Let’s talk about the price of a tea ceremony experience!

If you go to a tea house, you can have matcha between 800-1500 yen and it is ready in ten minutes. So why to spend around 3000 yen and 45 minutes to experience tea ceremony?

 

We have 4 points for you to think of:

The way of the tea

Tea ceremony experience is not a matcha tasting session.
‘Sado’ can be translated as tea ceremony, but more appropriate to say it is ‘the way of tea’.
Tea masters are studying for years, and not just about how to make the tea, but about mentality, behaviour, and other traditional art forms like calligraphy or flower arrangement.
In a tea ceremony experience you will get introduced to the cultural background of sado, and you can learn the basic movements, principles and habits.

 

 

The taste of matcha

 

Part of the world is drinking black tea with sugar or lemon, another part with milk, another part with flowers or herbs inside.
So when we hear “tea”, we automatically associate with the tea we already know.
But if you try matcha with these kind of experiences in your mind… your first encounter can be a surprise and maybe not a good one!
Matcha, which is powdered green tea, is coming without any sugar inside, it is beautifully green and… bitter?
Yes, many people enjoy strong, bitter matcha, it is really refreshing, but at the beginning you may prefer more soft and a little bit sweet type.
But how can you tell which is which?
A tea master always selects the type of matcha according to the season and the guests, so you can be sure, your first experience will be a good memory for you.
Tea masters also select the sweets for you to eat before the tea, so it can enhance your experience.

 

 

Making your own matcha

 

After you observed how the matcha is made, you can try out how to put the powder into your cup and how to use the whisk to make the tea.
So after this experience you will be able to do your own tea, if you are interested.

 

 

 

Traditional environment

Traveling means you are going to many places, sometimes you are in rush, sometimes you should reach your bus/train, and would like to see and experience as many things you can in a short period.
In a tea ceremony experience, you just… stop.
You sit down on the tatami floor, enjoy the simpleness of the tea room, look out to the garden, feel the pattern of the tea cup.
You can observe the elegant movements of the tea master when he/she preparing your tea.
This experience is really refreshing and you can relax and enjoy the moment in a traditional environment.

Overall, a tea ceremony experience can be more expensive if you compare just to the price of the matcha, but in reality you can learn and experience many things at the same time, same place. It is an art, and you can be the part of it.