Hello all. Just a note about the World Tea Festival
世界お茶まつり held in
Shizuoka, Japan last week. If you're not Japanese you probably were
not there unless you work for an embassy here in Tokyo, because I know
I didn't see you there. There were a few Chinese pavilions offering
some fairly typical oolong teas and of course Taiwan was well
represented. There was a short demonstration on Moroccan tea by a
Japanese guy who works for the Moroccan embassy and two Moroccan
exchange students (they use Chinese gunpowder mixed with spearmint and
a full tablespoon of sugar for each guest in a large metal pot with a
few small intricacies in the stirring). The Kenyan pavilion was fairly
sad, offering tastings of something called "Kenyan breakfast tea" or
some other rough generalization of something to satisfy British
tastes. The Sri Lankan Embassy was surprisingly well versed in
consumption trends around the world and was offering some wonderfully
rich Uva tea. The staff member was a bit too quick to bad mouth CTCs -
seems like part of some kind of worldwide conspiracy to make poor
people feel bad for drinking strong bodied teas. He says that's "tea
bag tea", although the Nilgiri CTC I bought in Varanasi was truly
wonderful and blew away everything I had ever tasted, including his
Uva tea. The Indian Embassy had some darjeeling on hand for tasting
(likely 2nd flush) and didn't have too much appeal. It was extremely
wet. Their sales booth was rather good, with a St. James darjeeling
that was actually flavorful. Japanese people are quite into darjeeling
like a lot of the rest of the world, although they don't really count
because they know something about living with green tea and know about
as much about anything else as my uncle Jimmy. What was promoted as
Tibetan butter tea was available for 100 yen. It tasted like chicken
broth. It was actually slightly gut wrenching compared to everything
around it and I have to conclude that the Japanese people making it
didn't have a clue as to what they were doing. They basically had the
recipe photocopy out in front of them and used all Japanese
ingredients. What can you say? The local tea was, of course, what it
was all about. As you all know, Shizuoka is the biggest tea producing
region in Japan and every small city association was there promoting.
They had some incredible yabukita cha and other senchas. The gyokuro
association had a large pavilion, but was too packed to get into. As
always, the Vietnamese stand had a couple of brochures and no humans.
There was some interesting health related stuff and quite a bit of
machinery on display. Most everyone was able to take a tea plant home
with them as well. I've got 6 sitting on my balcony waiting to be
planted at mom and dad's house this weekend. I tried Korean white
lotus tea (fairly smoky in an odd way - with a smooth aftertaste)
given out by a guy intent on preserving the secret behind this drink
(or so he said). I had Taiwan's answer to darjeeling, "shanpin" (a
play on "champagne") I believe it was called. The quality seems to
vary widely, but one variety at a Japanese booth was quite good. Most
of the Chinese exhibitors didn't seem to speak either Japanese or
Chinese, which meant they gave out a lot of refills, but unfortunately
couldn't answer any questions about their products. Seems like a lot
of money to spend without anything to show for it. An interpreter
isn't that expensive. There was something called the "robot cafe"
which either I missed or had already broken down earlier in the week.
It was next to the Lipton stand, which featured a sort of ticket
bubble that you stick your arm in and grab a ticket flying around. I
think all the tickets were the same - a sample of apple tea. How sad.
How typical. i can't believe Lipton has a tea room in the Tokyo Prince
Hotel next to the Tokyo Tower. The people are so nice there, but the
tea is typical nasty Lipton conveyor belt droppings. Well, despite my
horrific description, it was one of the best days in memory and the
Japanese tea was truly magnificent.

In article >,
(Rufus T. Firefly) wrote:

> Hello all. Just a note about the World Tea Festival

(snip..)

great report! thanks for posting it...

pilo_ wrote:
> In article >,
> (Rufus T. Firefly) wrote:
>
>
>>Hello all. Just a note about the World Tea Festival
>
>
> (snip..)
>
> great report! thanks for posting it...

pilo_ > wrote in message >...
> In article >,
> (Rufus T. Firefly) wrote:
>
> > Hello all. Just a note about the World Tea Festival
>
> (snip..)
>
> great report! thanks for posting it...

Thank you very much for your comment and for actually reading my much
too long and meandering report. It was truly a wonderful day.

pilo_ > wrote in message >...
> In article >,
> (Rufus T. Firefly) wrote:
>
> > Hello all. Just a note about the World Tea Festival
>
> (snip..)
>
> great report! thanks for posting it...

Thank you very much for your comment and for actually reading my much
too long and meandering report. It was truly a wonderful day.