SenRyo and ManRyo Sencha - Chado November 2022

The Beautiful Game

It’s the World Cup, and the Japan team is still in it to win it!

Canada managed to score their one and only goal in the World Cup at last, but it was not enough, and they were knocked out after only 2 games.

in 4 years' time, the World Cup will be held in North America, so Canada has some time to get some much-needed practice in. Vancouver is in the running to host some games, so that would be very exciting.

Chado Tea House is now betting on Japan to win the Cup. They next play on December 1st, so please keep your fingers crossed. A Japan versus Brazil final is mathematically possible, and if that comes to pass, it will be a wild time in Tokyo for sure. We are sure lots of beverages will be consumed, likely not too much tea, but we cannot win them all.

 Perfect Partners - SenRyo and ManRyo Sencha

We have a tea partnership to bring you this month. For a long time, our Sencha – SenRyo has been a very popular tea with our customers. That tea has a well-balanced sweetness with a distinct umami taste. We are now proud to announce that we have SenRyo’s big brother, Sencha – ManRyo tea.

Both of these teas are from Kagoshima Prefecture on the southwest tip of Kyushu Island, Japan. As you might expect, with the teas coming from the same region and being considered siblings, they are both grown from the same cultivar - namely, Yutakamidori. The cultivar is the variety of the green tea plant; Yutakamidori is the second-most used cultivar in Japan, second to Yabukita, which is by far and away the most common.

The cultivar is less resistant to cold weather than the Yabukita, so it is suited more to being grown in southern areas of Japan, of which Kagoshima is one. These two teas are shaded for about seven days prior to harvesting; this creates the deep green color typically associated with shaded teas like Matcha and Gyokuro, the word Yutakamidori roughly translates into ‘abundant green,’ and both of these teas exhibit that characteristic in their liquor.

Sencha - SenRyo

Well-balanced sweetness and umami clean mouthfeel all unified for a perfect Sencha experience. Sencha SenRyo is one of our Signature Collection Teas

This is a Yutakamidori cultivar of Kabuse Sencha. Kabuse farming method involves covering the tea plants prior to harvesting, which limits direct sunlight and thus reduces the amounts of photosynthesis which makes for a sweet, umami-rich taste.

Sencha - ManRyo

The big brother of our popular SenRyo above. This Sencha ManRyo is refined to a higher grade than Sencha SenRyo; This Sencha ManRyo has a similar taste profile to the SenRyo with a very satisfying depth of taste.

This is a premium-quality Japanese Green Tea Sencha.

A “Ryo” is the monetary unit of the Edo period and one Ryo is today's equivalent of US$1,000. SenRyo is a thousand times that amount, so we like to think of it as a Million Dollar Sencha. ManRyo is the next step up - 10,000 times above Ryo, so it is called 10 Million Dollar Sencha in the current era. We do not charge that much for it, though, so please do not panic and give it a try.

Winter is coming to Japan and tea is sleeping

It will soon be winter in Japan and the tea plants are becoming dormant. The ground around the plants is typically covered with straw or the fallen leaves from the plants themselves to protect them from the cold temperature.

Many tea farms also utilize fans that are mounted at intervals among the plants at 2-3m height to circulate the air, this circulation helps reduce the prevalence of frost. The tea farming process is a full-time job with constant picking, trimming, and tending to the plants, especially during the spring and summer. In winter, the farmer gets to take it a bit easier, but there is still lots to do as the plants are huddled down for winter and storing up the goodness from the soil, ready to awake when spring arrives,

One plant that is at its best in the winter in Japan is the Yuzo. The Yuzo is a small citrus fruit that has a taste somewhere between a lemon, mandarin and grapefruit. The Yuzo fruit is not generally eaten as a fruit, but its juice and zest are a staple ingredient in many Japanese dishes; it is a prominent ingredient in some kinds of vinegar and the famous ponzu sauce.

We have a tea that has a hint of Yuzo flavor. We do not stock many flavored teas, but we have found the Yuzu Kuki Matcha Tea to be popular with that added hint of citrus.

Yuzo is not just good for flavoring; a popular tradition in Japan around the winter solstice is to take a bath scented with Yuzo fruit. The solstice in Japan is known as tōji, and frequently at this time, public hot spring baths have the Yuzo fruit floating atop the water providing a relaxing and refreshing addition to the soothing water.