Obubu offers most varieties of Japanese tea including seven different kinds of sencha, everyday Japanese green tea. If you’ve read my other posts, you’ll know I’m a sencha drinker, so this is fairly exciting for me. But wait, what’s the difference between Kabuse Sencha, and Sencha of the Wind, and Sencha of the Summer Sun? Don’t worry. The good folks at Obubu provide exhaustive information on each tea. In an easy to read and understand format they list the flavour characteristics, and suggested brewing instructions. For the serious tea practitioner, they provide details about growing conditions, harvest time, and processing methods that really tell you what to expect from the tea. This is the kind of information that all online merchants should supply as a standard practice.

Their website also includes plenty of other goodies too. They post videos and photos, information about the company and tea culture in Japan. It is certainly packed with treasures for the tea lover to uncover.

I had the pleasure of trying Sencha of the wind. It’s a little lighter than prefer I, and the tea was a bit more broken than I expected, but I suspect the latter was due to it being an easily crushable sample packet. The taste was subtle and sweet, something connoisseurs would appreciate or those drinking sencha for the first time. Looking at the website, I can see exactly where these characteristics come from. The tea plants are grown in shade for the final two weeks before harvesting, plus there are a fair amount of stem pieces included. It is certainly a well crafted example of the tea.

Comparing what’s in my cup, to the information on the website, I think anyone can choose the right tea for their taste. Personally, since I prefer a more robust sencha, next time I hope try Obubu’s Sencha of the Earth, or Sencha of the Summer Sun. As with most quality Japanese teas, the prices feel a little high for my wallet, but I still look forward to exploring the rest of their offerings.

I want to reiterate, that Obubu doesn’t just list clever names for their tea. They go the extra mile to provide real information that consumers need in order to make informed decisions. Their website is a shining example of what all merchants should do for all of their teas, both on their website, and on tea packaging. They list the tea plant variety, cultivation conditions, harvesting period, processing methods, and the producer/location. This taxonomy is needed if consumers are to compare related products or the products from different merchants. Thank you, Obubu Tea for considering our needs too.

Also check out their “A Tea of Smiles” photo contest. You still have a week to enter.

At the top of the list we have a few expensive senchas packaged and sold by Japanese companies. If the Japanese think they are excellent, then they are bound to be expensive. They generally come from a single named farm, like a house reserve wine. The loose leaves are a lovely forest green. They are flat, small, unbroken needles with few bits of stem. When brewed, the tea is golden and the leaves turn a bright, vibrant green. The flavour is subtly vegetal, smooth, and fills the mouth. With these more delicate senchas, I lower my brewing temperature and lengthen my brewing time by a few seconds.

Hibiki An and Yamadashi are both top quality tea producers in Uji and you can find Yamadashi Ya in Kyoto, while Hibiki An sells online. Sebo Kochikuen is from Nagoya area and is unusual in that the loose leaves have a slight curl to them. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to acquire more, since it was a gift from a friend, but it’s the kind of tea you can find at the tea counter of a nice department store, or specialty tea shop in Japan.

At the lower end, we have some other teas that are not perfect by the Japanese standard, but are good enough for my daily cup. Mt Fuji International, and Harney & Sons Fine Tea (basic sencha) exemplify this category. The loose leaves have the same color as the more expensive sencha, but they are generally more broken, and contain more pieces of stem. The brewed tea is an emerald green and may even contain a noticeable amount of dust in the cup. The flavour of these senchas is usually a bit stronger and rougher, but they still should not be bitter. If the leaves are broken and dusty I reduce my brewing time by about 10 seconds. Fortunately, Mt Fuji and Harney & Sons are both online and reasonably priced. Both teas resemble what you would find in the tea isle of a Japanese grocery store. They may not be high end teas, but they are what most people drink every day.

What do all of these senchas have in common? They are fresh! When you open the package, they leaves are a dark green and your nose is assaulted by the fresh green tea aroma. Would you buy a brown and dry head of lettuce from the grocery store? Certainly not, so why would you by a tired, dry, straw-like sencha? Tea packaged in Japan stays fresh longer than sencha that is shipped to the US in bulk and repackaged locally. To some degree it doesn’t matter if it is high grade or low grade sencha as long as it reaches your cup while still fresh.

