teapond

Have had Teapond on my "to try" list for some time now, probably from when we lived in Osaka.

At the time they only had their one shop here in Tokyo.

Today, they have some in the Kansai (West Japan) area and ship overseas as well.

The shop is quite tiny but they do have a tasting area, though it was quite crowded when I went in so I just grabbed a few items and quickly got out of there....

Instead of buying one big bag of one "flavor", I bought their "tea for two" bags...there are 2 sachets of tea in the package...432 yen (tax included) each

These are the teas I purchased: 

Fanfare...black tea base,  mango pieces, rose red, sunflower

Princess Lychee...black tea base, rose pink, cornflower

Mango Voyage...black tea base, marigold

Love that they give these “business cards” that have the brewing instructions as well as descriptions about the tea.

We enjoyed these as cold brew, the lychee one was a little too perfumy for my liking but I’m glad we got to try these.

They not only have flavored teas but also have all sorts of varieties of teas, I'll be back.

Teapond

1-1-11 Shirakawa

Koto, Tokyo

Open daily: 11:00-19:00

oi ocha

You may or may not know that Shohei Otani is the global ambassador for Oi Ocha.

Itoen recently came out with a promotion...buy 4 bottles and get a free Shohei Otani folder.

I went to a couple of grocery stores during my errands but couldn't find it...of course, when I wasn't looking for it, I stumbled upon it at a different market.

Happy I was able to get one, but can't believe people are re-selling these folders online

sanriku's tsubaki cha

My friend in Sendai, sent me a care package in February.

Inside there were all sorts of her favorite snacks which were all made in the Tohoku area and also included was this packet of tea.

As you know, there was a lot of damage with the tsunami that hit the Tohoku area in 2011, but what I wasn't aware of was that Sanriku, an area in Iwate prefecture had many bushes of tsubaki (camellia) that were also destroyed.

In the pamphlet that came with the tea, it also explained that the camellia roots "extend deep into the ground" and takes "years for the plant to reach full size".

I am not sure if there is something similar in English speaking countries, but in Japan, they have something called "hana kotoba" (literally flower words), a system in which the flower, its color is used to describe what the flower symbolizes. 

For example, red camellias symbolizes "pride", "unpretentious elegance"...according to the pamphlet I mentioned above, a reflection of the people of the Sanriku area.

This tea is blend of tsubaki (camellia) leaves and ama cha (sweet tea). Ama cha is made from the leaves of the hydrangea and is supposedly 200 times sweeter than sugar.

In Buddhism, you often see sweet tea during the "birthday" of the Buddha called Hanamatsuri on April 8th...The Buddha is placed in a covered pavilion with lots of flowers and you "bathe" the Buddha with the sweet tea...I have a photo of this here.

This tea was sweet and I'm glad we tried this.

Thankful to receive this and learn more about the Tohoku area.

lemongrass butterfly pea tea

Tried this Lemongrass Butterfly Pea Tea from Kaldi.

Satoshi wasn't too impressed with the color.

Me, I love the color!

Because it is blended with lemongrass, the lemongrass flavor stands out.

I hear if you add lemon juice to it, the blue will turn pink...hope to try that!

Our temps are supposed to hit 30C (86F) this weekend...eep!

hojicha okayu

Last year we tried Shimabara tea and enjoyed them.

Since I needed to pick up some hojicha (roasted green tea) for a recipe I wanted to try, I was pleased to see them in Umeda the other day.

This morning we had hojicha okayu.

Now that I think about it, it is similar to chagayu or chagai as my grandma used to call it, though I think my grandma used to use mugicha (barley tea).

Hojicha okayu : adapted from "Soup Stock Tokyo 2"

To make the stocks:
5 grams of loose leaf hojicha (roasted green tea)
1 cup water
1 dashi "tea bag"
4 cups water

Put 5 grams of hojicha in 1 cup of water, leave in refrig overnight.
Put 1 dashi "tea bag" in 4 cups of water (or the amount of water your bag instructs), leave in refrig overnight.

To make the okayu:
1 cup cold brew hojicha
2 cups cold brew dashi
1/4 cup rice, washed
toppings

In the rice cooker pot, put 1/4 cup washed rice and 1 cup of cold brew hojicha and 2 cups of cold brew dashi.
Cook on the "okayu" (porridge) setting on your rice cooker.
Serve with your favorite toppings.

NOTES: Since I didn't want to make 4 cups of hojicha dashi, I kept the hojicha separate.

When putting everything in the rice cooker, the cold brew hojicha was a little less than 1 cup, so I filled the difference with some water.

The hojicha flavor was quite pronounced.

I still need to try the actual recipe from the book I have, but at least I know now that it is relatively easy to put together.

I served this with some umeboshi and shiofuki konbu.

