BLOG #41: Tea of the season – by Aya Yoshida

Japan has the very distinct four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each season has specific sceneries and experience including food and tea. Traditional Japanese cuisine, or “washoku”, revolves around the concept of seasonality.

I am introducing some seasonal tea and food with representing the essence of Japanese culture.

[Spring]

A breath of early spring, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and people are enjoying Ohanami, the cherry blossom viewing. We do a small picnic either a party beneath the cherry blossom trees during daytime or at night. We eat Sakuramochi  is a Japanese sweet consisting of sweet pink-colored rice cake (mochi) with a red bean paste (anko) center, and wrapped in a pickled cherry blossom (sakura) leaf.

Tea and Food pairing

–Guri cha

mild green tea, tones of sitrus, honey aftertaste

–Onigiri (rice balls)

Rice formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes and often wrapped in nori (seaweed). Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume (umeboshi), salted salmon, katsuobushi (bonito flakes) orkombu. It’s portable and easy to eat thus it could be the alternative for the sandwiches for the Ohanami picnics.

[Summer]

Summer in Japan is very hot and humid. We usually have a very hot summer after the rainy season which lasts from the end of May to the middle of July. Sometimes we have more than 35 degree during the day and sweat drips down on my face even waiting at traffic lights on a street. We have to very much care of heatstroke and hydrate our body with drink which has a bit of salt. Iced Sencha is the perfect tea for those summer months, which has catechins, chlorophyll, antioxidants and vitamin C. Also Sencha is high in tannin, which has a cooling effect on the body. We often have 水羊羹（Mizuyōkan）with tea as the tea sweet, which is jellied Japanese dessert made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar.

Tea and Food pairing

–Sencha

Most popular green tea, green and grassy

-Mizuyōkan / Mochi /red beans ice cream

If it’s difficult to find Mizuyōkan around you, you could make red beans ice cream by yourself. Put 250g of the dried red beans (would be better to have the small size of red beans) and water (to cover all the beans) in a pot and when it comes to the boil, discard the boiled water. Again, put them and plenty of water in a pot over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, remove the scum, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour. When all the beans are soft enough, discard the boiled water again.  Put the beans back, 400ml water, 200g of sugar and 1g of salt in the pot stir gently and cook over a low heat for about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and place in the freezer. You can have a bit of fresh cream on the side and matcha powder on the top when it’s served. This is one of my favourite sweets!

[Autumn]

It’s the harvest season! We harvested new rice for the first time of the year and all the delicious foods are coming back, such as mushrooms, sweet potatoes, persimmons, chestnuts and mackerel pike. Also autumn is the season when the leaves of deciduous trees turn to brilliant shades of red and yellow. We Japanese say that “Autumn is the perfect season for exercise (because the temperature is already cooled down to do outside activities) and arts/music (beautiful landscape), and appetite (why not, too good foods are around)! ”

Tea and Food pairing

–Genmai cha

green tea sencha, roasted brown rice, popcorn taste

-Saury/mackerel pike

Saury during the autumn has a lot of fat and tastes very good. You can just bake it and have grated white radish on the side. The bitterness of the radish cleanses the oil from the saury in your mouth.

[Winter]

New Year’s Day/Holiday (Oshōgatu) is the one of the most important day(s) in Japan. During the New Year’s holiday, the whole family gets together to celebrate the day with have gorgeous food. We have “初釜(Hatsugama)”, the first tea ceremony held in the new year, which means the year’s first use of the ceremony kettle in the tea ceremony. We enjoy a scroll with a seasonal phrase in the toko-no-ma (a recessed space in a Japanese-style reception room) and eat Hanabira-mochi, the typical sweets for the occasion is a mochi (rice cake) with white miso paste and burdock root filling.

Tea and Food pairing

–Houji cha

roasted green tea, nutty, robust, low-caffeine

-Japanese hot pot

Japanese hot pot is very simple and easy to make. Soak 20g of kombu for 1.5 hours in 4 cups of water and put a bit amount of Soy sauce, Sake (cooking Japanese alcohol) and Mirin (Sweet rice wine) to make Dashi (broth). Remove the kombu then you could put your favourite ingredients such as vegetables, mushrooms, tofu meat or fish. This dish definitely makes your body warm and It’s so cozy to share the hot pot together with Some friends around.

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I am also writing about my personal experience of Matcha. My grandma who passed away last year was kind of a tea master (at least in my family) and we often had the really nice tea time after dinner. My grandma has learned me how to make matcha tea, how to use those tea equipment property and we had it together with Wagashi, Japanese traditional tea sweets.

She often made the very strong bitter matcha tea and sometimes it was too intense for me just as the little girl but I remember that I really liked moment the tea sweets matched well with matcha and it made everything mild in my mouth. It was not like the authentic tea ceremony but we share the cup of matcha tea among the family and talk how beautiful the matcha bowl was (I remember the really beautiful orange matcha bowl my grandma had) and taste of Wagashi. (My grandma was so food conscious, was so picky in a way haha.)

Such a cozy time, Caring Sharing.

AYA YOSHIDA　/　吉田 文

This article is written by Aya Yoshida. She is a Japanese composer who lives in the Hague. She is born in Kobe, Japan in 1992. Her works have been performed in Japan and Europe by diverse range of soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including the performances by Curious Chamber Players in Viitasaari, Finland (2013), by Arditti Quartet (2014) and by Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (2016) in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is often inspired by fashion when she composes her works and her works’ titles are often coming from fashion terms, for example, Polka dots, Tone on Tone Check, and Pointed toe. She just got the first prize of Zemlinsky 2019 Composition Competition so that she is writing another new orchestra + ballet piece for  CCM Philharmonia Orchestra’s 2020/2021 season.

Since 2019 Aya works parttime for HUG THE TEA as well. Here she is preparing a matcha tea: