee. That bionic man knew the power of green tea to open the channels of creative thinking and ultimate focus…”

January of any new year is always filled with good intentions and ambitious plans. Why not contemplate those musings with a cup of green tea, and let the “Science of Flow” take you to the next level in your health, happiness and creativity!

* Dopamine is a hormone (and a neurotransmitter) produced in your brain. It’s known as the “reward” hormone that is associated with good experiences.

**The brain has four categories of brain waves: Gamma (sound sleep); Theta (dozing sleep); Alpha (relaxed alert state); Beta (awake excited state)

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Matcha delights

Please please please check out these stunning photos by Aiko_teaist. A resident in Tokyo who LOVES her Matcha and has an incredible eye for a good shot! Visit her website for more and follow her on Twitter: @teaist12 WOOHOO!

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Just Building a Tea Shop!

This post was originally written for TChing.

When “bending like bamboo reed” as the saying goes, sometimes you have no clue where the wind will take you.

That was us at the beginning of last year. Here we were, a Japanese tea company with some of the finest tea on the planet but not exactly sure how to get it out into the world. Do we hold tea salons in the UK? Do we sell it online and hope customers understand the importance of water temperature, storage issues and timings? Or do we relax into the beauty of our surroundings in Kyushu and let the universe show us the way?

Fortunately we relaxed. One thing led to another and connection after connection carried with it the key to our next chapter: the Chiki Tea, café and bakery, in Japan!

As 2015 winds itself down, it’s interesting to reflect upon this journey. This time last year we were putting the finishing touches on our tea shop here in Kyushu before the January grand opening. I say finishing touches… we still didn’t have enough power for the milk frother; our builder had gone AWOL and was holding us to ransom; and there was no front door! Staff interviews and training was administered amid rubble and stray power-tools… wandering stray cats and overly curious neighbors. Luckily two very good friends, ex-baristas in New York teaching English in Japan, came to our rescue and took on the role of training our Japanese staff in milk frothing (when we finally got the machine working). Our signature Matchaccino was being pumped out in glorious fashion once everyone understood the science and art of the froth. The sado whisking technique for the Matcha component had also taken on the seriousness of a zen master attempting to perfect the art, knowing that there is no end. In general things were moving in the right direction and there was a positive sense of momentum in the air.

So a week before opening, we called a staff tea break to pause in gratitude with a pot of the best Kabusecha on the planet (!). But what should have been a mindful moment turned into utter chaos when it seemed as if we’d forgotten how to steep loose leaf tea!! Pot after pot was miserable…no flavor…no depth…no creamy mouthfeel. We were stunned! We went through all the motions in the new kitchen and opened bag after bag of our new batch of Chiran cha under the guise of “product testing in situe”.  Nothing. No taste at all! Was the tea passed the sell-by date? Never mind the front door, or the builder going crazy, what’s going to happen if we can’t even steep loose leaf tea?!

We phoned our farmer, tried different waters, opened multiple bags of tea... all to no avail. But here is the strange part: we could steep incredible tea in the quiet of our home as we did every morning gently waking up to a new day. So why on earth was the tea so flavorless in the café?

In a moment of complete surrender, the answer came to us. We were rushing the process. Consumed by speed of service in the cafe, we were trying to rush the pots out the door while still steeping for that golden 60 seconds. It was evident that we’d forgotten one of the key steps to perfecting Japanese loose leaf green tea steeping: HEAT THE POT AND WARM THOSE LEAVES!!! Allowing the leaves to get cozy and begin to release is an essential step in getting the most from your delicate Japanese tea leaves. That incident put us off schedule by almost a full day. Then water started leaking through the ceiling over the kitchen and down the wall at the back of the café. Where’s that builder gone now?!

We have to pay how much money to whom?

