July 2024 Newsletter

Tea Business School (Daiki T.)

In Summer 2024, we held our second batch of Tea Business School, welcoming two matcha café owners from Thailand and Kuwait.

The inspiration for this course stemmed from the rapidly increasing global demand for matcha, which unfortunately has not been accompanied by a corresponding spread of knowledge about its quality, usage, and production methods. Through the Tea Farm Tour and Tea Tasting experiences we offer at our main store, I want to not only educate our visitors but also elevate the expertise of café owners. This, in turn, would help them educate their end customers about matcha.

When designing the course, we focused on making it efficient, multifaceted, and practical. Traditional courses tend to be lengthy and theory-heavy, which I personally find quite boring. Hence, we adopted a "farm-to-table" approach. This involved participation in the actual harvest, bringing the harvested leaves to the primary tea processing facility, visiting finishing factories in Uji, witnessing the production of matcha sweets, experiencing a tea ceremony led by staff with Urasenke credentials, tasting various matcha lattes, visiting renowned Uji tea shops, and discussing each participant's business development plans and challenges.

The most popular activity is always the actual harvesting, followed closely by the latte session. In most countries, matcha is primarily consumed as lattes, whether with cow milk or oat milk. Interestingly, the matcha that tastes best on its own isn't always the best for lattes. Café owners, with their hands-on experience, found the session particularly valuable as it highlighted the differences in varieties and their marketability.

During the Tea Business School, dmatcha's top priority is ensuring student satisfaction, dedicating as much time as necessary. Participants stay on the second floor of our main store, where we also prepare and serve three meals a day with great care.

We look forward to welcoming more wonderful participants next year!

Tea Drink R&D（S. Mahdaria）

Apparently, matcha has gained popularity across the globe these days. We have more and more requests from Tea Rooms who want to expand their business into matcha, and individual customers who are interested in establishing their own matcha business. The trend of matcha world wide encourages us to produce and supply more matcha. With the support of our loyal customers in our “Adopt Tea Tree” program, we have successfully expand our farms and plant more tea cultivars, including Houshun and Komakage in 2022, Yumewakaba and Ujihikari in 2023, and 1000 trees of Tenmyo this year. Thank you so much for all the support from our customers who resonate with our mission.

The trend of matcha is like a double edge sword. On one hand, it’s good news since more people are aware about matcha and its culture. We can imagine that the popularity of matcha and the beauty of its more than 150 cultivars can be as sustainably popular as coffee and wine. However, rapid growth without sustained innovation could lead to a disaster. We guide our business partners and let them consult with us regarding their market expansion. Daiki-san has always encouraged our partners to have steady and sustainable growth rather than dramatic rise. 

Along with that, we also aim to write a recipe book that can be a reference for our partners in their business development. In order to make the book, I conduct a lot of Research and Development (R&D), especially related to tea mixology. Sometimes, I can successfully make a very tasty drink in one trial, but most of the time I have to try it twice or three times to finally find the best composition for the drinks. Luckily, we have many people here at d:matcha who genuinely love tea, so I trust their judgement of the drink I test on them.

It’s so exciting to mix and match different types of tea, cream, milk, sweetener, and even fruits to get an ‘oishi’ drink that can be enjoyed throughout different occasions. This week, I made Mango Wakoucha with Salted Cheese Cream. On my first trial, my coworkers told me that I need more sugar in the drink since it’s a sweet drink, so it should be sweet. I thought, since my coworkers are not fond of sweet drink, I should give it less sugar, it turned out the taste of the tea is quite bland without perfect amount of sugar, especially because Wokoucha (Japanese black tea) tends to be smoother and fruity compared to the black tea from India or South East Asia, so I needed a little bit more sugar to pull out the best taste of the Wakoucha.

I will continue doing my R&D and keep you updated! It’s so exciting and I want to make sure to share that excitement with you!

Part of the Summer Tea Ceremony (Seiya H.)

One of Sen no Rikyu’s sayings is, "In summer, keep things cool." In the tea ceremony, to help guests feel cool, we sometimes use bamboo screens instead of sliding doors for better ventilation, or we use tools that depict summer scenes. There are also tea ceremonies that are held only in summer, so today I will introduce some tea ceremonies that can only be experienced during this season. Generally, in the world of tea ceremony, matcha is made using hot water from a kettle, but the following ceremonies incorporate ways to feel refreshed even while drinking warm matcha.

1. Arai Chakin (Washing the Tea Cloth)

• In this ceremony, a cloth (used to wipe the wet tea bowl) is placed in the tea bowl along with water. The host wrings out the cloth in front of the guest before preparing the matcha. This ceremony is often performed with flat tea bowls, and during the summer, bowls with designs of blue maple leaves are particularly popular.

2. Meisui Date (Famous Water Ceremony)

• Water from famous springs around the country is placed in a wooden water container for this ceremony. At the beginning of the ceremony, the guest is offered a drink of this famous water. Unlike the usual thin tea (Usucha), thick tea (Koicha) is served during this ceremony. While the tools used for thick tea are more limited, enjoying the cold and delicious famous water before the thick tea is one of the highlights of this ceremony.

3. Habuta (Leaf Lid)

• This ceremony originated during the Tanabata festival in the 19th century when a leaf was used as a substitute lid for the water container. It remains a popular summer ceremony, and today, larger leaves that are non-toxic, odourless, and do not secrete sap are used (such as taro leaves or lotus leaves).

