I adore good quality tea! I’ve enjoyed some incredible teas from China, Japan, and Taiwan but hadn’t come across many teas from South Korea available for purchase in the UK, and so hadn’t appreciated the long and respected history that tea has in Korea until I visited Boseong, a key tea-producing county in South Korea’s ... Read more »
A Beginner’s Guide to Japanese Tea by Per Oscar Brekell
Over the last 10-15 years I’ve developed a real love for and interest in tea, especially Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese teas. Coinciding with my deep love of Japanese food and drink, I’ve researched and learned about the different types of Japanese tea (such as sencha, gyokuro, hojicha, genmaicha, matcha), about their growing and processing, their ... Read more »
Taking To The Skies | A Gondola Visit to Maokong for Lunch & Tea
I love cable cars! So I was very excited about riding on the Taipei Maokong Gondola during our visit to Taiwan’s capital earlier this year. It wasn’t until we did it that I realised quite how incredible this particular cable car journey would be – a long and leisurely half an hour in duration each ... Read more »
Tokyo Cult Recipes | Matcha & White Chocolate Cake
On the weekend I shared my review of Maori Murota’s Tokyo Cult Recipes, published by Murdoch Books. Click through to read more and to enter my giveaway to win your own copy of the book. This beautiful hard back cookery book features over 100 recipes loved by Tokyoites, covering breakfast, lunch, sweet snacks and dinner, ... Read more »
Little Moons & Tsuki Mochi | A Japanese Afternoon Tea
Once upon a time, the Old Man of the Moon decided to visit the Earth. Disguised as a beggar, he came across three friends who lived together in the forest – Fox (Kitsune), Monkey (Saru) and Rabbit (Usagi) and asked them for something to eat. Monkey leapt up into the trees to gather fruit and ... Read more »
3 Ingredient Smoothie | Banana, Matcha & Prune
Green smoothies are all the rage. But I’ve just not developed a taste for kale, spinach, broccoli or any other green vegetable in my smoothies and prefer to stick to my fruit concoctions. A banana is a great start to the day. In recent years, bananas have received some bad press because they do not ... Read more »
Lalani & Co Matcha Masterclass
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a Matcha Masterclass by Jameel Lalani, founder of Lalani & Co. Not long before, I wrote an article about matcha for which I spoke to several retailers of high grade Matcha, Lalani & Co included. (Look out for the article in the March issue of ... Read more »
Tombo’s Japanese Afternoon Tea
Tombo, Japanese for dragonfly, is a small deli and cafe in South Kensington, just a minute’s walk from the tube station. It offers a small menu of modern Japanese food and quality tea. I’m a particular fan of it’s Japanese desserts, which often feature ingredients such as azuki (red bean paste), matcha and sesame. On ... Read more »
Tasting Teas with Adagio
The world of tea is a vast one. For those happy with basic black tea in teabags (or loose) it’s pretty straightforward; every supermarket in the country stocks black tea teabags and loose leaf English Breakfast, Assam and Darjeeling are just as easy to find; Earl Grey (black tea with the addition of essential oil ... Read more »
Yao Yao Cha | Boba & Baobing | Bubble Tea & Shaved Ice
Yao Yao Cha means Shake Shake Tea in Chinese. The naming approach tickles me and certainly the little shop in London’s Seven Dials area has shaken up the local bubble tea market since it opened earlier this year. Yao Yao Cha’s founder and owner Susan Fang was born in Taiwan but has lived in New ... Read more »