Darjeeling

So I may have mentioned this already but I wanted to post this, almost as a note to myself. Darjeeling is a region where tea is grown, I think... Yeah, could check for sure but whatever. Anyway, Darjeeling tea is widely varied in terms of how oxidised it can be and how it is drunk and how it tastes. I believe Darjeeling is the one  nicknamed the 'champagne of teas'. It has a clear bodied, raisinish or pruneish taste when I drink it black. But I was not aware until last year that you can drink it green or at least more like oolong, half oxidised instead of fully black. In terms of blackness and oxidization, the tea spectrum goes ; puerh (aged black), black, oolong, green, yellow and white. White being the least 'baked' I guess you could say. This again, is just how I think it is. I am not an expert although if I ever stop being lazy and cheap, maybe I will spend my life becoming a tea sommelier... Maybe. So expensive...  But I digress. As usual. So as I was describing, I tried a blend of Darjeeling, Ceylon (aka Sri Lankan) and Assam tea from the Isetan Dept. store in Tokyo's Shinjuku District. I am not boasting. It was a nice store. But a fancy dept. store, let's just say every country has one and they are all the same. Anyway it had a nice tea selection but T2, the Aussie tea chain, has better imho. Anyway this blend surprised me. The leaves were fairly large and some were greener and others were darker. I tasted it and to my surprise there was a peach-like flavour. I added milk because it was also a wee bit astringent. I like my flavours softer, less edgy. So then I remembered, my coworker from India (actually Nepal, long story that I don't really know) gave me a small amount of her precious Darjeeling from home. It was markedly different to the stuff I can buy in regular New Zealand shops. It was greener and it tasted milder. Frankly, I prefer it. Go, India! You keep at it. And I will be prowling the Indian shops in my city when I return to NZ. Vastly different green to Japanese green. Japanese green is more fullbodied and grassy, prone to bitterness. Darjeeling green is smoother and lighter in taste, and more fruity. But I still like both. I never have a real fave except for Assam of course.

More about tea in Japan

I must say, Genmaicha is particularly good with rice crackers. But not sweet ones. Frankly, sweet rice crackers are an abomination, to my mind. I like the rice crackers which are shoyu (soy sauce) flavour. Or the ones baked in part with wheat flour which contain black sesame seeds in abundance. I do like a lot of the food here in Hokkaido despite the marked weather difference and much less lush greenery. Tokyo in Spring is very different to my little town in the south of Hokkaido. I still prefer it here. But back to tea. I really do think Genmaicha (green tea with toasted brown rice) is my favourite tea, more so than any other tea most of the time. I love black tea with milk but it has one disadvantage, for me. When it goes cold, it isn't as nice. I drink it and it's ok. But Genmaicha and most green or black teas without milk or sugar, are equally good despite temperature. Hot or warm or cool or cold, doesn't matter. Always delicious.

Guilty indulgences in Japan

Besides drinking so much Japanese tea that it stained my teeth and I had to go to the dentist to get them cleaned, I have other confessions to make. Black tea is also to blame, or rather, I am because I love it too, usually with milk. Earl Grey, Assam, and I found Lupicia's 'Thé au Chocolat'. So yum, chocolate-flavoured black tea. I also found Mariage Marco Polo tea which is a firm favourite too. The flavour is like ; good black tea with medium body, no smokiness or maltiness, and floral and vanilla flavours. Perhaps citrus and spice too, I need to drink some again soon so I can confirm it. But for me it's the floral and vanilla top notes that really make it so wonderful. My one redeeming feature as a tea lover is that although I add milk to my black tea and red tea (which some say you shouldn't), I don't add sugar or honey or maple syrup etc. No sweeteners. But back to Japanese tea. Here you can buy bottled tea which is similar to iced tea (and you can buy some iced teas here too), but Japanese ones usually have no sugar and are low in additives. They sell bottled rooibos too. I love genmaicha but houjicha is nice. I am slowly growing to like matcha and I like weak sencha and bancha. They all taste different even though they are all just called 'tea' here. So if someone asks if I want tea, I ask them, "Is it genmaicha?" And so on. You can get genmaicha (green tea with roasted brown rice) with matcha powder in it. Oolong tea is popular here too, they call it ooloncha. It's often served cold in restaurants. I could talk more but that's enough for now I think. Anyway this is part one... Part two is about sweet treats here.

Oresama Teacher manga

Just such a great manga, read it read it. I actually like most of the characters which is rare for me. But my faves are Mafuyu the main character, head delinquent Okegawa and the student council member Ayabe. Also Yui the ninja otaku and Hayasaka the misunderstood yankee. Most of the characters are boys but not all. Anyway it's a fun manga, hardly ever serious. I love it.