Steeped in Tea

An invitation to discover the beauty, culture, and flavor of Japanese green tea—and maybe become a tea lover like me.

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Hello, fellow joyful living enthusiasts! Consider this part of my weekly Friday Musings where I share the things I’m reading, eating, drinking, and loving right now. In this article, they’re all combined into one obsession: tea! And please remember…

My Lifelong Passion for Tea

You probably already know I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life.

You probably also know that I’m a tea lover. A tea enthusiast. A tea fanatic. But not just any tea—green tea. And not just green tea, but Japanese green tea. And not just interested… obsessed.

Is this latest obsession related to our upcoming trip to Japan? Possibly, but I think it’s due to a few other factors, not the least of which is a lifelong enthusiasm for learning and deepening my understanding of the things I’m passionate about. And right now, there are so many things I’m passionate about, much of which I’ve been sharing with my readers and listeners:

• rewilding and gardening to support wildlife and pollinators (lots here)

• optimizing my fitness, nutrition, and weight training — and learning everything I can about menopause to maximize health and vitality (a list of related topics here)

• drinking in — and drinking up — everything I can about Japanese green tea

Tea has always been a passion of mine, as evidenced by my tea cabinet filled with favorite tools and paraphernalia, and by two Chinese prints I bought in an antique store many years ago.

The lower one is obvious: two men enjoying tea with two black cats (!) by their side. The other carries a double meaning—the simple image of a man who loves tea so much he moves into a teapot, and the idea that when you love something deeply, you immerse yourself in it completely.

And that pretty much sums up my relationship with tea (and life).

How My (Japanese) Tea Obsession Was Renewed

The renewed obsession started, as many things in my life do, with books. This year I set a goal not just to read a book a week (or four books a month), but also to read the many books already sitting on our overflowing shelves before buying any new ones.

One of those books I mentioned in a previous article; it’s called Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind, and it traces how six plants—sugar, tea, cotton, the potato, quinine, and coca—reshaped world history. Naturally, I was transfixed by the chapter on tea.

Coincidentally, as I was reading it, my husband had just finished a podcast series on the Opium Wars and tea’s role in that utterly tragic—and entirely avoidable—conflict.

What’s more, The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō was sitting right there on my shelf (actually two copies!)—one of those unread books I’d been meaning to get to for years So I picked it up—and boom. Steeped in tea. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Written in English for a Western audience in 1906, The Book of Tea is a meditation on beauty, simplicity, and the Japanese philosophy behind the tea ceremony—or what the author calls teaism. Okakura uses tea as a lens through which to explain aspects of Japanese culture—art, aesthetics, architecture, spirituality, and the idea that beauty can be found in simplicity, imperfection, and everyday rituals.

And so began a renewed fascination with tea, specifically Japanese tea.

I say renewed because Japanese tea has long been a passion of mine: the philosophy behind it; its intrinsic connection to aesthetics, tranquility, and beauty; its deep ties to Buddhism; and the fact that it’s embedded in—and imbued throughout—a culture I’ve loved for years—whether it’s film, food, language, décor, or so much more.

In many ways, my fascination with tea is what first drew me to Japan.

It’s also one of the reasons I’m so grateful that World Vegan Travel has been able to create not just our all-inclusive trips to Japan, but truly incredible experiences while we’re there. By the time these two upcoming tours are finished, I’ll have toured Japan five times—something I could hardly have imagined a few years ago. (And we have plans for an all-inclusive 2027 trip in the fall!)

Of course, so much of that love for Japan is tied to tea—a love that goes back decades.

• At our previous house, we built an outdoor structure in the backyard modeled after a tea house. (Aw, there’s Schuster!)

  

  The teahouse we built at our old house

• Over the years we’ve had the privilege of experiencing the Japanese tea ceremony several times both in Japan and at the San Francisco Zen Center’s Green Gulch tea house.

• My book launch party for The Vegan Table was at Numi Tea, and Color Me Vegan was at Teance, because…tea.

Me and my dear friend Michael, who is no longer with us

And while I enjoy many different kinds of tea—such as Chinese greens like Cloud Mist, Bi Luo Chun, or Dragonwell, or a floral Taiwanese oolong like Dong Ding—my favorites have tended to be Japanese: matcha, sencha, and gyokuro (with hojicha, kukicha, and genmaicha also in the mix).

Japan: The Green Tea Gateway

I drank black tea as a teenager, but many moons ago I switched to green tea and never looked back—and somewhere along the way became, I’ll admit it, a bit of a tea snob.

I travel with my own tea. I would never drink tea from a bag. And I challenge anyone who says they don’t like green tea to try the real thing—not green tea from a bag. Not a matcha latte from Starbucks. Not even a bowl of matcha served in tea ceremonies. (It takes getting used to.)

If your experience with green tea hasn’t been a good one—if you think it’s bitter, muddy, or overwhelmingly grassy—you simply haven’t had good tea. You haven’t had Japanese tea. You haven’t had sencha or gyokuro.

Trust me.

I’ll be sharing more about these different teas (assuming you want me to!), but for now I just wanted to (re)introduce you to the wonderful world of Japanese green tea through my lens of obsession.

And it couldn’t come at a better time, because we’re leaving for Japan soon, and there are a few tea-related things I’m especially excited about:

• a day trip to Uji, the historic tea region just outside Kyoto known for producing some of Japan’s finest green teas—especially matcha and gyokuro

• buying a kyusu (a traditional Japanese teapot for brewing loose-leaf tea) to add to my tea tools — last year I brought home with a beautiful chawan (tea bowl) from Kyoto

• and of course tea, including a visit to my favorite tea shop in Tokyo

Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes in Japan

As we did last year, over the three weeks I’ll be in Japan this April, I’ll be sharing with paid subscribers behind-the-scenes glimpses, sneak peeks, and early access to content I’ll be able to share more fully once I’m not hosting a trip. This updated article offers a preview of some of the places we’ll visit that will inspire that exclusive content.

📣 To enjoy this exclusive content and follow along as the trip unfolds, join now as an annual subscriber.

As an annual subscriber, you’ll also enjoy:

• exclusive subscriber-only posts throughout the year

• the ability to comment on every article and join the conversation

• access to our private subscriber chats

• invitations to weekly live videos with me

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In the meantime, I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to inspire in you a love of tea! Please let me know your questions, challenges, or curiosities about tea.

Additional Resources

👉 Connect with me 1:1 – Get personalized guidance whatever you are looking for.

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