Pays : Japon – Discovering Tea

Contemplation and calm

17 April 2026

In Japan, with cherry blossom season in full swing, it’s a time for contemplation. People travel from far and wide to admire the trees covered in blooms and take selfies or simply enjoy a picnic beneath a canopy of pink or white petals. This love of nature at its most fleeting naturally brings to mind the saying ichi-go ichi-e, which is an invitation to focus on the present moment, to understand and accept the transience of existence. This precept forms an essential part of understanding cha no yu, the Japanese name for the tea ceremony.

This contemplation of cherry blossom evokes tea in another way. When you ask a tea enthusiast what tea means to them, what it gives them, the word that comes up most often is a sense of “calm”. Tea soothes us – in the same way that we are soothed by this silent, joyful, blissful contemplation of cherry blossom, by scenes of delicate beauty, like here in Kenroku-en in Kanazawa, one of Japan’s most celebrated gardens.

Matcha mania

6 June 2025

Matcha has taken social media influencers by storm. Until now, its following was limited to tea enthusiasts and connoisseurs of Japanese tea ceremonies, as well as a few pastry chefs who like to use this green powder in their recipes.
But matcha has suddenly shifted centre stage – or rather, centre screen. It may sometimes look strangely fluorescent, but in a world where the real and virtual are merging, does anyone care? Meanwhile, in Japan, the stones that grind the shade-grown tea leaves into a fine powder turn slowly. There is no guarantee that they will be able to meet this unexpected surge in demand.

Mechanised harvesting

16 June 2023

In Japan, the most prestigious harvest of the year takes place between late April and early May. This is when the famous Ichibancha, or first-flush teas, are made. The next plucking takes place in early June. This produces some interesting teas, but they aren’t up to the standard of the previous harvest. Here, on the outskirts of Shizuoka, I’m taking part in my own way, riding a Kawasaki that’s very different from the ones you see on our city streets. Because of the cost of labour, Japan is one of the few countries in the world that uses machines to pick its tea leaves.