Japanese Tea Gardens
Gaëlle Rousseau is the founder and managing director of Jardins de Thé, based between Paris and Normandy, France. She recently went for a three months trip to Japan where she lived and worked in a Tea Farm near Kyoto.
You have just returned from a three month stay in Japan. Can you explain the purpose of this trip?
This trip corresponds to my new professional project around tea. I decided to become a tea farmer in France. I had been hoping to travel to Japan for a long time. The opportunity arose to go to a farm in immersion for three months to participate in the spring harvests, the transformation of the tea and the accompaniment of Tea Tours. That is to say training for tea lovers of the whole world. I was able to participate in the training of more than 350 visitors. It was a physical and cultural challenge! I will go back to Japan which is a beautiful country but I need to improve my Japanese. I brought back from this trip so much new knowledge about tea and its culture in Japan. I had the honour of meeting important Japanese tea personalities and participating in the unique manual picking of the first tea garden!
Were you interested in Japan before?
Yes! It's a trip I wanted to do for a long time. I had taken the Chanoyu classes on the Tea ceremony at the Maison du Japon in Paris and also classes on Japanese gardens, so it was a pleasure when the borders reopened after the covid and that I could make this trip.
During your immersion in the Japanese farm, you also organized Tea ceremonies for visitors. Can you give us details on the Tea ceremony and its different stages?
It was actually a visit to a farm, so it wasn't a very formal ceremony. Nevertheless, Japanese green tea is very delicate and you can really spoil it if you prepare it badly. In particular we taught the guests the importance of the water temperature and the infusion times. Both parameters are involved but also a bit of chemistry. In fact, tea is made up of catechins and theanine and its various components do not react in the same way to the temperature of the water: the hotter the water, the more catechin components there will be and the flavour will be bitter. If the water is lukewarm at around 70 degrees, more theanine components will develop and we will get this very characteristic flavour of Japanese teas which is Umami and a little sweet.
We also learned how to make Matcha. Again the temperature of the water is important and the gesture too. You have to whip this tea into a powder. We use a whisk called a bamboo chasen, which is a very delicate object that must also be prepared before being used so as not to break. Japanese culture is made of delicacy... And around tea there are also many other skills: the art of the potter (cups, teapot, ...), the bamboo craftsman (chasen, chachacu...) of the gardener to create his magnificent relaxing landscapes.
I was also able to do a real tea ceremony with a professional, but there are so many codes: how to open the door to the tea room, with which hand, which knee to put on the tatami first.... it would take a whole article!
What are the most striking teachings that you received in terms of the culture and production of tea in Japan?
In the village where I was, out of 3500 inhabitants, there were 350 tea farmers. The city was organized around the culture of tea. It was quite funny, there were regularly alarms that sounded in the city which looked like fire alarms for us in France. I did not understand why there could be so many fires and in In fact, it was to inform the farmers that there would be frost the next day and that the small fans had to be put in place.
It was interesting to see this city completely turned to the culture of tea with magnificent landscapes of all these plantations which draw the mountains. On the other hand, the Japanese are not as big tea drinkers as I thought. In the cities, there are just a few tea rooms and the choice in the shops is quite limited. They are actually big coffee drinkers!
Of course I learned a lot of skills and in the town where I was there was a society for the preservation of traditional methods of making tea and I had the opportunity to work with them, that was a real pleasure of making tea by hand from picking to processing. But it's very physical!
Are there any methods you brought back from Japan that you are going to implement in France?
Yes, I have already begun! There is a tradition of roasted teas in Japan that I knew little about or that I discovered like Kyobancha or Bancha from Kyoto. I decided to have its flavours tasted in France and to offer a similar tea but “made in France”. These teas were very popular during the Tea Tours I was able to animate, they correspond to flavours of western culture. I did my first picking and processing and I'm really happy with the result!
What are the most beautiful and improbable discoveries you made of Japanese culture?
I went there in the spring and at that time the weather is quite similar to France and it's the contrast of being in a close environment (especially since I was in the countryside in a village of 3500 inhabitants) with a completely different culture and really confusing operating codes at times. The Japanese are adorable, they have a culture of hospitality that is unique and they greatly appreciate the French. I did not expect that! But it is also a very traditional culture with codes which are sometimes difficult to grasp and which have created certain misunderstandings. Knowledge of the language is essential to be able to exchange with the Japanese who speak little English. What confused me the most was the food, I had very high expectations, but the flavours are very particular. There are few fruits and vegetables and a lot of fried food. Fortunately there is tea and I discovered many recipes based on tea or full menu such as Ocha Sukke or pouring tea over rice!
Tell us about a place that you particularly liked?
I loved Kyoto. It is a city that is both very modern and young, with an immense cultural heritage. There are so many places to discover that all my weekends, that I mainly spent in this city, were not enough.
Do you have any other travel plans around tea?
The tea community is global and as soon as you meet a tea lover, whatever his/her country might be, you immediately share the same values of sharing, taste experience, travel… I am invited to China, Vietnam, Brazil, the USA… I want to go to the US this summer and Malawi this winter, and then of course return to Japan. There are still numerous tea regions to discover as well as their production and very local know-how. But right now, I have a lot of work to do in my French gardens and lots of new projects to help Parisians and French people discover the art of tea!
Photos courtesy of Jardins de thé