I paid $50 to learn about tea?! 🍵 #worth

I love matcha - the subtle bittersweet taste and umami just hits me in all the right places.

Just 2 weeks ago, I was in Hokkaido Sapporo and I was craving for some matcha. Did a google search in my area and saw this place called “d:matcha Kyoto Sapporo”with a 5.0/5.0 and 200+ reviews. I was like wow, is it really that good? Cos you know usually you only see 4.9/5 and below but hardly a 5 out of 5. Since it was just about a 15-20mins walk away, my partner and I decided to drop by to get a matcha latte.

It was a small shop with the menu pasted on the wall on the outside. Inside sat a friendly looking older man at the counter. At the corner of the shop displayed small packets of cookies, chocolates and matcha powder.

We walked it and was warmly greeted with a ‘Hi, how can I help you?’ - Firstly, I was kinda caught off guard by his fluent English and secondly, right behind him displayed a poster describing a workshop/activity for matcha tasting. I was intrigued so I asked him about it.

He took out a brochure for us to look at and after checking that he was available, we decided to pick the Japanese Tea Learning Experience.

He proceeded to introduce himself (Kanei) and told us to give him about 10 mins to prepare all the equipment. While waiting, he gave us cold brew sencha to drink and some hojicha and matcha cookies to try (it was really good btw).

The entire experience took about 2hrs and was very insightful. Mr. Kanei is extremely knowledgeable and taught us about green tea with such passion. In fact, I was so inspired by him that I turned to my partner and said “maybe I should go study green tea, move to Japan and work for him 🤣🤣”

During the lesson we were interrupted by customers about 2-3 times which he was really apologetic for as he had to attend to their orders. We didn’t really mind as we didn’t have anything much planned for the day so we just sat there sipping the cold brew sencha. He owns the shop alone and didn’t have any helpers and he wasn’t expecting business to be so good (a happy problem to have for sure).

The workshop provided insights on how the different kinds of teas are processed and brewed. My favourite was the tea and matcha tasting.

What we learnt:

1. Green tea, oolong tea, white tea and black tea can come from the same tea leave plant. The way that it’s processed, produces different types of tea (refer to picture)

2. The longer the tea leaves are shaded (more than 20 days is for matcha), the less bitter it is aka more UMAMI.

3. Temperature at which the green tea leaves are brewed brings out different flavour. Anything above 80 degrees celcius = more bitter.

4. Most retailers sell blended tea leaves/matcha which means they take tea leaves/matcha from different tea leave plants and come up with their own blend to sell. May not necessarily be a bad thing.

Why I love matcha

❣️It’s full of antioxidants!! Which helps prevent cell damage and reduce inflammation. when you’re drink matcha, you’re basically eating the entire leaf 🍃 because it’s powdered hence you’re taking in all the nutrients 100%.

❣️Great Energy Boost as it contains caffeine but the caffeine in matcha is different from coffee. “With matcha caffeine, there is no sudden loss in energy or jitters. This is because Matcha contains a compound known as l-theanine, which binds to the caffeine in Matcha, and the body processes slower – promoting relaxed alertness for 6-8 hours.”

❣️Drinking matcha improve focus and memory as it has high amount of polyphenols and amino acids.

❣️Helps with anxiety due to its high concentration of L-theanine. “An amino acid that may increase dopamine release and serotonin concentration. This can help lower stress and anxiety without making you feel drowsy”.

❣️Keeps me feeling full so I don’t overeat - great if you’re on a diet 🫣

I usually buy matcha latte from places like Matchaya/Hvala. I actually bought a small bottle of matcha powder from Japan and made matcha latte myself at home. It’s already finishing. 😢

Do you love matcha too? Any recommendations for good matcha powders? 😊

#hokkaido #sapporo #matcha #tea

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