A Green Tea Experience On Rue Bonaparte

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to learn about green teas and see something that I would probably have never had the opportunity to witness.  A  Japanese tea master demonstrated the ancient technique of hand roasting  Kamairicha, a rare green tea at the Lupicia tea boutique on Rue Bonaparte.

I have practically no knowledge whatsoever in green teas, or teas in general, which has a rich varied culture and appreciation.  There are now many tea aficionados as one finds in the wine culture.

I, like most southerners, grew up drinking freshly brewed generic orange pekoe black blend served glacial over mounds of ice; preferring mine without sugar.

Other than seeing a traditional tea ceremony performance and drinking a special aged one, my consumption of green teas have been either nondescript or limited to mostly jasmine tea.

I had seen some toasting of genmaicha with brown rice, at the chocolate show of all places, but did not realise that roasting is done on other varieties of green teas,

Supposedly most Japanese green teas are steamed to ready them for consumption, except a few varieties.  Lupicia, a Japanese tea company has sprouted now  in five countries, including the US.

Rue Bonaparte is a fairly long street in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, that starts near the Luxembourg gardens and runs north, intersecting Blvd Saint Germain and ending at Quai Malaquais of the Seine.

I am often walking it because of various places I go to, including the Hungarian Institute for free concerts, Saint Sulpice church, a religious library, Pierre Hermé pastry shop and further down the Nespresso shop.

Crossing over Saint Germain, you find the famous Cafe Deux Magots on the corner and the old church of Saint Germain des Pres on the other. As you get towards the quai of the Seine, it runs in front of the renown École des Beaux Arts Academy.

Lupicia is a shop that I discovered about two years ago that has a super variety of Japanese teas with very friendly and helpful servers, so it makes for a nice treat to go there.  There is always one of their teas brewed and offered to taste and if asked, they will brew any of the many others as well.

Master Yôichi Kôrogi  was dressed in traditional attire and had a very friendly face and demeanor with a quick smile.  He looked like he enjoyed demonstrating and having his photo taken.

He is considered the best master artisanal producer of Kamairicha teas.  His domaine  in Miyazaki is a mountainous area 600 meters up on Gokase, an island at the southern tip of Japan.

His teas grown are 100% organic, using no pesticides, grown in a strict organic manner.  He has won  already 14 awards of excellence by the Japanese Department of Agriculture.

His pan firing method is the ancient way of ensuring a delicate even toasting of the withered green tea leaves.  He used paper fans to constantly swirl and toss around the tea leaves during the torrefaction process in a pan heated to about 200 plus centigrade.

From time to time, he gathered a handful to smell, which I presume was the essential way he could determine when it was ready.

All in all, the process seemed to take around ten minutes, with him giving the tea his intense attention and observation.  Before long I could smell the pleasant smell of the slow roasted leaves, withering them more into rather brittle strands.

When he deemed the batch fully toasted he poured the leaves in a straw paper lined shallow basket for cooling which a woman, which I thought might be his wife proceeded to gently fan to  aid the cooling process.

Then a plate was passed around for all of us to taste the fresh roasted leaves, now very crisp and crunchy that on the tongue gave forth a wonderful mild smoky flavour, that I tremendously enjoyed as is!

The commentator and translator reminded the participants that with such high quality of tea, one could get easily 4 or even 5 infusions from the leaves!

After several brewings, he said the used tea leaves were also great to be tossed in salads, or used in making sauces, which I will have to investigate.

The finished brewed tea took on a  very light green clear colour and surprisingly was very mild, with a mere hint of  toast, and  buttery aftertaste, without any bitterness!

The commentator said it could be cold brewed as well and made for great iced tea.

A small packet of 50 grams that had been hand toasted by him during his Paris visit was offered for 14.50 E, which sounded like wonderful opportunity to take home some hand toasted teas, certainly a true rarity here in Paris.

Master Kôrogi offered to autograph my package which he did with much typical polite bows and a smiling face to my sincere thank you’s.

I love that there are wonderful devoted people like M. Kôrogi, who remain passionately involved in maintaining the purity of traditional foods and beverages of a country.  France is full of them fortunately in all areas of agricultural products and wines.

I always like to offer a warm cup of tea or herbal infusion to my patients, unless it’s very warm outside, where cold water would be much more appreciated.

I like to drink a cup of tea, sometimes jasmine, sometimes black perfumed with my balcony mint, and various flavours, such as currently muscat, cardamom or Mariage Frères Christmas  to either warm up or if some caffeine is needed.

I also enjoy Argentinian yerba mate, which is a grass, for its smoky flavour and caffeine pick up. I occasionally drink plain iced tea on a very hot day, which is not everyday here in the summer.

I will certainly treat the Kamairicha hand toasted by M Kôrogi with the respect it deserves and will try the used leaves to eat. If not, they will go on top of plants as compost, that I have learned love them as well!