#chaoslo

[cha-oslo]

Byoh Matcha Bar in Copenhagen

Earlier this week I was in Copenhagen to visit some friends. On our way home from a wedding, we stumbled across a big sign which read Pop up Matcha Bar! Imagine my excitement and surprise!

Entering, I wanted to order one bowl of regular matcha, just to check out the quality. But when my eyes fell to the matcha cream puffs and some juicy looking granola bars, I was unable to contain myself and immediately ordered one of each. I started chatting with the owner, and it turned out he had opened just two days earlier. Michael Mølgaard Kristensen, who has his background from sports and nutrition, stumbled across matcha in California and launched the website, byoh.dk just this spring. The feedback was positive. A lot of people showed an interest in matcha, so Michael wanted to make it more accessible for the citizens of Copenhagen, as well as to show different ways of drinking or eating matcha. So, on the 31st of october, the first matcha bar in Copenhagen was open for business. 

Grown in Kagushima, the matcha Michael served me turned out to be quite delicious. Bright green in color, sweet and light in flavor, without any bitterness. Definitely one of the best I've been served in Scandinavia. And though he orders the tea through a German company, he has actually been to visit the manufacturer in Japan. This is something I value a lot, and makes me trust the quality more. The distance from farm to shop is often through too many links. The matcha container comes in a see through canister, the canister itself  comes in a opaque box to protect the quality of the matcha.

This matcha bar is very much adapted to the Scandinavian crowd, both in style and in focus. Inspired by matcha bars in California, the style goes very well together with typical Scandinavian simplicity and that of Cha no yu, the Japanese tea ceremony. Personally, I love the traditional aspects of matcha, which are not really present here. But Michaels focus is a different one; to bring matcha to the people. To make it accessible, and how delicious and beneficial this tea is, which he seems to do in a good way. They also have plans to hold classes, to teach people about matcha, starting early next year.

There are a lot of delicious looking drinks and food on their menu, all made with matcha. So if you need a little "pick me up", or just want something delicious and hot to drink, I would recommend going here. Check their website at www.byoh.dk to learn more. It is located at Helgolandsgade13.

Håkon

[cha-oslo]

Wearing Sencha Leaves

One of my reasons for coming to Japan this time was my interest in Butoh dance. I travelled around attending classes with various teachers in Tokyo, Yokohama and Kyoto before ending i Shodoshima to do a performance based on the Butoh training. Butoh uses a lot of images from nature, so I decided to use that in my character creation process and ended up using trees and roots as a source of inspiration. Then I got the idea, what about using sencha leaves as part of my costume? I could stick the leaves to my body. At first it was mostly as a joke, but the idea fascinated me, so I decided to try.

The big problem was how to make them stick. At first I thought the wet leaves would be sticky enough. Boy, was I mistaken. Leaves dropping into the sink after being pressed onto my face. It was a mess, but I was not going to let this stop me. My friend suggested using Vaseline, and sure enough, at least it made me sticky. Most of the leaves did stick as well, but not for very long. I was a dying tea tree, dropping leaves at every move. 

I tried asking Facebook, and got a lot of suggestions. Flour with water, liquid latex, honey, egg white. One of the most useful points made was that I should not use wet tea leaves, which had struck me as well. They had to be open though, so I decided to brew, then dry them before going into testing all the other options, one by one. Lucky for me, as I was more than reluctant to put honey and latex on my body, I never got that far. The day after, I was sitting in a lovely Chinese tea house in Takamatsu, when I got to talking to a girl sitting at the counter. She was a makeup artist, so I asked her. "What about glue? Sometimes we use that to make glitter stick." She directed me to the 100 yen shop, and the little glue stick I found there turned out the be the answer. The now dry tea leaves stuck to my skin like they'd been longing for me since being picked. I guess the moral is; when in doubt, go to a tea house, and you shall find answers.

Håkon