Recently I cracked open one of the adorable little washi-covered tins of green tea I purchased at the gift shop at the Meiji Shrine and discovered that it contains excellent tea. Most of the green tea I’ve purchased from Stash Tea is of Chinese descent, and while I don’t really know what the difference is, I do know that the Japanese teas I’ve had are both different from and harder to find in this country than the Chinese varieties. Hence I was very pleased to run across Hibiki-an, an online store written in English text that sells tea straight from a farm near Kyoto. Besides offering a dizzying array of teas, the site has some interesting information, such as precise preparation instructions for their different kinds of tea and uses for used tea leaves, such as “you can also put dried used tea leaves in your shoes to remove bad odors.” I haven’t ordered anything from them yet but I intend do so soon.
Oh, Yum: Japanese Green Tea, Straight From Kyoto
