Tea House

Entrance to a large tea room.

An entrance to a small tea room on the other side of the larger entrance. That is a small wooden door. One must crawl through to enter.


A window screen.

Cold Green Tea

When I first came to Japan over 20 years ago, I wanted to put sugar in my green tea. Papa was horrified.

"We don't do that," he said.

Over the years, things have changed. Green tea latte with milk and sugar is now served in restaurants and sold in cartons and individual cups at convenience stores.

Here is a carton of cold green tea (no milk, no sugar). Usually, we drink cold mugicha in the summer. We also drink cold oolong tea or milk tea or lemon tea. Milk tea is black (western) tea with sugar and milk. Lemon tea is black tea with sugar and lemon.

This was the first time I had tried cold green tea. It was good!

Tea Sweets & Tea from Kyoto

Big Sister went on a school trip to Kyoto recently. She brought these tea sweets to us. They have autumn decorations on them; a gingko leaf, a cosmos, a maple leaf, and a rabbit. I'm late posting them. We ate them a week or so ago. They are like gumdrops, but you're supposed to nibble on them while sipping tea. Tea sweets are really sweet. Maybe because the tea used in the ceremony can be a bit bitter.

Instructions for Making Green Tea

Some packages of tea include instructions on how to make green tea. Click to enlarge the picture. I will replace this picture later because it is blurry.

Water is heated in a kettle on the stove or in a boiler like the one in the top picture (I'll post a picture of ours later. We no longer use it so I'll have to drag it out. ) A little bit of tea is put in the strainer that sits in the top of the teapot. (see posts for February 9th and 10th.) Hot water is poured into a tea cup to heat it. Then the cup of water is poured into the teapot over the tea leaves. These instructions advise to let it sit for 50 to 60 seconds before pouring it into the warm teacup.

Green tea is made cup by cup. When the tea is no longer strong or dark enough, you would add more tea leaves to the strainer or replace them. I prefer tea cups that are light in color so that I can tell how strong the tea is!

A Closer Look at Teacups and Teapots

The white teapot is the one we use everyday. The brown one is metal. We use it from time to time. It is more difficult to clean. The teapot on the far right came with five teacups. The set was given to us when we were guests at a wedding. (Guests receive gifts at weddings and funerals.) The teacups are quite small so we use them for guests or for a special teatime like for Girls' Day or Boy's Day.

This is the most common design of a teapot for green tea. This is our teapot at the end of the day. Big Sister and Little Brother drink green tea at breakfast and after school. I drink a couple of cups through the day. After several cups of tea are made, the tea leaves fill the strainer. We've had this teapot for almost 20 years.

The teacup on the left is the size we use daily. We have four others that are the same size. Each has a different blue and white design. Each of us use the same teacup every day. The two short teacups with the flowers on them are part of a set. They match the flowery teapot in the background. There are five teacups in the set.* Each cup has a different flower on it. The big striped teacup is Papa's. You can't really tell, but it is the biggest teacup in the picture. I have one the same size.

*Teacups, plates, and bowls are sold individually,but they do come in sets of five.

Teacups and Teapots

Here are some of the teacups and teapots we use for green tea. As you can see there are different styles and different sizes. Some of the teacups are bigger than the teapots.

Green Tea Tofu

We found this at our grocery store recently. Click to enlarge.

It came with its own serving dish and spoon. That little bag contains what Papa calls "black honey". It tastes like molasses!

Green Tea and Seaweed from a Funeral

Papa went to his aunt's funeral and was given this green tea and seaweed set. It was in a nice box neatly wrapped with plain paper. His aunt's name was written on the outside. Gifts are given to guests at funerals in Japan. Guests put money in a special envelope for the family of the person who passed away.

The tin on the left is filled with green tea. Actually, a small bag of tea is inside. The tin on the right is filled with seaweed strips. The seaweed can be used for sushi or it can be eaten with rice. The tins can be kept to store tea and seaweed.

Green Tea Leaves

 

Sometimes, the tea leaves form a heart at the bottom of my cup. Actually it happens to all of us at one time or another. Wonder what we could read into that?

I'll soon post more about green tea, tea cups, tea pots, etc.

Green Tea Jelly

Aunt made a jello-type dessert made out of powdered green tea. The word "jelly" is used for this type of dessert.

She served it with this tube of evaporated milk.

Chrysanthemums and Tea

These chrysanthemums were just inside the entrance. There were many of them. The two starburst chrysanthemums at the end of the bottom and second shelves had papers with gold paper at the bottom. They had won a competition. I took many pictures of the
chrysanthemums. I have chosen these to post:

This one had a piece of heavy paper under it for support.

This chrysanthemum was given a tree post for support.


This is the base of the chrysanthemum plant. It was planted next to the tree post and was trained to grow up its trunk and on its branches.

There were chrysanthemums everywhere.

There were many chrysanthemums in stalls built especially for them. These stalls had bamboo screens in the back and corrugated plastic for roofs. There were purple sashes at the top. Tea was served near the red umbrella.

This display was on the steps of the temple next to the tea area.



These red chrysanthemums were part of that display.

This was set up on other steps. Kerosene heaters had aluminum tea kettles on top. Trays of tea cups and hot pots for hot water (under the tea towels) were warming in the sun.

We sat near the red umbrella and drank tea. It was served with a slice of pickle and a sweet gumdrop-like treat. I put it next to me on the bench to take this picture. It was nice to sit, drink tea and enjoy the chrysanthemums. There were many bees enjoying them, too.