Even I am a coffee person, I am still always drawn to the art of Japanese green tea.
Ever since I watch those TV program that briefly talk about how Japanese brew and enjoy their green tea, I told myself I must learn that one day, probably when I visit Japan.

I just found out lately, that I no need to travel to Japan to learn this art, I can learn this from the Japanese Tea Workshop organized by Iloha Culture Centre.

About Iloha Culture Centre

ILOHA was established in 2013 by Tetsuo Oda and Yuko Oda.

You must be wondering, why the name Iloha? Because I did too.

Iloha means "ABC" in traditional Japanese language, it reflects the belief of the founder that we can always learn something new from scratch and have fun doing it.

Iloha Culture Centre is basically like a platform, for people like us to experience Japanese culture and lifestyle through classes and events, such as cooking classes, language studio, Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement), and of course tea workshop, making the famous Japanese matcha!

Japanese Tea Workshop

Iloha partnered up with Maiko Tea from Kyoto, Japan; their tea are top quality and received numerous awards for the supreme quality of its tea product, both locally and internationally.

We even got the chance to learn about this art from Toshiya Nakabo, the Nihon Cha (Japanese Tea) Instructor all the way from Japan.

Mr. Toshiya Nakabo conducting the class, he only speaks Japanese, hence the lady in black shirt beside him serves as his translator.

The class started with introduction of Maiko Tea, the plantation method, different procedure to further process the tea leaves, and followed by a bit of insights about various kind of Japanese tea, and different methods to brew them.

Various types of Japanese tea leaves: Sencha, Gyokuro, Matcha, Karigane, Tencha, Genmaicha, Happiness tea and Hojicha.

Then it was the most anticipated part of the class, whereby we get to hands on and brew our own tea.

Gyokuro Tea

It was my first encounter with Gyokuro tea. I was told that Gyokuro is one of the most supreme and expensive tea in Japan, the Japanese only serve it during special occasion or with guests only.

The small pot and tea cup for making and tasting of Gyokuro. One small pot like this is good to be share by group of 3-5 people.

When everyone told me that it tasted like chicken soup, I don't believe it at all!
I was like "come on guys, this is tea workshop!"