It has been so hot in the South of England these past couple of weeks. It does seem to be part of the general global warming of the planet, and it’s an alarming situation. It’s our responsibility to come up with some major solutions for the earth.
In Japan they have been having a long heat wave continuously. So all the matcha tea farmers have been trying to erect shades above the tea trees. Matcha & Gyokuro tea needs shade to grow slowly and reacts badly to extensive strong sunshine, so many of these trees have been spoiled. It is the careful slow growing process in the shade that helps create the umami and sweetness in the tea leaves and makes them so tender. Because these tender qualities are so keenly sought after, matcha & Gyokuro farmers can only harvest their tea leaves once a year, in summer time. Other tea can be harvested three times a year.
All the teas that I present at Keiko Uchida come direct from Kyoto. These are my favourite personal choices. My latest favourite is Shoin no mukashi from Ippodo. With this tea you can taste some sweetness with hardly any bitter taste at all. I tend to have one or two sweets before taking a cup of matcha tea, but with this particular tea I wouldn’t need anything.
You can check out our full selection of teas here.
By the way, Keiko was on BBC London’s radio show last week, talking about Japanese tea, and the Japanese tea ceremony. The programme is available on BBC Sounds, as one of the legendary Robert Elms’ programmes – talking all about tea.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08lm6xc
It is almost my own tea time, so have a good peaceful week!