Kukicha review

I made some Kukicha which is a japanese green tea. Common nick name is twig tea. I got my Kukicha from The Tea Grotto. I put in 2 grams of tea for every 6 oz of water and used filtered water. I ended up steeping it in my cast iron tea pot at 70 degrees F. I tasted the tea every 30 sec. into steeping. What I found was that 1 min. 30 sec. was the perfect blend of grassy freshness without any bitterness. I continued to steep tell 2 min. 30 sec. to tast the developments in the tea. I found that any longer then 2 min. and it started to become bitter.
Dry Kukicha

Kukicha after steeping 

Color of tea. Mind you this is the color afte steeping it for 2 min. 30 sec. Which wasn't the ideal steep. 

Over all I would say It was medium soft body tea. It was grassy, fresh, kelpy, and robust. I love a good japanese green and this kukicha was very enjoyable. 

Beautiful Matcha Bowl

This Matcha bowl is amazingly beautiful. Its striking black color in contrast with the orange is breath taking. It's currently out of stock but its from yuuki-cha.com.

Tea Cups

There are several different styles of tea cups. The two very basic differences are the ones with a handle and the ones without. For tea I prefer the ones without a handle. Usually these cups are smaller and not having a handle allows you to grasp the cup in your palm and feel the warmth. Feeling a warm cup in your hand is very soothing and I would suggest warming the cup before you even put tea in it by pouring hot water on the cup. In general I like to warm up my tea wear before I use it by pouring hot water over it.  Anyways bellow are some examples of tea cups without handles.

The Bee tea cup is from http://www.etsy.com/shop/FaithAdamsCeramics?ref=seller_info

The second type of tea cup is the one with a handle which I prefer to use for Turkish coffee. You can really find some beautiful tea cups such as some below. 

The tea cups with handles are much more fancy and have a lot of detail. I feel that this shows a reflection in the tea culture of the areas that the different tea cups tend to be found. The handled tea cups are most common in the west, middle east, and India where as the ones without handles are often found in China, and Japan. I get a great sense of Wabi Sabi from the non handled tea cups where as the handed ones are more decadent and prestigious. Tea in Japan and China seems to be more ritualized or more closely tied to religion/ philosophy of the region. These areas having been deeply steeped in concepts of nature and chi being an unseen force. The idea of nature is continued in the style of the cups. In India the tea culture was largely influenced by the british which I feel had a large impact on the style of cup. 

In general I love both styles for different reasons and use.