Will the industrial sized ovens make it through the internal door even though they have to go over the roof first?! Why were we putting ourselves through all this?! Simple answer: we want Chiki Tea to be based in real life, not just a website that flogs tea. Japan offers such incredible quality and we feel it merits a sincere attempt to learn about the product from the ground, meet the people who bring it to market, and provide a genuine offer to customers looking for a third space where green tea, rather than coffee, reigns. We want to create a powerful foundation in order to reach out to as many people as possible, brandishing the “Drink Green Tea!” message. Game on! January 2nd marks our first year anniversary in the Chiki Tea cafe. The journey so far has been incredible and we’re looking forward to seeing how the rest unfolds. We are toying with the idea of opening a pop up shop in London, to give our concept a try in the English-speaking world. Let us know what you think! Stranger things have happened…We’re proof!

You can view a few more videos and photos of the build on Twitter: #JustBuildingATeaShop

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Getting the grade on Matcha

See here for the original post, written for TChing.

Matcha!

As you may know, this luscious green powder, as fine as the smoke of a cigarette (without the cough!) comes in many different varieties and myriad grades: from the cheap and chalky granules made with boiling water and stirred with a spoon to produce a late served in popular coffee shops all the way to the finest, most mesmerizing (and oftentimes elusive) stardust used for tea ceremonies held in purpose-built tea “huts” of the most minimalist of structures, buried deep in ancient Japan.

We recently completed a Kickstarter campaign to launch our new range of Matcha and discovered that a few Matcha sippers in the West demanded to know if the Matcha was “ceremonial” grade.

Rightly so! We should have been clearer!

But the truth is, I’m not a fan of using the term “ceremonial”. It is very overused in the West these days. Everyone’s putting it on their packaging, whether it’s ceremonial grade or not. Whether it’s actually any good or not.

Our supplier, based in Yame, Kyushu, has six different iterations of their ceremonial grade Matcha. We carry two of them as well as a culinary grade both online and in the café.

Picturesque Yame has the perfect climate and soil constitution to produce some of the finest Matcha in Japan. Our farmer is one of the last few remaining who uses an ancient technique (called “honzu”) involving handmade straw mats to cover the plants in spring.

These straw mats not only shade but also filter the rainwater, something the modern method has lost. Shading allows the nutrients to swell in the leaves, hence why Matcha is the superfood it claims to be. Our tea leaves are plucked by hand by delightful giggling ladies, then processed and milled using a granite mill. Just one gram of Matcha takes two hours to mill! This produces a powder finer than the smoke of a cigarette. Imagine that!

Here’s a bit of a secret:

Whether it’s labeled as “ceremonial” or not, most of the best Matcha never actually leaves Japan. It’s created by artisan farmers–tight-knit family businesses that have been producing Matcha for generations. But these small enterprises either don’t know how to or simply don’t want to export their amazing tea. It’s too complicated and the language barrier, as well as the cultural barrier, is daunting.

So you’ve got to go deep into the country, meet these farmers, build relationships, and then maybe, just maybe, they’ll open up to the idea of selling their tea to you.

That’s why we based ourselves in the heart of Japan, in order to be able to take our time, finding the right people, and then establishing trust with them. It can take time (it took us two years!), but boy, when you taste this stuff you know it is worth it!

So, back to “ceremonial”…

It’s all about the context – what you’re using it for.

Sometimes, using a ceremonial grade of Matcha just isn’t the right thing to do. Like when you’re putting it on chocolate chips in granola (YUM!). It isn’t just a cost issue, the flavor needs to bounce through louder. So an ultra premium (or “ceremonial”) grade is often times too smooth and subtle for such usage.

It’s why we use a different grade of Matcha for lattés than we do for straight shots in the café. They’re both ceremonial grade (promise!) but the one used for lattés just has that little bit of extra bite to it, enabling the flavors to shine through the steamed milk. It’s considered a slightly “lower” grade of Matcha but suits our purpose fine.

The Matcha used in our granola, popsicles, smoothies, and other yummies is considered a lower grade known as “culinary” or “ingredient” grade and it’s perfect! It is designed for mixing with other ingredients but is perhaps too bitter and chalky to consume just on its own. When this Matcha blends with other ingredients a balanced harmony of flavors emerges so you can actually taste the Matcha. Using too high of a grade in a recipe could result in a “non-Matcha” taste and the tendency to keep adding more and more Matcha… I’ve been there and done that and learned the hard way so you don’t have to.

