Take it easy and have a cup of tea - Chado Tea House Newsletter December 2025
May you live in interesting times.
From a cold, rainy Vancouver comes a big, hopeful, happy holiday greeting from Chado Tea House to you!
We were trying to think up a title for this newsletter and chose this 'interesting times' one.
We all thought this was the English translation of a Chinese saying or curse. We thought it was meant to be taken literally, exactly as it says. It turns out it is not an English version of a Chinese saying; it is not Chinese at all, and itis meant to be said ironically.
Whatever it means and whoever said it first, we are indeed living in those times and, like it or not, we have to get on with it, so here goes.
First off, sorry we haven't been sending the newsletters for a few months. In 2026, we resolve to keep them coming and, hopefully, bring some news about the ever-changing world of tea, Japanese tea, and Japan in general.
Phew – what a year!
We never thought that running a tea shop would be so ‘interesting’.
We should qualify that and say we never thought doing it online would be so interesting. We are sure little old ladies who run tea shops in Agatha Christie villages in the UK have lots of stories to tell. We are sure shops on the old trading routes in and out of China have many a tale.
But we are an online store that sells only Japanese tea, so we expected it to be pretty tranquil.
It was for a while. The popularity of tea in Japan has been declining for many years. Like elsewhere, young people have busy lives and lots of beverage options. Bottled tea is popular among younger people in Japan, but the number of people making tea at home has been declining.
Tea exports have been increasing, though, so they are helping offset slowing national consumption.
Then, about 2 years ago, things started to change; a rumbling came down the track. The Matcha train was gathering steam, and it's still gaining speed.
Because of the explosion in Matcha's popularity, we are seeing an exciting time throughout the Japanese Tea World.
On the positive side, we are seeing lots of interest in many teas, not just Matcha. On the negative side, there are only so many leaves to go around, and the amount used to stoke the matcha train is affecting the availability of other teas.
That said, we expect to get good supplies of our current selections, plus some new teas in 2026. We are looking at more Sencha, Mecha, Hojicha and hopefully some Japanese Black tea, Wakoucha, to tempt you. Maybe some Oolongcha; we tried some on our last trip to Japan, and it was good.
An Old Favorite Returns.
We have new 2025 stock of a popular tea that we carried last year.
Premium Sencha for winter. Kuradashi involves storing in optimal conditions, waiting for the taste to mature fully.
Special Sencha Toki-no-Kura is finally available.
Kuradashi Sencha is intentionally aged for several months. This results in a softer, sweeter, mellower flavor with deeper umami and a smoother aroma. This process, which literally translates to "removing from the warehouse," involves storing the tea leaves in a controlled environment that balances oxygen exposure, allowing the complex flavors to develop and become less sharp than a fresh Sencha.
The tea has an exceptional fresh aroma that bursts out when you first open the package. This tea is perfect for the autumn-to-winter cold season.
Nice Christmas Trump Story
The percentage of the population over 65 years old in Japan is about 30%. This is the highest percentage among G20 countries. Japan also has a low birth rate, second only to Korea.
Japanese families used to live in multi-generational households, so there was a lot of mixing of older and younger people.
That doesn't happen as often now, and people are realizing that mixing old and young is beneficial for both. To bridge the gap between the generations, a small town in Japan came up with a novel idea that is now gaining popularity elsewhere.
Top Trumps is a card game where each player gets a stack of cards on a subject, like automobiles or animals, with stats (like speed, horsepower, etc.). On their turn, the player looks at their top card, chooses a stat, and everyone reveals their top card to compare that stat. The player with the highest value wins the round and takes all the cards played. The game continues until one player collects all the cards and wins.
The town of Kawara, in Fukuoka Prefecture, decided to create its own set of cards about the seniors in their town - the farmer, the taxi driver and the postman. Each card has a picture of the senior. Kids are given the cards and get to meet the people depicted on the cards. This has helped youngsters get introduced to seniors and seniors to kids. It has been a big success, and the cards are selling out.
Happy Holidays. Thank you for your support in 2025. 2026, here we come!