I’m on vacation in Tokyo! It’s also Lunar New Year, whose celebrations I’m unintentionally missing.

tea

I’ve been making red tea every morning, which I’ve since learnt is just black tea. The East calls it red because the brewed tea is red; the West calls it black because the oxidised leaves are black. I’ve known it as black tea all my life, but it seems to me that naming it by what you actually drink makes more sense. It also sounds like whoever named it red had actually brewed and drunk it, while those who called it black were just shipping it without knowing what it became in the cup. Like calling a sword bean “giant pink” because its seeds are gigantic and pink, with no regard for what it turns into.

To refute whatever I just said, I had an orange pekoe at a café three days ago. Pekoe comes from 白毫, pronounced “pek ho” in Hokkien, which means “white down”, the fuzzy coating on the tea buds when they’re picked young.

Anyway, the tea brewed a beautiful vibrant orange on the first pour (then red on subsequent pours), which I assumed was why it was called orange. The name actually comes from when China began trading tea with the Dutch—the highest grade (young tea leaves make yummier teas, apparently) went to the royal family, so the name took its “orange” from them, the House of Orange-Nassau. 🍊

coffee

The lounge at the hotel has a Nespresso Memento 100 machine and I’ve been really enjoying the caramel blend. Just thinking about this makes me want to go downstairs and make a cup. I was quite intrigued by the capsule recognition tech. When a capsule is slotted into the machine, it tells you what it is and the recommended servings.

I feel some negative feelings about the opagueness of such machines. There’s a guy asking for help on Reddit because his Vertuo stopped recognising capsules. Isn’t not knowing how things work and not being able to fix things yourself so frustrating? I suppose this is easily solved by learning how the machines work, but it’s not always easy or convenient.

Is this why I’m so drawn to my tiny moka pot? I can take it apart, I know how it works, what needs replacing. I also know what I’m drinking, since I grind the beans myself.

There is a factoid going around about how scientists who work with cockroaches often develop an allergic reaction to them, and… they also very coincidentially develop an allergic reaction to pre-ground coffee at the same time. Hashtag knowledge to receieve and post-haste purge.

On my first or second day here I found my favourite coffee concentrate at a FamilyMart! It’s the Suntory Craft Boss Cafe’s unsweetened flavour. I used to get them all the time from Don Don Donki in Singapore, but they were out of stock for quite some time, which led me to purchase moka pot.

On the topic of moka pot, I brought mine on vacation with me. (😳 I’m not one of those people. It’s not that serious, I just thought it would be fun to look for beans here.) Since I have access to free and yummy coffee, I’ve abandoned that plan completely and instead have been steeping tea leaves in the serving pot. (Here I’m actually one of those people, I will not drink tea from a bag if I could help it.)

I’m using an amazing tea strainer I found on Amazon JP. The brand is Nagao, and it’s made here in Tsubame, Japan. It made of 18-8 stainless steel and the mesh is so incredibly fine and beautiful. I’ve never seen steel weaved like that before. It’s like fabric.

Back to the caramel coffee. I think it’s so magical that I can taste the caramelly sweetness as a flavour and not the actual sweetness, if that makes sense? Like they’ve extracted the essence of caramel, amped up the aroma, but removed all the sugar content. Which, insane?, considering caramel is sugar.

I’ve experienced this with hojichas I’ve had here. I wonder if they added jasmine to them. They’re all very fragrant and tasty.

I’m interested to try other flavours in Nespresso’s flavoured Creations range, namely vanilla and hazelnut. I have discovered that love medium-dark to dark, low-acid, chocolatey, nutty coffees.

I think it’s kind of funny that people are persons to be discovered. I thought for a long time that the saying “finding oneself” is kind of poppycock because surely the self is made, not found. But I just can’t will myself into loving earl-grey and preferring blue to green. Ties in with reese witherspoon’s career advice I came across the other morning:

chase your talents, not your dreams … it’s your job in life to figure out what your specific, unique talents are, and go chase them.

— Reese Witherspoon

Luckily for all of us, we generally enjoy and gravitate towards stuff we’re good at doing!