So to mill this down to the fine point: the highest grades of Matcha (Ultra Premium Grade in our case) is for consuming a shot or a bowl of Matcha with nothing added to it. Then as you go down the grading scale, in our case Premium grade, you can drink it straight but it is best when combined with milk from a cow, bean, nut or grain… haven’t tried coconut but we probably should! Then the lowest grades are for mixing. Don’t go for the cheapest Matcha if you want to drink it in a shot or bowl.

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The Race Against Bottled Teas

This post was originally written for T-Ching

It’s hard to believe that in a country with such spectacular tea, loose leaf tea consumption has been declining over the last 20 years. In fact, it’s shocking to us that some young Japanese people haven’t even tried steeped loose leaf tea!

What’s to blame? Probably a variety of things but we think there are two key reasons: the rise of coffee and the proliferation of bottled green tea available in convenient stores seen on virtually every street corner in Japan (think Seven Eleven).

Japanese young people, it seems, just don’t sit down and steep a good brew anymore. That’s what their grandmothers do. We find this scandalous (!) due to the vast amounts of stunningly good loose leaf green tea produced every year all across the country.

What’s interesting is that the younger market is indeed yearning for the flavours of Matcha, Sencha, and Houjicha. Matcha lattes and Houjicha lattes are just as popular on the Starbucks Japan menu as coffee and Frappuccinos. Here at Chiki Tea, our younger customers are drawn to our Matcha Smoothies and Matchaccinos (though noticeably less so to the straight Matcha shot it has to be said).

Green bottled teas are viewed as an easy “hit”, a quick fix for a throwback to a culture they identify with. But really these bottled teas are no more than flavoured water despite claims of “Super Catechins” and all the good stuff. Certainly they lack the nutritional qualities you get with steeped Senchas or whisked Matchas, much the same as the problem with green tea supplements.

A few weeks back we had a meeting with a local tea farmer who told us his farm brought in kabuse (the shading process) over the last few years specifically to tackle this issue. The shading process can take out the bitter twang you sometimes get with Sencha, yielding an altogether sweeter flavour, particularly on the backend. They hoped this would attract a younger audience (which it hasn’t). It would seem the young market is more concerned with speed and convenience rather than flavour and health benefits.

But obviously this is a gross generalisation! We set up our café in Japan rather than just sell tea online to address this very issue: convenience. We make the drink! No teapots or Matcha whisks required. And what we’ve seen is Japanese people of all ages come in and order green tea beverages. It’s true that our Matcha drinks (shots, smoothies, lattés) are better sellers than the steeped loose leaf teas, but we sense a shift in attitude towards green tea. It’s becoming less of a fuddy-duddy drink for Japanese youth. They also see Sencha as a health boost when indulging in our New York style cheesecake… and they can’t wait to share it on Instagram!

With trendier teaware coming to market and more awareness around healthy lifestyles, we predict high-end steeped Japanese green tea will become the go-to drink again in Japan. Perhaps, though, ironically, one of the biggest driving forces for this revival will be the West’s interest, passion and commercialization of tea.

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How to whisk your Matcha!

Join us for this Matcha-whisking tutorial straight from our café in Kyushu, Japan.

Get to grips with your Chasen!

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Tea reviews

Well! We're pleased to say that fellow tea bloggers out there have been sipping away at some of our Kabusechas.

Introducing Griff of The Art of Japanese Green Tea and Ricardo of My Japanese Green Tea, fellow Japanese green tea lovers (evidently!).

In his review, Ricardo took one of our most treasured Kabusechas, Sae, very accurately likening it to a Gyokuro. Sae is in fact a Chiran (in Kagoshima) tea, where the deep-steamed Kabusechas act more or less as Gyokuro.

