Signatures

Tea is not a product here. It is a series of actions.

Leaves are measured. Water is heated. Spices are crushed. Milk warms. Tea rests. A vessel is held. Someone waits. Someone drinks.

Three things the house will make every day, and why.

Sparkling Gyokuro

What: Gyokuro — tea shaded before harvest — infused and served sparkling.
How: [TO CONFIRM: tea origin and grower, cultivar, infusion method (cold / hot, time, temperature), how it is carbonated, vessel and glass, serving temperature]
Why: [TO CONFIRM — e.g. how it shows gyokuro's savoury depth in a new way] Water comes first in gyokuro, and one of the house's two wells is being tested so that its water can be drawn for tea.
Where in the house: The tea rooms. [TO CONFIRM]

What: Ie's hojicha chai, made over a hearth of heated sand.
How: A copper pot is set into hot sand. Roasted hojicha. Whole spices, crushed by hand. Milk warmed slowly. The sand gives an even heat, rather than a direct flame. [TO CONFIRM: spice list, milk options, sweetener, copper maker]
Why: Fire is water's counterpart. The hearth is the one piece of theatre the street can see. And it is tea that can be handed over straight away, to someone who has just walked down from the shrine.
Where in the house: The front of the house, to take away. [TO CONFIRM]

What: Small financiers made with browned butter (焦がしバター).
How: [TO CONFIRM: butter source, flour / almond, any tea variation, bake time, oven]
Why: The smell of browning butter moving through an old house. And something small enough to take with you.
Where in the house: With tea in the rooms, or wrapped in paper to take away.