Teahouse

I love tea. 

 

 

Two weeks ago I was in possession of 25 different kinds of tea. Most of them are teabags, of which I don't like anymore. I prefer to have my tea as loose tea, as it is more proper. I have also moved away from sweet teas that taste fruity. Too bad good green tea isn't available in most of the cafés around here, and I have to choose some fruity - yet nostalgic - bag tea.

 

A few years ago I used to have my tea with 4 spoons of sugar. Nowadays, if I happen to drink tea that isn't green - automatically without sugar - or plain black, I put half a spoon of sugar. Or one cube. And a bit of milk, depending on the kind of tea. It was the only tea I knew. 

 

My favourite tea is Japanese sencha, and the most tasty kind was the one I bought from the Kansai airport, where I had to get rid of the last yen I had. Within the past couple of years I've been drinking mostly green tea. Sencha, shincha, ryokucha. In Japan I fell in love with maccha, the powdered green tea that's used to give flavour to everything from candy to cake and to chocolate and even coffee. In addition to the normal tea ceremony way of drinking it, I was at some stage introduced to maccha latte, which is basically a caffe latte made of green tea. The best maccha latte café so far has been Doutor Coffee. Their maccha latte is deadly. Starbucks makes a nice maccha frappecino, but I still prefer Doutor. There's something artificial about Starbucks's drinks. 

 

Green tea - to be drank with or without milk - comes in different kinds of powders in addition to the real thing. These powders can be used for baking, or as a drink. There is also maccha latte powder - add only hot water! The taste isn't of course the same as in a café, but pretty close. 

 

The green tea available in Finland is... well, let's just say that Twinings and Lipton are the primary brands, and their green tea... Well, yeah. There's a smaller Finnish company that sells "Japan Sencha", but that tea has not seen Japan or sencha. The few times I've drank it... I do not intend to anymore. 

 

Out of black teas, I have always had a loving relationship with Earl Grey. It is one of the few black teas I really like, and one of the kinds of tea I have to always have. I drink my Earl Grey with honey and milk, but I often forget about the honey...