Griff covered Asatsuyu and Okumidori and obviously has a bit of an eye for photography to boot! Again, both Kabusechas are from Chiran, each distinctly different from Sae, Okumidori slightly sweeter, lighter, and Asatsuyu more vegetal.

Read more about Chiran here!

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From Plant to Cup!

Ever wonder how tea leaves go from the plant into your pot?

Well, we spent the day with our friend Toshimi Nishi san on his organic farm in Kirishima to show you all about it!

Because Kirishima is close to Sakurjima, one of Japan’s active volcanoes, Nishi san gives his leaves a bit of a bubble bath before the traditional steps below. You’ll see what I mean in the video at the top of this post…

OK, so here are the processing steps taken after the leaves are plucked from the bush and then steamed Japanese style to lock in the goodness:

Step 1: Toss (Hauchiki in Japanese: pronounced “how chiki”!) In the primary roller or dryer compartment, while warm air circulates, mechanical “hands” literally toss the leaves like a salad. This step helps boost the lustre, aroma and flavor of the tea. How chiki!

Step 2: First rolling (Sojuki in Japanese) The leaves are transferred to a large drum machine, which gently moves in a slow, circular motion over a plate. Here the leaves are massaged to break the cellular membrane, taking the toughness out of the leaf by breaking that fibrous skin and also helping them reach a uniform moisture content.

Step 3: Second rolling and twisting (Junenki in Japanese) The leaves are now placed on a warmed surface which rotates in a clockwise motion while a heavy plate presses down on them. This literally kneads and twists the leaves to further break the cellular walls, in effect “juicing” them. Here’s where the leaves lose their sliminess! Even though the plate is warm, there is no heat drying during this stage.

Step 4: Third rolling (Chujuki in Japanese) The juiced leaves now need to be dried. The heat blowers come back on while the leaves slowly rotate in the drum. This starts to give us the twisted, rolled leaves that are so characteristic of Japanese tea. But we’re not there yet. Consider the leaves prepped for becoming longer and slightly needle-shaped.

Step 5: Final rolling (Seijuki in Japanese) We’re nearly there and now it’s time to get coiffed! The tea is put through another machine, resembling a conveyer belt, which pushes the leaves, to finally produce more of the needle shape we know and love so much.

Step 6: Drying (Kansouki in Japanese) The tea now has a final blast of hot air before being sent to cold storage. Japanese tea is so susceptible to losing its freshness that drastic measures are taken to preserve it, so this step is critical.

At the end of each processing day, all the tea produced is mixed together to create the day’s batch, which is dated and recorded. It’s kept in an environment just above freezing with a tight reign on humidity, where it stays until it’s ready to be taken out and “finished”, usually by large tea traders. What you have now is called Aracha also known as crude tea or raw tea.

While a small amount of Aracha is sold directly to end-users, most is put through another process to determine what it will become: Sencha, Houjicha, Bancha, Kukicha and so on. This is called “finishing”. Nearly 85 percent of all tea in Japan is blended, so it’s likely to come from many different farms, cultivars, and maybe even different harvests, though the first harvest is normally very special and not usually mixed with later harvests.

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The Honour System in Japan

Are you a shop owner? Need to pop out and leave the shop unattended? No probs!

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Organic farming with the Kinezuka family in Fujieda

Join Holly as Toshiaki and Ayumi Kinezuka show us how they cultivate delicious tea at their farm in Fujieda, Shizuoka, using organic methods and allow wildlife and nature to live in perfect harmony with us. Kinezuka san has been an organic farmer for close to 30 years and is responsible for teaching many Japanese farmers this vital philosophy.

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Preparing the send outs for our fabulous Kickstarter supporters. Arigato!!!

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What an amazing experience: blessing the cranes and Matcha before they get their send off to the UK, US, Europe and beyond.

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This post was originally written for T Ching. Check it out here!

I was inspired to write this after reading Robert Wemischner’s “Marriages Made in Tea and Dessert Heaven” where he talks about pairing a honey and salt-encrusted shortbread with matcha. That sounds so YUMMY!

