Japan
Oscar looks back on his last trip; Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka
There’s something exhilarating about being somewhere new, the people, the landscape, the flavors, smells and sounds. There’s definitely a part of me that craves it and when I travel for work that doesn’t change. I get to bring new flavours and experiences back. In NOV 2018 I took my third trip out to Japan and visited Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka. I’ll claim the title of official Japanese Tea Expert amongst us after this last trip as I delved deep into Matcha knowledge, single estate teas and Japanese tea culture.
I take inspiration for products and packaging from my surroundings, so this was the perfect trip for the 2019 packaging design upgrade. We have had the pleasure of working with Gallery Yumeori in Japan for over 14 years and at that time they have just opened a tea room and won a contract to serve SUKI in the Imperial Hotel in Osaka and Tokyo.
I spent a lot of time with them, met some tea suppliers, hung out with other tea traders also visiting Japan to source tea, I ate 33 things I had never tried before including ‘sausage made with egg with a fish centre’, Blue Mungo Squid and Tuna cheek carpaccio. Not forgetting lots and lots of wonderful local green tea and Matcha.
This place had 5 teahouses in all, all for different times of the day depending on the view.
Visiting Tea Houses At Katsura Rikyu
The tea ceremony has been an important tradition in Japan since ancient times. Wealthy people would conduct tea ceremonies in specially built tea pavilions while socializing with friends, enjoying beautiful views, reciting poetry, and talking about art.
Japanese Green Tea
We have imported very high quality Japanese green tea for many years. I'm fond of the classic Genmaicha and Matcha which are well recieved by anyone who tries them. On this trip I had a chance to travel to Kyushu Island, south Japan in search of something a little different.
In particular my journey took me to Ukihacha, North of the Mino mountains. The winding mountain climb in between the flora and fauna was straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie. The area is famous for Kyoho, which is a large Japanese grape and Kaki which you may know as Sharon fruit.
Still known as the region of Yamecha the north side has different processes. The most traditional way of making Japanese tea is through a lengthy process involving many people and companies. It all starts with a garden, sometimes owned by a group of people. Then there's a storage company who freezes the tea until needed. Then another company buys it to process and sell.
I was greeted by Toshiyuki Horie who was in his 90’s and still overseeing the business activities. The garden is a 7 generation tea garden and Toshiyuki’s son and grandson now head the operation. Extended family work in the business and at peak season they contract a coupe of people in to assist. They own, maintain and process every aspect of the tea.
The Horie family live for tea, some years ago the father planted tea bushes in the shape of the Kanji symbol for tea on the hillside next to their house. They generally work 8 hours a day. Monday - Friday but said that as they all own the business they never really switch off, some things are universal!
The tea is harvested in April / May. They cover the tea for one week then cover the sides for another. This keeps the leaf a dark emerald green colour.
This family produces a wide range of teas including the ever-so more popular Japanese Black. Kabusecha, Sencha, Gyuokuru and Wahicha. My favourite by far was the Gyokuru and Okumidori.
If you haven't yet tried Japanese Green Tea I would reccommend starting with Genmaicha Genmaicha is a light green tea - Rice is added to Bancha tea and under the heat of firing it pops - giving a delicious, savoury, buttery popcorn flavour! Pop-ular in Japan. Gen-Mai-Cha 玄米茶 = Brown-Rice-Tea.
Today there are 2 styles of Genmaicha, one of them allows some of the rice to pop during roasting, while the one we have makes sure that the rice doesn’t pop at all.
Oscar visits Japan. SUKI has been exporting since 2008 as well as importing Genmaicha and Matcha. This time, he's searching for a very special green tea.
Oscar looks back on his last trip; Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka
There’s something exhilarating about being somewhere new, the people, the landscape, the flavors, smells and sounds. There’s definitely a part of me that craves it and when I travel for work that doesn’t change. I get to bring new flavours and experiences back. In NOV 2018 I took my third trip out to Japan and visited Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka. I’ll claim the title of official Japanese Tea Expert amongst us after this last trip as I delved deep into Matcha knowledge, single estate teas and Japanese tea culture.
I take inspiration for products and packaging from my surroundings, so this was the perfect trip for the 2019 packaging design upgrade. We have had the pleasure of working with Gallery Yumeori in Japan for over 14 years and at that time they have just opened a tea room and won a contract to serve SUKI in the Imperial Hotel in Osaka and Tokyo.
I spent a lot of time with them, met some tea suppliers, hung out with other tea traders also visiting Japan to source tea, I ate 33 things I had never tried before including ‘sausage made with egg with a fish centre’, Blue Mungo Squid and Tuna cheek carpaccio. Not forgetting lots and lots of wonderful local green tea and Matcha.
This place had 5 teahouses in all, all for different times of the day depending on the view.
Visiting Tea Houses At Katsura Rikyu
The tea ceremony has been an important tradition in Japan since ancient times. Wealthy people would conduct tea ceremonies in specially built tea pavilions while socializing with friends, enjoying beautiful views, reciting poetry, and talking about art.
Japanese Green Tea
We have imported very high quality Japanese green tea for many years. I'm fond of the classic Genmaicha and Matcha which are well recieved by anyone who tries them. On this trip I had a chance to travel to Kyushu Island, south Japan in search of something a little different.
In particular my journey took me to Ukihacha, North of the Mino mountains. The winding mountain climb in between the flora and fauna was straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie. The area is famous for Kyoho, which is a large Japanese grape and Kaki which you may know as Sharon fruit.
Still known as the region of Yamecha the north side has different processes. The most traditional way of making Japanese tea is through a lengthy process involving many people and companies. It all starts with a garden, sometimes owned by a group of people. Then there's a storage company who freezes the tea until needed. Then another company buys it to process and sell.
I was greeted by Toshiyuki Horie who was in his 90’s and still overseeing the business activities. The garden is a 7 generation tea garden and Toshiyuki’s son and grandson now head the operation. Extended family work in the business and at peak season they contract a coupe of people in to assist. They own, maintain and process every aspect of the tea.
The Horie family live for tea, some years ago the father planted tea bushes in the shape of the Kanji symbol for tea on the hillside next to their house. They generally work 8 hours a day. Monday - Friday but said that as they all own the business they never really switch off, some things are universal!
The tea is harvested in April / May. They cover the tea for one week then cover the sides for another. This keeps the leaf a dark emerald green colour.
This family produces a wide range of teas including the ever-so more popular Japanese Black. Kabusecha, Sencha, Gyuokuru and Wahicha. My favourite by far was the Gyokuru and Okumidori.
If you haven't yet tried Japanese Green Tea I would reccommend starting with Genmaicha Genmaicha is a light green tea - Rice is added to Bancha tea and under the heat of firing it pops - giving a delicious, savoury, buttery popcorn flavour! Pop-ular in Japan. Gen-Mai-Cha 玄米茶 = Brown-Rice-Tea.
Today there are 2 styles of Genmaicha, one of them allows some of the rice to pop during roasting, while the one we have makes sure that the rice doesn’t pop at all.