The shop boasts over a dozen Jananese teas from sencha to genmai-matcha to gyokuro. Since Antonio purchases them in small sealed packets directly from Japan, they stay spring-fresh. His menu also sports a handful of pu-er and green teas from China, as well as blacks and chai from India. What really stands out is the Caj Chai’s list of oolongs. For 15 euros, he’ll break out the gongfu set and walk you through the brewing process, or for a more modest price you can get a teapot and a thermos of water at your table.

It’s a great place to relax and de-stress, but don’t leave without checking out the shop’s collection of tea ware for sale. He imports both nice equipment for everyday use as well as a few works of art, including some of the nicest sencha teapots we’ve seen outside of Japan. He even carries work by a very promising Czech potter who trained in Korea, and produces clever designs inspired by the Chinese gaiwan.

Unlike most establishments in the UK, Yumchaa dumps the loose leaf tea and water into a pot with plenty of room the leaves to unfurl. Then they leave it to the customer strain the tea into their own larch tea cups. Finally, we found a tea room that treats tea with the love and care it deserves.

No British tearoom would be complete without sandwiches and cakes. Yumchaa lives up to anyone’s expectations in this regard. My only complaint is that their room as a bit small and gets crowded on a busy day.  Don’t let this put you off. It’s well worth the effort to drop by Yumchaa’s shop located between Tottenham and Oxford Circus tube stations.

“An Answer to a paper set forth by the coffee-men directed to the Honourable, the Commons in Parliament assembled being reflections upon some propositions that were exhibited to the Parliament for the changing the excise of coffee, tea, and chocolate into a custom upon the commodities.” This 1680 title is more than a mouthful, but it contains some statistics on coffee, tea, and chocolate consumption in England. According to the paper the British consumed the following:

“Coffee…100 Tuns a year” I assume they mean tons, but old measurement systems is not my specialty.

“Tea, 27000 Pounds a year”

“Chocolate, 6000 Pounds”

“Cocoa-nut, 300 Hundreds”

The purposes of the letter to Parliament was to argue the relative merits of various excise taxes proposed for these beverages. The source of the statistics was the Coffee-Men of London, who certainly had the best interests of their own business at heart.

The staff was well trained, and genuinely interested in tea. They were kind enough brew up some Dong Ding oolong at our request, and then they knocked our socks off with an amazing Jin Xuan. Their recomendations were in line with our interests and our budget. They didn’t push us into buying anything, but they directed us to some of their truly special teas.

I was quite impressed with both the service and selection at Le Palais Des Thes. I look forward to brewing up my purchases as soon as I can unpack my tea ware from storage.

Cowboy style is such an appropriate name for how we often prepare tea. I love sitting down on a leisurely Saturday morning and breaking out the kit for a full gongfu tea service. When I have guests over, I enjoy treating them to the show and the traditions and the stories. But we don’t always want to engage in the full pomp and circumstance. Sure, I brew my pu-erh in a tiny Yixing pot, but I’ve been known to use the first four brews to fill my travel mug before heading into the office. This is the heart of cowboy style. It’s a fast and loose tea preparation that follows your current whim and needs.

When you study under a tea master, or at least the tea masters I’ve met, they expect you to follow their proscribed method and ritual without deviation. Only after achieving the status of master, are you allowed and expected to develop your own style. This is a bit difficult for most of us Western tea enthusiasts to swallow. I think cowboy style is our response. Even in Asia there are plenty of people brewing up excellent pots of tea without following the ceremony of any specific gongfu master. Cowboy style is a nod to the traditions in a way that is suitable for every day tea drinking. In some ways it makes the full gongfu process more special because it separates the ceremony from our everyday experience.

I think its time for another pot of tea…cowboy style.

The menu boasts a nice selection of teas from China and India, plus plenty of flavored greens, rooibos, and herbals. I have only two complaints. Like every other cafe I’ve been to in Scandinavia, the Tea Lounge uses a tea ball or tea spoon in which to confine the leaves in a cup. They just don’t have enough room for the leaves to open and release their full flavor. My second complaint is that the wall behind the bar displays far more alcohol than tea. I’m not sure I’d feel as happy here in the evening as I am in the early afternoon.