Friday Knows Tea

Yoshiaki Hattori stands with his tea plants under a solar shade screen Meet Yoshiaki Hattori, sustainable tea visionary and crafter of some of the finest matcha we've ever tasted. The Hattori facility (Tenryu Agri-Farms) resides in Shizuoka, Japan, a region probably best known for its beautiful scenery, delicious food and huge trade in green tea. In fact, this prefecture grows 40% of the green tea in Japan! Even among smaller, more eco-friendly farms, Mr. Hattori takes an unusual approach to growing and processing. He strives to combine contemporary sustainability practices with very old-fashioned processing styles to bring the best of quality to the matcha market while minimizing his carbon footprint. In the world of Japanese green teas, it's common to cover the plants for the last few weeks of their growth cycle in order to encourage the final growth spurt to be sweet and complex, rather than tannic and dry. This is how matchas and senchas are given the smooth and t...

For today's episode of Behind the Blend, I am delighted to highlight our first ever Chari-tea: Rohan's Research Blend! Rohan's Research Blend Rohan is a delightful neighborhood kiddo whose mother approached me to request a custom tea to benefit the medical research organization with which she is involved. The Association for Creatine Deficiencies is "a nonprofit organization dedicated to the three Cerebral Creatine Deficiency Syndromes" (pulled from their website as I couldn't think of a better way to phrase it). Rohan himself has been diagnosed with Cerebral Creatine Deficiency and, along with his mother's personal flavor preferences, served as the inspiration for this blend. For those not totally familiar with my blending method, allow me to sum up: I have a neurological super power called Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia. This cross-wiring of the senses causes me to literally taste words and abstract concepts like personality, mood, ideas and so...