Oh and we've got cold temps back again after a brief "warm" spell last week.

hojicha okayu

Saturday, I had breakfast at Soup Stock Tokyo and tried their hojicha okayu (roasted green tea rice porridge).

The tea flavor wasn't very detectable, but I enjoyed this.

I have their cookbooks and was happy to find that they have the recipe for this particular okayu.

Will try it as soon as I can get some of the ingredients together.

cold brew tea soda

Love social media...all the sharing of information...

Back in August, Chika of She Who Eats, posted about making a fizzy cold brew tea drink.

Just take a bottle of carbonated water or soda and put a tea bag of your favorite tea inside.(I used Mango tea)

Let the tea steep in the bottle in the refrigerator overnight.

According to Chika, the next day, there will be a little less fizz.

When I opened my bottle there was a rush of foam to the top of the bottle, so be careful!

If you want to sweeten it you can, but I enjoyed this as is.

I know it is the end of summer already, but at least next summer I'll have another way to enjoy cold brew tea.

tea festival

They recently had a tea event at Hankyu Department Store.

There were so many brands I wanted to purchase to try, but their teas were all in large quantities, nothing really small to "just try".

I did get these though...Steven Smith Tea Sampler (6 different teas--2 black, 2 green & 2 herbal) and 2 types (Isabel & Kokorobijin) from Creha (pronounced ku-ray-ha), a tea maker from Saga prefecture in Kyushu.

The Creha teas are floral & fruit flavored and are perfect for cold brew style.

How are you keeping cool these days?

saturday

Saturday I went to check out Kissa Sunshine. Kissa in Japanese means coffee shop.

On Tabelog, the reviewers mentioned that the place is usual filled with "salarymen" (business men) during the week which equals smoking...which equals "blah".

So, I went to check them out on Saturday...well, the hot cakes while delicious, there were people still smoking...I'm glad I checked this place out though, but won't be back because of the smoking.

To end on a happy note, I had this refreshing mango sparkling tea at All Day Coffee on Saturday too.

What made it even more delicious were the bits of fresh mango in the tea!

It is blazing hot, we even had to put the a/c on already and it is only May...summer is gonna be brutal.

float lemon tea (heart)

After that krazy lunch...I went to check out the mall up the street, before catching the bus back home.

As I was wandering in my favorite knick-knack shop...I found the tea with the dried lemon hearts!

The green box has tea from Miyazaki Gokase and the red one has tea from Shimane Izumo.

The heart shaped lemon is from Hiroshima.

Brew the tea then set the dried lemon on top.

So cute!

I'm glad I found this and didn't have to enter the lottery to get them.

We're back in a cold snap the past couple of days...have a nice weekend!

float lemon tea

I think I first heard about this tea from a television program.

Mitsuura Brewery makes several types.

Even one where the lemon is formed into a heart while it is growing, sliced and then dried.

That version is only available by lottery, so I was excited to come across this when we visited Miyajima.

We happened to check out a teeny knick knack shop and the tea caught my eye.

We got the ginger version.

After brewing the tea, place the dried lemon on top of the beverage.

The lemon stays afloat while you enjoy the tea.

The tea, lemon and ginger are all made in Japan.

You can even eat the dried lemon after you finish drinking the tea because it is organic.

Different but delicious.

I'm glad we got to try this and hope to order some other items from their online shop.

shimabara tea

Recently there was a Nagasaki Fair in Umeda.

We love these fairs because it brings different food items to us without the extra online shipping fees.

Shimabara tea is a relatively new company, and we were able to sample (and purchase) some of their teas.

The large red package is their organic green tea.

The smaller red package is their black tea and the yellow package is their black tea with ginger.

(The ginger tea and black tea are delicious and the ginger one has a nice kick!)

The man selling these teas was very knowledgeable.

He suggested we put some of the organic tea with ice for two hours and let the ice extract the tea...

So I tried doing it his way...

except I didn't have a tiny pot to do this in, so I made my own...

After an hour it looked like this.

After two hours the tea was a really light green but it wasn't bitter.

He then suggested that we add some cold water (drink it), then some warm water (drink it), then some hot water (drink it).

By the time we tried it with some hot water, the tea was a little darker green and a little cloudy.

There was a slight bitterness to it too.

His last suggestion was that we "eat" the used tea leaves because this green tea is organic.

So we tried it with a little ponzu (citrus soy sauce) like he also suggested...delicious! kind of like spinach, only a little bitter.

We're glad we tried this and will continue to keep an eye for them in the future since they do not sell online.

ochazuke

When I think of ochazuke I think of a hot dish (hot rice, hot tea), these days in summer there are cold versions.

One version I saw on TV, used rice from the freezer, defrosted in cold water.

Topped with chopped up canned fish, mixed with some umeboshi.

Some torn up nori and chopped up tsukemono.

