Tea: one of the great pilars of Japanese diet

On the book Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat ‒ Secrets of My Mother’s Tokyo Kitchen, Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle tell that Japanese culinary has been based on seven pillars for over one thousand years. Those ingredients are credited to be responsible for Japanese people good health and longevity. The sixth one is the tea.

The authors say that there’s not a beverage more Japanese than Green Tea. The essence of the Tea Cerimony is valuing one single moment in time and performing it requires years of training and practice: when the kettle whistles, the tea herb is taken away from the fire and put to cool down while the hostess puts green tea powder, or matcha, in the tea bowl.

The green tea comes from the camellia sinensis, but it is less processed than the black teas because its leaves are exposed to the oxidation process for a shorter period. The tea used for the matcha is particularly fresh.

A Zen monk brought tea seeds from China to Japan by the end XII century and by the Middle Ages the Japanese elite was organizing tea degustation parties where over hundred variations were served. Soon, all the Japanese people started drinking tea often. Later, the knowledge of Green Tea benefits for healthy became known in the Occident. Today, during summer, all the Tea Houses in Japan offer diverse matcha gourmet creation.

Naomi tells that in her mother’s kittchen, each guest ends the meals with one or two cups of recently prepared sencha or hojicha.

• Sencha — the most popular Green Tea in Japan 

•  Hojicha — also known as English Tea, a toasted Green Tea with wooden flavour 

•  Gyokuro — “the king of Green Teas”, expensive, soft flavour and slightly sweet 

•  Shin cha — young leaves from the first harvest of the year. The drying process is much shorter than the sencha’s, thus the shin cha has a green fresh flavour and smell. It is appreciated at the beginning of the summer, during its season in May and June in Japan. 

•  Matcha — powdered Green Tea used in Tea Ceremony 

•  Genmaicha — inferior quality Green Tea mix with toasted brown rice 

•  Genmaimatcha — genmaicha and matcha mix, contrasting the sweet earthy flavour from rice grains with with the bitterness of matcha, and the powder texture with little grain crumbs

• Mugicha — barley tea 

Recently, medical studies have been focusing on the Green Tea’s antioxidant and disease fighting characteristics. The Green Tea is said to fight cancer, diabetes and alergies, reduce bad cholesterol and blood pressure, protect the heart, burn fat, and delay Alzheimer symptons. Though those benefits are not proved, the Green Tea is full of flavonoids (a type of antioxidant) and contains only half the caffeine of coffee.

Preparing Japanese teas 

(For 4 people) 

Sencha 

• 4 teaspoons of loose tea leaves 
• 2 cups of hot water (not boiling ‒ around 80ºC ‒ or boil the water and let it cool down for 5 minutes before despejar it) 

 Infusion time: 1 to 1 ½ minutes 

Gyokuro 

• 7 teaspoons of loose tea leaves 
• 2 cups of hot water (not boiling ‒ around 60ºC ‒ or boil the water and let it cool down for 20 minutes before despejar it) 

 Infusion time: 2 ½ minutes