My tea shop, Chiki Tea in Japan, is American-Japanese fusion for a reason. We LOVE Japanese green tea. But we’re not exactly enamored with all those bean paste cakes, concentrated sugary candies, and bland sesame seed cookies that the Japanese pair with these amazing beverages. That’s just not us. Having grown up in Japan, I’ve been pairing brownies with matcha for years! So I figured: why not take the best from both worlds? In one hand the perennial Western desserts (muffins, cheesecake, brownies, scones) and in the other the sweetest sip of kabusecha or the deepest, smoothest gulp of matcha! When it comes to tea, for me, Western desserts pair SO much better than Japanese ones.

This slightly unconventional pairing is at the heart of the Chiki Tea concept. I can’t tell you how perfectly a kabusecha goes with New York cheesecake! And you won’t be surprised to hear how well ceremonial matcha, whisked to perfection using the traditional sado method, then served in an espresso demitasse, goes down with a triple chocolate brownie! Chocolate and matcha…the Japanese have been combining these two flavors in desserts for ages but not drinking one while eating the other. Our modern Japanese customers love it and are Instagramming like crazy!

One of my favourite pairings is houjicha and a muffin. As you probably know, houjicha is considered the “builder’s brew” of Japan. It used to be the stuff the commoners drank while the Japanese aristocracy sipped matcha and gyokuro. Houjicha is one of the most-ordered loose leaf teas at Chiki Tea. I think people love it for its lack of caffeine but also its toffee, fruity depth. Anyway, pair this with one of our Dream muffins loaded with coconut, carrots, dates and raisins, and you’ll be pushing your laptop or book away in order to focus solely on the symphony playing on your taste buds!

I think what strikes a deeper chord with us, and our passionate customers, is that we’re making previously inaccessible drinks (even to the Japanese) more readily available by serving them in a less formal environment than a tea ceremony. Our customers agree that it’s simply more fun this way… trying different flavour combinations, served in a Western way, in a café rather than on the hard surface of a tatami mat. They even go further by saying they are relieved to not worry about the right etiquette when sipping their matcha shot, which makes it taste even better because they can relax.

We can always spot a newbie too. They’ve heard we are a Japanese green tea café and so expect bean paste sweets and matcha roll cakes. These are the customers that tend to order one of everything and multiple beverages with which to taste it all… in disbelief!

A visit to Chiki Tea becomes a game for people when they come in and about thinking a bit more laterally about what they’re going to eat with their tea. The only tricky question remaining is what to have with the s’mores!

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Kickstarting Matcha!

Oh boy oh boy. Matcha Ahoy!

Back in June we mentioned the Best Matcha on the Planet had been located and was about to be introduced to our interweb friends! The process of getting this stuff from café to e-store has been a labour of love – our farmers only recently granted us permission to sell their precious powder abroad.

Last month we launched a Kickstarter campaign to help us put words into action!

Well, the funds have been raised; the produce is ready to be purchased and shipped; and some of the Best Matcha on the Planet is about to be sipped by our early adopters who kindly pledged towards this project.

There are three grades of Matcha on offer, two of them ceremonial grade (Silk and Lush) and one culinary (Mystic).

So what's the plan with having three grades of Matcha?! Why not just one?

Thing is, it depends on what you want to use it for.

If you're going to hit it straight, you'll be wanting some premium, high grade powder, hence Silk – the smoothest and creamiest in our range. Because you'll be drinking Silk without any add-ins, the flavour has to be at its purest and most refined.

For lattés you'll be wanting Lush. Lush is still ceremonial grade, but slightly lower on the Matchometer! It has a bit more oomph in the flavour department in order to punch through the accompanying milk.

Mystic (culinary grade) is for throwing into pretty much any food or smoothie recipe you fancy Matchering up. In the café we use it in granola, ice creams, smoothies... even salad dressing! You probably wouldn't want to give Mystic a try as a straight shot because it carries quite an obvious bitterness compared to the other two grades. Mystic is definitely one for those who love to explore and experiment in the kitchen.