Japan!

[Kreweta]

Ok it's my turn to ask  B)

 

I know that Japan is the country of teaism and with a very long tea-drinking history. Since tea is my favorite drink, I've always been curious wheter what everyone says: "East exports only crap to Europe, because westerners just don't care", "Japan keeps the best tea for themselves", is true. Do you guys really find the tea there, better and tastier than this Lipton or any other european brands I have over here? 

[arakura]

I also wonder how the Japanese drink tea. I personally am a *fake* tea drinker (meaning i drink tea with milk and sugar all over because I like hot sweet liquids) but I think that tea is a very interesting drink in general. I know something of the varied styles and methods of preparing and drinking it, but I'm more likely to embarrass myself by asking a misguided question. So I guess what I want to ask is what is your understanding of tea within Japanese culture, from your experience?

[cryofrzd]

My general idea (it might be wrong) is they drink mostly green domestic tea, and they have this powder instead of tea-bags or tea-strainer. I know they like the Chinese call black tea red 紅茶 and I think I'll have to agree with them that red is more describing of the liquid.

 

Btw as I'm currently in another tea-country, Russia I've noticed their habits, they drink tea in glasses, tea-bags seem to dominate and they prefer fruity teas. My impression until now.

[Flutterz]

My general idea (it might be wrong) is they drink mostly green domestic tea, and they have this powder instead of tea-bags or tea-strainer. I know they like the Chinese call black tea red 紅茶 and I think I'll have to agree with them on that red is more describing of the liquid.

 

Btw as I'm currently in another tea-country, Russia I've noticed their habits, they drink tea in glasses, tea-bags seem to dominate and they prefer fruity teas. My impression until now.

Interesting, where in Russia are you? Because the part about teabags and fruity teas being popular is true but I've never seen anyone drink tea from a glass.

[cryofrzd]

Interesting, where in Russia are you? Because the part about teabags and fruity teas being popular is true but I've never seen anyone drink tea from a glass.

Saint Petersburg, they serve tea in glasses on the hotel, cafés, restaurants and cafeterias. Should I make reports from Moscow later this week too?

[Flutterz]

Saint Petersburg, they serve tea in glasses on the hotel, cafés, restaurants and cafeterias. Should I make reports from Moscow later this week too?

Yeah, that'd be great. I don't go to cafes or restaurants much so maybe that's a thing in Moscow too.

[Kreweta]

Actually I have some basic knowledge...  Japanese when they think of the, they think of green. We in Europe by default think of black. And now so everyone knows, in western world (Europe, US etc) term black tea means something literally different than in Eastern world (China, Japan, India, Sri-lanka (old Ceylon)). 

 

In western world we have only two kinds of tea: Green and Black and basically whatever gives us a dark liquid is called black tea. (that's whey they export shit to us, cause we have no knowledge whatsoever). In eastern world however these terms are more precise and so is the color spectrum... but perhaps in order to let you fully understand the categorization I shall first explain how does this all actually happen... so here is short story not bore you:

 

When the tea leaf is picked, its interior cells begin to break down and oxidation (chemical reactions when in contact with oxigen) begins. Large molecules break down, while smaller molecules bond together, modifying the tea's general characteristics. As the oxidation proceeds, the leaf turn from green=>darkgreen=>brown=>black. Finally oxidation stops, either naturally (100% oxidized) or when the leaf becomes to dry or hot. So yeah, if someone didn't know, all colors of tea are from the same tree.

Pay attention that I said oxidation, and not fermentation which is another process, that which includes action of bacteria or yeast, whereas oxidation doesn't need any micro-organisms. Many people confuse this terms and call oxidation fermentation and just won't let you convince them... 

 

 

so from lightest to heaviest:

- white tea - is the lightest of all teas. It is completely unoxidized and it has not been artificially heated to stop oxidation. People basically, after picking the leaves from the tree, lay them down in the sun and let them dry . White tea is super delicate and produce very pale color.

- green tea - refers to unoxidized tea artifically heated during processing. People usually, soon after harvesting, heat them over a fire two or more times before oxidation had a chance to begin for good. However, I've heard that in Japan they steam the tea and that gives it entirely different flavor.. (I'd love to try). 

- oolong tea - refers to any semi-oxidized tea. This is a very vaaast middle ground and really oolongs can taste very different from one to another. Liquid color ranges from yellow to brown. As a side note I'll mention that it can be confusing why this one doesn't refer to a color... well some people call it qing tea and to quote here "Qing is a unique Chinese color chromatic concept that refers to either green or blue depending upon the context."