Sprinkle some ground sesame seeds and then add some cold tea.

I didn't have frozen rice, so I used warm rice from the rice cooker.

And topped my ochazuke with cold tea.

It was perfect for this humidity.

foodie monday in kobe

Yesterday, the weather was sunny but the heat and humidity was brutal.

I think the temps got up to the 90s but felt like 100s.

I swear it feels like you are right up next to the broiler element of an oven.

I stopped in at Ça Marche and picked up their patchwork bread and some other items...I've written about them here. I love their breads!

It was so hot that I stopped in at a new Starbucks, this one is a Starbucks Reserve and is called Neighborhood Coffee.

All their drinks are one size (big) and their prices are quite "big" too.

This passion tea was 540 yen (tax included).

The staff are friendly and I like the space design, they even have a separate area for people to come and sit with their dogs.

After cooling down and recharging...I headed down to Mariage Frères to pick up this year's summer tea which is called Rio Summer and some others for iced tea.

The Rio Summer is a green tea base with mint, green mate and açai. I've already cold brewed a batch and it is refreshing, lots of mint!

The other two teas I purchased were Mandalay (a black tea base with fruits and spices, perfect for iced chai), and Roi des Earl Grey (a black tea with bergamot).

I really appreciate the staff working here. They are really passionate about tea and give really informative explanations of the different teas.

Since this summer is really hot, I'm sure we'll quickly go through these teas.

How is summer where you are?

Neighborhood Coffee
2-24-1 Nakayamate-dori
Kobe, Hyogo
Phone: 078.222.0230
Monday-Fridays 8:30-22:00
Saturday, Sunday & Holidays: 7:30-22:00

chà.ke.li

Over the past couple of days, Satoshi went to Hong Kong with some of his co-workers.

Before he left, I asked if he could look for these chocolates, Chà.Ke.Li which are made by an upscale Chinese restaurant, Yè Shanghai.

The reason I asked for these were because they were apparently infused with various teas.

He purchased 8 of their tea chocolates.

Jasmine (Ghana 40.5%), Longjin (Papua 35.7%), Matcha (White 37%), Earl Grey (Mexico 66%), Oolong (Venezuela 72%), Tieguanyin (Santo Domingo 70%), Shuixian (Cuba 70%), Pu'er (Tanzania 75%).

Unfortunately for most of these, the tea flavors were so overpowered by the chocolates they were unnoticeable.

We did enjoy the Jasmine, Matcha, Shuixian & Earl Grey ones though.

A bit disappointed, I am still glad we got to try these.

Thanks Satoshi!

Chà.Ke.Li by Yè Shanghai
Level 3, Pacific Place
Metro Admiralty Station
Hong Kong
Phone: 852.2918.9833

matcha tea soda

I recreated the matcha tea soda that I had in Kyoto.

Put 1 teaspoon of matcha into a bowl and add 1/2 a teaspoon of light brown sugar.

Add 2 ounces (about 60 milliliters) of hot water (not boiling) and whisk until frothy.

Add some ice to a glass and pour the matcha in.

Then fill the remainder of the glass with soda water.

NOTES: Not as green as the one I had in Kyoto but still really refreshing. I'm making these again while the daytimes are still warm.

things I'm liking (kinda disliking)

It's been awhile since I did a "things I'm liking" post so here goes....Starbucks Fruit Crush Tea.

I had entered to win a free sample of their new Fruit Crush Tea which starts October 1st on their menu...and they sent me an e-ticket to try it before it went on their menu! whoo!

The base of this drink is an English Breakfast tea. There is a sweet (almost sickly) syrup and dried fruit bits.

Kind of reminded me of the sweet-tart flavor of hibiscus tea, but sweeter.

I think if they cut back on the amount of syrup, this would be nice.

I'm glad I got to try this.

Have you tried the Brownie Batter Oreos?

The aroma when you open the package smells just like brownies.

The cookie doesn't match the sweetness of the cream though.

Oh well, at least I got to try this one too.

During this time of year there are different grapes that are in season.

One is the pione (pee-oh-nay) (in the photo on the right). They are rather large orbs and this particular variety is seedless. Super sweet like grape candy. The skins of these grapes are tough and quite bitter, so we usually peel them while eating them.

The one on the left was new to me, it's called shine muscat. The skins of the grape are soft enough to be eaten. These were seedless also and a different sweetness than the pione.

I'm glad the fruit stand that I shop at had both of these on sale, it was nice trying them.

Love Quinn Popcorn.

I had seen this at a couple of food shops here in Japan...but guess what?!

They were selling it for 3 times the price that it is sold for in the U.S.

Actually for some reason, I had thought they weren't US made but European.

When I was in Hawaii, I found out they were being sold at Target (my fave place to shop!)

For a box they cost about $5 with two packets in it.

