Last Saturday, June 15, we attended the Japanese tea tasting, the second and highly anticipated event proposed by the JapanLOVERs team.
The event took place in Treviso at the tea room of the Ikiya store, a wonderful Japanese corner run by Elisabetta and Antonella, experts in the field.
The store offers a wide range of products, including groceries, gifts, clothing … and of course tea! In fact, the store is set up with seating for customers to enjoy a zen break or an alternative snack.
For our tasting event, they prepared for each participant a tray with everything needed, a booklet on the tasting we would be doing, and some assorted delicious wagashi (a generic term for traditional Japanese sweets) including mochi, dango, and higashi.
To begin with, Antonella gave us an excursus on the history of tea in Japan, from its first introduction thanks to traders traveling through China, to its being one of the most representative symbols of Japan and a valuable daily ally for all Japanese people. After that we moved on to the actual tasting, during which we learned to appreciate and recognize as many as 5 types of green tea, from the most common bancha to the most prized sencha.
The hosts were great at making us feel at home, or even better, in a remote zen corner of Japan, away from stress and confusion. Antonella also managed to make the theoretical part light and pleasant, as well as interesting, interacting with us and asking us a few spot questions.
For the rest, we won’t tell you any more, and we will leave you with the curiosity to stop by the store… or to see us again at the next event!
Below are links to their socials, where you can check out their catalog and events.
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