April is known as Uzuki in old traditional Japanese. Uzuki is associated with this time of year as the word is connected with Uno hana, the Deutzias flower, which has such lovely blossom in April. So it’s a word strongly connected in our minds with the Deutzias blossom. It is wonderful to see how passionate the Japanese people are about Sakura, but it is also so interesting to find out about the history of Uno hana. The White Deutzias flower is so very elegant! According to the RHS (the Royal Horticultural Society) it is commonly called the Japanese Snow Flower. I do like that name too
There is another type of Uno hana in Japan, as Uno hana is the name of the pulp that remains after soy milk is strained to produce tofu. We call it this as it looks similar to the Deutzia flower. We normally cook this kind of Uno hana with seasonal vegetables such as carrots, shiitake mushrooms, beans etc., and simmered in soy sauce, mirin sweet sake, and sugar. It is a classic healthy side dish.
Many people have been talking lately about Matcha’s health benefits, and we are excited that the awareness of Matcha has been improving so significantly since last year. As you probably know, Matcha contains large amounts of Vitamin C and anti-oxidants. Many different people come to my tea ceremony workshops, and a few of them have found it’s not always easy to adjust their black tea lifestyle to Matcha tea, as it’s quite a contrast to their usual tea culture. For these people, Hojicha loose leaf teas and Hojicha powder can be an excellent alternative. Fortunately our Ippodo Hojicha tea and Kuki Hojicha are back in stock right now. I’d also recommend Hojicha powder for latte lovers, as it doesn’t contain much caffeine, but it does have a good quantity of Vitamin C. I’ve written an article about Hojicha here, if you are interested in finding out more about it.