Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
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Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#2It's a little embarrassing that they didn't survive and now need to be revived. I mean there are 21 businesses in Japan that are over a thousand years old!
https://www.theceomagazine.com/business/management-leadershi...
Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#3I’m curious about this phenomenon for grapes as well – how many incredible varietals live in the spaces in between, undiscovered by humans?
Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#4If you're ever looking at tea shops that sell specialty Japanese teas you can find this style of tea, made from plants grown from seed pollinated by other nearby bushes as opposed to cuttings from a known cultivar, it's refered to as zairai or 在来.
They are often interesting and much more "rough" teas with varying but generally mellow flavors and often processed to contain more hard materials like stems and veins as they would have been when it was still hand rolled. It definitely helps one imagine how tea must have been in those eras, though they still simmered the leaves with the water until the 1700s
Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#5I’m curious about this phenomenon for grapes as well – how many incredible varietals live in the spaces in between, undiscovered by humans?
The best varietals of most plants are often the ones made by human intervention- selective breeding and such.
Wild ones are often too sour, or too bitter, or don't produce much, or are impossible to experience because they don't travel well.
Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#6When I went to Japan last time I asked about tea places and people would tell me "we don't drink tea outside, we drink it at home". I also remember an article a few years ago about dying Japanese tea tradition, somewhat related to the proliferation of instant tea dispersal machines and those 7-11 tea walls.
What I would like to know is why contrary to Japan, there are Tea farms of all sizes everywhere. There are dozens of tea shops opening, and if you walk through Taipei you will see plenty of tea shops, tea places in every corner of the city.
Why is that? Is it just the result of marketing and consumerism?
Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#7When I went to Japan last time I asked about tea places and people would tell me "we don't drink tea outside, we drink it at home". I also remember an article a few years ago about dying Japanese tea tradition, somewhat related to the proliferation of instant tea dispersal machines and those 7-11 tea walls. What I would like to know is why contrary to Japan, there are Tea farms of all sizes everywhere. There are doze…
Could very well be because of the popularity of coffee in Japan, as it's seen trendier than the old fashioned tea, which alao tends to take extra care and time to brew.
S. Koreans also tend to drink coffee way more than tea, but this might have to do with the extreme poverty coming out of korean war, and coffee being less expensive.
Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#8When I went to Japan last time I asked about tea places and people would tell me "we don't drink tea outside, we drink it at home". I also remember an article a few years ago about dying Japanese tea tradition, somewhat related to the proliferation of instant tea dispersal machines and those 7-11 tea walls. What I would like to know is why contrary to Japan, there are Tea farms of all sizes everywhere. There are doze…
Tea shops in Taiwan mostly sell bubble/boba tea, which is drenched in syrup and artificial flavors and the actual leaves themselves are an afterthought at best. The latest wave of higher-end places like Chicha San Chen are placing the focus back on good quality tea and proper brewing, but these are still a minority and it's still far, far away from the austere world of Japanese tea ceremony.
Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#9I wonder if they are culturing (naturalized) "tea" or (native) "tea". The second would be interesting.
Re: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Japanese Tea Farm
#10I’m curious about this phenomenon for grapes as well – how many incredible varietals live in the spaces in between, undiscovered by humans?
The best varietals of most plants are often the ones made by human intervention- selective breeding and such. Wild ones are often too sour, or too bitter, or don't produce much, or are impossible to experience because they don't travel well.
Very much agreed. Even within my lifetime things have changed for the better ('better' = nicer for humans). When I was a kid aubergines had a strong bitterness that had to be soaked out of them with salt and water, and not with perfect success. Modern aubergines completely lack that bitterness.
Wild strawberries sound great but they are tiny, ripen very unevenly and don't even taste that exciting.
The breeding of grapes clearly continues, in a stall not far from me I can see grapes for sale that are literally the size of small plums. (edit: cultivated plums that is. Wild plums, you're welcome to them, small and sour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloe)
Whilst food tends to be much smaller, bitter or sour, tougher to chew, lower in sugar and would not sell in a supermarket.