- red tea - fully oxidized tea (leaves turn dark redish/blackish)... processing is fairly complex but at the end of oxidation leaves are dried out completly. Now may be a big suprise to many of you. What west calls black it in fact refers to eastern red. In fact, I bet that many of you guys didn't even drink black tea once! All this liption and other staff, all the English teas are in fact red teas... don't believe me then try to buy true black tea like puer in some tea shop.

- black tea - Is a tea that has after oxidation has also been aged... i.e. exposed for bacteria, fungi and stuff like that and that of course gives it different flavor.

 

So yeah, now you guys have some more basic knowledge about tea... although the topic is huge and I could write much more ) Ah, and about this powered tea... It's in fact quite recent stuff that people brew tea as they do, using full leaves. At first tea was composed into bricks, some time later (in some dynasty, don't remember) they started milling leaves into powder. But hey, why bother right? We can just pick leaves and use them as they are.

 

So yeah. You can see I am quite a geek in that matter. Personally, if it's by any chance possible, I'd pay someone to send me some superior tea straight from Japan. But I will be happy enough just to hear your self-experienced opinion. )

 

PS: About tea bags... many people look down on tea-bags as a sign of shitty/dubious quality. Of course it's handy if you're going on some trip then sure tea bags come handy. But hey, why would one chop up the leave into pieces and hide it inside some fancy bag... is it cause they are shit quality?

[Guest loppez]

I also wonder how the Japanese drink tea. I personally am a *fake* tea drinker (meaning i drink tea with milk and sugar all over because I like hot sweet liquids) but I think that tea is a very interesting drink in general. I know something of the varied styles and methods of preparing and drinking it, but I'm more likely to embarrass myself by asking a misguided question. So I guess what I want to ask is what is your understanding of tea within Japanese culture, from your experience?

how do japanese drink tea? like everybody else. tea, boiled water, done. nothing special. when i was with japanese girl she was using tea bags. ceremonies (chanoyu) are treated like different events. there are many kinds of tea in japan but we live in 21th century. i am sure you can find at least some of japanese tea in your country. 

try genmaicha. 

[Darklord Rooke]

In western world we have only two kinds of tea: Green and Black and basically whatever gives us a dark liquid is called black tea.

 

Nah, we have plenty. Just heading to the local supermarket you get the ceylons, darjeelings, russian caravans, assams, earl greys and weird flavoured... stuff. You get white, green and a host of herbal infusions. 

[Nagisa_Fawkes]

I'm currently in my first year of computing science at college. In my fourth year, I plan to study abroad at an university in Japan, in my fifth year I plan to be a trainee there. And once I'm graduated, I plan on getting my master's degree at Japan. And later I plan to work on a game company, like Konami or Sega, maybe even some company that makes visual novels (wonder if I can work at KEY xD). I'm improving my japanese as fast as I can. Do you think it is possible for me to do all this? I swear I'm doing my very best.

[arakura]

how do japanese drink tea? like everybody else. tea, boiled water, done. nothing special. when i was with japanese girl she was using tea bags. ceremonies (chanoyu) are treated like different events. there are many kinds of tea in japan but we live in 21th century. i am sure you can find at least some of japanese tea in your country. 

try genmaicha. 

I was referring to the Tea Ceremony, but again, I'm not really knowledgeable. I was under the understanding that it was of a quite high and ritualized degree of solemnity.  That's what I meant by 'methods of preparing'. It's not the largest of my concerns, but it is an interesting cultural facet I think (given that I understand it correctly)

[Kreweta]

Hey guys... I think we don't understand each other... with the statement "in Europe we have only two kinds of tea" I did not mean it literally. I meant that people have no deeper knowledge and it's normal not to distinguish other kinds. Of course you can find these on shelves labeled as white or red and when people buy these, and you come pay them a visit they still ask you "Do you want green or black tea?". 

 

And someone stated that you certainly can buy tea labeled as Japanese tea in your country. Hell yeah, except that they all taste the same wheter they are from Russia or Japan. I've heard that tea has green tea can have plenty of different flavors. I even went to tea shop in here and I've been treated with only two species of Jp tea, both of which were same like stuff in malls. Now ... I know that I may be overestimating things, but I've read multiple times, that no good teas are exported from China/Japan. And that makes lots of sense to me to be honest. You won't find much demand for more expensive teas here, given that most of people will be satisfied with whatever tea they see in the mall.

 

That's why I am asking, if anyone, while being in Japan, got nicely startled with the quality of tea they bought, or even better got into a habit of drinking it. =]