Much Matcha Green Tea Desserts: Japan and Seoul, South Korea

Maybe we were a tad crazy during our two week trip, in Japan and Seoul:  it was almost a matcha tea dessert every day.   Yea  –in addition to sipping sometimes a lovely cup of medium to high grade matcha or at least green tea.  There is a sublime difference.

Bowl of matcha tea with apple shaped light green tea mochi ball. Plate of green tea jelly squares dusted with roasted soy powder. Teahouse, Kyoto, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong.

Pouring a lightly sweet syrup over green tea jelly squares rolled in kinako or roasted soybean powder. To be eaten with chopsticks as the norm. Kyoto, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong.

Birthplace and Hub of Japan’s Centuries Long Fine Green Tea Production
How could we resist?  We were in Kyoto city, the heart of Japan’s famed tea farms nearby and the birthplace of matcha tea centuries ago.  We certainly didn’t plan nor know this historic significance until we were there.  I was initially just drawn to Kyoto wonderous heritage of shrines, temples and Japanese gardens that were spared from American bombs during WW II.

A long-time teahouse which we nearly missed our first Japanese teahouse drinking experience. Kyoto 2018. Photo by J.Chong

What distinguishes matcha tea, is it appears as a green powder, which certain types of green tea leaves are steamed, rolled, then dried and ground into a powder.  This technique perfected by Uji tea growers over centuries, renders a rich vibrant green colour, unlike other green teas.  One whips up the matcha tea in the tea brewing process.

Green tea ice cream with matcha tea light syrup to serve over ice cream. High grade machta tea has a faint bitter finish which suits with many foods during a meal. Seoul, Insadong district. South Korea 2018. Photo by J.Chong

Tea fields were established in the Uji area 1185-1333, after monk Myoe introduced seeds to villagers from a trip in China. Tea leaf steaming,  curing and grinding dried leaves into its brilliant green powder,  was introduced by Nagatani Soen during the Edo era.

Different green tea and matcha tea ice and hot lattes from this shop. Kyoto, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong. I had the middle one.

In our Tokyo hotel room for first few days, I enjoyed my free green tea for breakfast, much better than green tea I’ve had in Canada.  It wasn’t matcha tea, but still quite good and soothing.  Uji area produces for Japan, the 3 grades and types of green tea:  sencha, matcha and gyokuro.  Based on the brand packaging I saw in various stores in Japan, we get a lot of the low to mid-grade Japanese green teas in Canada.

Selection of fine matcha and other green teas from Uji area, Japan’s prime heartland of green tea farms. Kyoto, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong

Nearly Missing Historic Teahouse
In Kyoto, while wandering streets near Gion, a historic area, we did stumble across a long-standing teahouse, I had googled on the Internet in advance.  We nearly missed it because there was barely any script to indicate any teahouse. Maybe we should have clued in, with the doorway hanging fabric banners.

Inside the cool teahouse interior, picture windows looked out to garden of stones, artful bushes and trees.  Some people had bowls of ice soba noodles with slightly sweet syrup to cool off the humid summer heat.  Jack had a small plate of green tea jelly squares dusted with roasted soy powder.

Popular shop specialized in traditional hand-pounded mochi –which is glutinous rice and in this product with green tea. Nara, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong.

Experienced mochi turner nimbly wetted and turn-slapped lump of mochi in between 2 mochi pounders. Skill surely very few people have left. Nara, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong.

I settled for a bowl of frothy match tea and a little artful green mochi shaped like a little green apple with a sweet centre.  Mochi is pounded rice until it’s elastic, glutinous and molded quickly in round shapes. Mochi originated in Japan and later, adopted by Korea and China as a dessert.

Green tea mochi dusted in roasted soy powder –ready to buy and eat, soft and moist. Nara, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong

Joy of Warm Soft Green Tea Mochi:   Hand-Pounded
In downtown Nara, we dropped by a well-known mochi store that pounded out warm green mochi rounds.  Freshly pounded mochi is warm, soft and  yummy  slight sweet goodness. It’s a rare experience.  Unfortunately I forgot at our hotel, my package of handmade soft mochi I bought from the mochi-pounding store  –along with a large pack of local sencha tea bags.  Hand-pounded mochi places don’t exist in North America.

Fox Stamped Rice Cracker in Green Ice Cream:  Pausing below 1,000 Tori Gates
Throughout our trip, we had variations of green matcha ice lattes, hot matcha tea, green matcha tea baked desserts and ice cream.  We took a short train ride from Kyoto to Fushimi-Inari, site of famed Shinto shrine with over 1,000 vermillion orange Tori gates along a pilgrimage route up sacred Mount Inari.

Rice cracker with fox holding key, in our ice cream, is tribute to fox in Shintoism. Foxes are messengers for Inari, rice god. Mini shrines are scattered on rock ledges during hike along 10,000+ large vermillion red tori gates up  forested, sacred Mount Inari. Inari-Fushima, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong.

The shrine is dedicated to Inari, god of rice and prosperity. After our hot hike up and back down, of course, we dropped by a green ice cream café in the park.  We licked our green matcha tea ice cream cones topped with a rice cracker imprinted with a fox, carrying a key in its mouth. There are stone fox sculptures by tori gates and shrines along the mountain route here and all over Japan. Foxes were believed to be messengers of Inari.

Matcha green tea cake roll for Jack’s birthday. Store automatically provided a free serrated plastic knife to cut properly at home. Traditional Asian home cooking doesn’t require a serrated knife. Seoul, South Korea 2018. Photo by J.Chong

In Tokyo and Kyoto, high end European bakeries would feature at least a green matcha tea pastry as part of their diverse pastry offerings.  So there were green buns with lightly matcha flavoured toppings or custard centres.  Even Starbuck’s in big Japanese cities offered green matcha pastries. Just make you choose a pastry that’s light in taste.

Even Starbuck’s in Japan offers some green tea pastries. Tokyo Narita Airport 2018. Photo by J.Chong

Green tea parfaits may be combined with sweetened red beans, a cracker or mochi balls –all commonly found in many Asian ice cream based desserts.

One of our various matcha green tea drinks and desserts. Some contained mochi, tea jelly cubes and sweetened red adzuki beans –latter used in desserts all over East Asia. Arashiyama, Japan 2018. Photo by J.Chong

We celebrated Jack’s birthday with a green tea cake roll from a high end green tea café in Seoul, South Korea.  Too bad he didn’t choose the green tea multi-layered torte.

To this day, I dream of warm large green tea mochi, I forgot at the hotel.

Green tea cake variations. Left is green tea tiramsui while right is green tea torte. Seoul, South Korea 2018. Photo by J.Chong

Green tea mochi, pastries and other dessert variations at a high end shop. Tokyo Rail Station 2018. Photo by J.Chong