Tea Blending workshop

Shizuoka really is the Mecca of Green tea. It’s a heaven to experience many workshops. We wanted to get a feel of the Tea Blending. We met a tea master a day before and we got curious to understand on a more practical level what it means to Blend tea together.
Time for a workshop !

Three different types of tea, ready for the experiment.
Maruhide Iwasaki Shoten is a tea factory located in Shizuoka city. They blend and sell tea, and have won a number of prestigious awards for their excellent tea.

The first step is to pour hot water.
And to smell the different types of tea. All three were Sencha’s but still had different notes in their smell.

Nose at work.

There are four main characteristics in Japanese green tea: bitterness, umami, sweetness and color.

The second step is tasting. For that one we purposely over-brewed the tea leaves in order to extract all the flavors. The purpose here is not to enjoy the tea but rather to be able to tell what are his specific characteristics. It will taste a little bitter because of that but also you will get a wider spectrum of flavors which is essential if you want to make your tea blend later. You must know in depth the product you will use.

Tea tasting with a “Sommelier”. This man was quite famous in this field. He was just passing by when our workshop took place. He was specialized in tea , wines and beers. Interesting man.

The three tea we tried had distinctive aromas. You could feel that in the different areas of the tongue being stimulated , just like a symphony in the mouth.

I have found a good picture to describe Japanese tea and flavors.

As you can see the Sencha flavors is more on the Fresh / bitter flavor.  Of course this will vary a lot depending on the Sencha. In fact Sencha is just the name of a process. All the tea plantations will grow their tea using the same method but the geology , the altitude and the weather never is the same. That’s why different Sencha will get unique flavors.

They is also much more vocabulary used to describe tea flavors. Let’s make a short list. Floral , fruity , grassy , salty , smoky , sour , metallic , earthy , full.

It’s time to us to make the blend using theses three tea.

The tea blend we made used a specific ratio where one of the tea was put in more amount. The final aim is to create an harmonious flavor. And this is what we done ! (with the help of Tea master of course). This new flavor was much more balanced at taste and more interesting. Taking just by themselves , the tea we tasted were lacking this round taste but after blending we could taste a new product. In fact the blend allowed each characteristic to fusion together. Just like making bridges. Very interesting experience. Now we have our own boxes to try ourselve at home.

Four-legged friend during the workshop. I believe he was the main tea master.

Yeeeeah. Nice time we spend together.

Time to get out and enjoy the nature around.

Italian lunch first. Homemade Gnocchi.

Getting higher.

Zooming in. Nature finding ways to gather water to thrive.

Urban Mosaic.

Beautiful hike.

And back in town to indulge cakes.

Cheesecake in a flower-themed café. Cute place and delicious.

New trend in Japan ?

Later on in our trip we tried ourselves the workshop.

Green tea man. This time we made another blend with : roasted tea , oxidised tea (like Oolong) and normal Sencha. This mix sounded rather unusual and ended up being super interesting at taste.
Our tea trip is reaching the end. We had a beautiful time in Shizuoka prefecture. I’m coming back in April to work in a tea plantation. I’m super excited and quite scared because the farmers only speak Japanese. It should be an interesting experience.

See you for the next article people.