Coffee and tea recipes have been evolving for hundreds if not thousands of years. Chinese and Japanese monks began introducing variations on the basic matcha tea mixture that they used in ancient religious rituals as… Read More
Visitors to Japan often ask whether they’ll be able to “get by” with speaking only English and/or just a few words of Japanese during their stay. The short answer to that question is yes. In… Read More
Perhaps no single topic about Japan’s culture is more obscured by myth, misinformation and urban legend than the women who call themselves geisha. The so-called “geisha culture” has been a key part of Japan’s history,… Read More
Surprisingly few Westerners ever make a trip to Japan, but the ones who do never seem to stop talking about what they saw and did while there. For non-Asians especially, the culture shock factor is… Read More
Volumes have been written on how to coax the best flavor out of tea leaves using special brewing methods. For the average tea drinker, however, it is good to know just a few of the… Read More
Japan is more than the home of Mt. Fuji and matcha tea. What some people call the world’s most intriguing culture is a global repository of human history, art, music and some of the finest… Read More
One of the biggest stories in the world tea trade is the choice of Las Vegas, Nevada, as the host for the 2016 World Tea Expo. Industry movers and shakers will head to the North… Read More
Burma, sometimes called Myanmar, has a unique tea culture that came about from the mixture of ancient influences from India, and more modern ones from Britain. Even with its varied background and unusual mixture of… Read More
Japanese comics are called manga, from a word that combines the meanings of “impromptu” and “pictures.” Popularized during the Occupation after WW2, these simplistic stories told in pictures with minimal script are a huge business… Read More
What exactly are the benefits of matcha tea compared to other green teas and beverages in general? There is plenty of research and documentation about matcha tea and how it compares to similar drinks. Unfortunately, the… Read More
