“The East and the West, like two dragons tossed in a sea offerment, in vain strive to regain the jewel of life. Meanwhile, letus have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening thebamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughingof the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence,and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things,” from Kakuzo Okakura’s The Book of Tea.
“We fermented the batch of kombuchahojichafor 10 days. The idea was to contrast the freshness of the champagne with the caramel notes on the hojicha.”
“We used a blend of okumidori, saemidori, yabukita and zairai cultivars for the yame matcha shot. This was shaken with ice cold, filtered water. It was farmed and handcrafted in the village of Hoshino.And it takes about1 hour to grind a 20g tin.”
“The forest aroma of juniper in the Long Table London Ginand the grassiness of the matcha-infused icewere meant as a contrast to the fermented dark tea notes on the duck. The heicha on the duckis a very fermented tea from Hunan andsometimes deemed Tibetan because it is a popular drink among Tibetans and Mongolians. This tea is aged for several months outdoors, under rain and sunshine.”
“Eliah Halpenny, from the Big Island in Hawaii specially handcrafted this batch of 15 grams for this dinner.We infused the tea for 72 hours in cold water, and served it at 5C.”
“We landed a batch of wild tea from Wuyi Mountain, farmed by our friend Mao Rende.The red fruit and wood notes make it perfect for dessert. We added a few drops of Tequila Celestial Añejo on a third steep of this tea, creating aPort-like experience.”
“This dish was green tea almond cake, matcha latte flakes and kambucha espuma. The rule of eating the dessert was to keep the room in silence so we couldhearthe variety oftextures.”
Images by Luis Valdizon Words by Sophie Cater