I guess that would be considered pricey, but, I thought it was worth it because they don't use all the "junk" ingredients that most microwave popcorns use.

Also, a good thing about this popcorn is that you can "nuke" it, or if you don't have a microwave oven, you can pop this on the stove!

So far, we've tried the Butter & Salt flavor...which was nice.

I also bought Vermont Maple & Salt and Parmesan & Rosemary...which we'll be working through this winter.

What have you been enjoying lately?

lebresso

I've had LeBresso on my "to try" list for some time now, the thing about this place is that they are only a coffee/tea and toast type of place, more of a "morning place" in my books, not a place where you could get a sandwich or something else for lunch.

So on Saturday, while I waited for Satoshi to finish his German class, I went to check them out for a late breakfast.

The place is small, only 7 seats along a counter.

When I got there, all the seats were taken and another customer was waiting in line for a seat as well.

After sitting and waiting for a bit, a group of 4 came and wanted to take out some toasts...they were told that they needed to wait until AFTER me and the other guy got our order in, then they could order take out?! WT?!

I was thinking, "you guys should just wait to be seated too" since they weren't gonna get served their "take-out" until after our orders went in...

Then a couple of seats opened up.

I ordered the peanut butter and honey toast...260 yen

With an iced coffee...330 yen

Their bread doesn't use eggs, I think this is the type of bread that is trending these days, instead of eggs, they use heavy cream.

Not toasted the bread is super soft.

When toasted, the texture of the bread is fluffy on the inside and the crust crisps up.

Overall, the flow of service here seemed a bit off.

I'm glad I tried this place but I probably won't be back.

LeBresso
1-1 Ajihara-cho
Tennoji, Osaka
Phone: 06.6765.8005
Monday-Friday 9:00-19:00
Saturday, Sunday & Holidays 8:00-19:00

foodie thursday in kobe

Yesterday, I went to Kobe despite the weather being forecast for rain.

The postcard for this year's Mariage Frères' Summer tea came and I wanted to pick it up as soon as possible since the number of samples were limited.

This year's summer tea is called "Summer Yuzu", a green tea base with yuzu zest and other citrus notes.

My first stop was Ça Marche, the tiny bakery that I've written about before here.

I picked up their patchwork bread and also their pain perdu (french toast) that was covered with dark chocolate and candied iyokan (a type of orange) peel.

Then went a couple doors down and popped into Kitano Groceries to see if they had small packets of ground turmeric, they didn't but they did have all sorts of other spices, it was nice to window shop there.

It started to drizzle while I walked down towards BAL (where Mariage Frères is located) and since it was close to noon, I stopped into Le Dimanche for lunch.

I chose their lotus root tartine (a baguette with slices of chicken and lotus root covered in cheddar cheese) and their donut.

Since I was eating in their shop, I needed to purchase a drink (in Japan, most places don't allow you to just have water), so I ordered a small iced coffee.

The girl at the register in her own world says to me, "what would you like to drink?"

I replied, "a small iced coffee".

She then says, "small or large"

I replied, "a small iced coffee"

She then says, "hot or iced"

Grrr...

At least I had the whole upstairs eating area to myself.

Too bad I didn't notice the toaster oven earlier, that tartine could have used a little heating up.

Dunno that I would eat there again, pick up and go definitely sounds the way to go here.

Then I headed to Mariage Frères.

Since I needed to purchase something in order to receive the sample, I got the "Imperial Russia", a Darjeeling base with lots of citrus notes.

I was kind of bummed that they only sell from 100 grams. I was kinda hoping they sold smaller sizes, like 50 grams so I could try more teas.

The guy at the counter let me smell all sorts of different teas, talk about sensory overload!

When I got home, I cold brewed both.

This morning I had the pain perdu...love this! so much candied peel and the semi-sweet chocolate matched perfectly.

I had the Summer Yuzu with lunch...meh, too perfumy and fake.

On the other hand, I did like the Imperial Russia which had a subtle citrus flavor.

Some hits and misses.

We'll be having the patchwork bread for breakfast tomorrow (Saturday).

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

seiyosakan

Satoshi had the day off so we went to check out the Tenjinbashisuji shopping arcade.

This shopping arcade is one of the longest and if I'm not mistaken one of the oldest in Japan...2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles)

Lunch was at a retro coffee shop but the food was meh and so was the coffee, so I'd rather not post about it.

I will tell you about dessert though.

It was at a cozy shop called Seiyosakan.

Satoshi had their marron (chestnut) chiffon cake and I had their berry tarte.

Both were delicious!

I ordered tea with lemon and Satoshi had some coffee.

A bit pricey but they do give you a whole pot of tea.

We'll be back!

Seiyosakan
4-6-14 Tenjinbashi
Kita-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6357.9780
Open everyday from 10:00-22:00