Personally, out of these three ceremonies, I like Arai Chakin the best. I enjoy using glass tea bowls and summer tea bowls, which makes the ceremony more enjoyable for me. Right now, many tea shops have a variety of summer tea utensils on display, and they might even have catalogues for summer utensils. Just looking at them can make you feel cooler, so I encourage you to check them out!

Photo: A tea field where disease progressed, leading us to abandon the harvest

Reflection on the 2024 Tea Season (Hiroki Aka)

After concluding the 2024 tea season, I am pleased to report that our company's tea plantations successfully completed this year's final harvest on July 29.

This year, the first tea harvest began under stable weather conditions, with no significant frost damage. The quality of the first tea harvest was generally high, with many teas having a mild taste and low bitterness. The yield was also higher than usual, leading to an abundant harvest season. While it was a bountiful year, a few challenges arose.

One of the issues was the overlapping harvest periods across different tea varieties and fields. Typically, the harvest time varies depending on the location and variety of the tea. Fields located in the lowlands tend to have earlier harvests compared to those in mountainous areas. Additionally, the harvest time differs by variety: for example, the Samidori variety ripens three days earlier than Yabukita, while the Okumidori variety ripens five days later. In the tea industry, where timing affects quality, this difference in harvest times allows for staggered harvesting, which helps expand the cultivated area. However, this year saw a shorter gap in harvest times across different fields, leading to a condensed harvesting period.

This situation placed pressure on the processing capacity of our factory, resulting in an inability to harvest some of the fields on time. Tea leaves that couldn't be harvested in time missed their optimal picking period, leading to a decline in quality. In some fields, the delay in harvesting caused the new shoots to continue growing, further increasing yield and putting additional strain on the factory, creating a vicious cycle. Despite our best efforts, some fields, after being covered for an extended period, were affected by prolonged rain, leading to disease outbreaks, and we ultimately had to abandon harvesting in those areas.

This year, the inability to harvest some fields was particularly frustrating, especially given the good condition of the new shoots. However, many fields yielded delicious tea, both for sencha and matcha, so I hope you'll take the opportunity to try them.

Above: Over time, tea stains seep into the cracks (kan’nyū), creating patterns like those shown

Journey Through Pottery #1 

Hagi Ware from Yamaguchi Prefecture (Misato T.)

It's often said that the Japanese have a deep affection for pottery. This is evidenced by the many famous pottery regions scattered across Japan. Recently, I travelled to Kyushu and Yamaguchi Prefecture to see the pottery of these regions firsthand. Seeing the pottery up close was fascinating because even though it’s all pottery, the characteristics of the clay, the firing methods, and the designs differ greatly.

Characteristics of Hagi Ware

In the world of tea ceremony, there’s a saying: "First Raku, second Hagi, third Karatsu." This phrase means that, in the ranking of tea bowls, Raku ware (Kyoto) is the most prized, followed by Hagi ware (from Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture), and then Karatsu ware (from Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture).

Hagi ware is known for its gentle and soft texture. The firing process lasts about 10 hours, which is relatively short, resulting in a lower degree of vitrification. The clay is coarse, which gives Hagi ware high permeability, water retention, and insulation. A key characteristic of Hagi ware is the fine cracks (known as kan’nyū) that appear on the surface due to the difference in the shrinkage rates between the clay and glaze during firing. Over time, water seeps through these cracks, causing the color of the pottery to change gradually, giving the piece a more aged and wabi-sabi feel. This transformation is called "Hagi no Nanabake" (Hagi’s Seven Changes) and is a unique charm of Hagi ware.

The designs of Hagi ware are often simple and rustic, emphasizing the natural texture of the clay. Unlike the elaborate painting seen in Kyo ware, Hagi ware’s appearance might seem plain, but the soft texture of the clay has a comforting effect.

I purchased a matcha bowl and a teacup made of Hagi ware.

Water Leakage in Hagi Ware

Hagi ware is known for leaking water. This is not a defect but a characteristic of the ware, resulting from the coarse clay and low degree of vitrification. The many fine cracks mean that there are gaps in the pottery.

However, as you repeatedly use the bowl for tea, the coarse texture of the clay gradually gets clogged with tea stains, and the leakage stops. Simultaneously, the tea stains penetrate the cracks, changing the overall color of the pottery. This is the process referred to as "Hagi no Nanabake" and is a key reason why Hagi ware is highly valued, especially in tea ceremony utensils. Hagi ware is considered unfinished when purchased and is said to be completed only through regular use as you "nurture" the vessel.

Preventing Water Leakage Through "Me Dome"

If the water leakage bothers you, there’s a method called "Me Dome" (sealing) to prevent it. This involves coating the surface of the pottery with starch. Unlike porcelain, pottery absorbs water and oil more readily, so “Me Dome” may be necessary. You can soak the pottery in starch using one of the following methods (for half a day to a full day; if one treatment isn’t enough, repeat the process):

• Rice: Boil a small amount of rice or cooked rice with about ten times the amount of water until it becomes pasty.
• Rice washing water: Boil or soak the pottery for a long time in the water used to rinse rice.
• Katakuriko (potato starch): Add hot water to a water-dissolved mixture of potato starch to create a thickened solution.