Finally!
After many months of planning and preparing, we finally arrive in Portimão on July 23rd. Here we first put all of our precious teas into the refrigerator, so that their qualities are preserved perfectly until the fresh green of the Mizudashi and the other teas can be fully enjoyed at the events.
There are no events at tea shops planned for the first three days, which gives us the time to prepare the details of the tastings. At the same time we use this period to release our creativity and develop recipes for cocktails with Mizudashi Sencha.
For this purpose, Nina has brought very great port wines: Dry White and 10 Years Dry White from Niepoort. While we definitely prefer the 10 Years Old White when drunk purely, we believe that the sweetness of the Dry White, which reminds us of younger fruits, is better suited for our cocktails with Mizudashi – of course a more experienced mixologist could also create a very good Mizudashi Cocktails with the 10 Years Old White. All the other ingredients are of course also very important for the recipe.
On Sunday, Masato, Leopold and Kirill spend almost all their time trying out new mixtures, while taking repeated trips to the supermarket to find new ingredients. In our garden they finally find great lemons and fresh mint, which are promptly used for the recipe of the “Green Port”. But in the afternoon there also has to be some time to relax: an ice-cooled Morimoto Mizudashi at the beach!
The next day, Nina arrives from Porto, so on Wednesday we can start our “Mizudashi Birds Event Tour” together. On the first day we are at Da Villa, where we are not only presenting ice-cooled Mizudashi Sencha, but also cold-brewed Morimoto Shiraore, which fascinated with an infatuating Umami. A tea which is able to delight sommeliers of Japanese teas, while throwing tea beginners of track: “What is that!?? Is that really tea?”
The Mizudashi Event at Da Villa is accompanied with the music of the saxophone and contrabass duo Mimikoto, who enjoy a rich supply of delicious green tea (and wine) during their performance.
The next Mizudashi Birds Event is already planned for Thursday: Today we are at Earth Shop & Café, where we are greeted very graciously, while being fascinated by the great taste of the store’s furnishing.
While Tobias is preparing Mie and Morimoto Mizudashi, Shiraore and of course the new “Green Port” cocktail, Nina is busy with showing how to brew Japanese teas to our guests.
Mimikoto is also performing at the event today with contra bass and tenor saxophone. Their music is lures curious people into the store, where they are directly delighted with a lot of Mizudashi. This marks a day, on which many people try green tea for the first time. Hooray!
While Kirill is trying recipes with Miyama Kirishima Sencha and Portuguese white wine, we are preparing next day’s event. Here a little preview of Kirill’s creation: The world Mizudashi broadens once again!
We are finally at the last Mizudashi Event for the summer season in Portugal, which takes place at a rather peculiar place. In most countries specialised tea stores are carrying our teas, but not in Portugal. Why? There are almost no retailers specialised in tea, so most of the time organic stores, shops for delicatessen, restaurant with small store spaces, open-minded wine stores and also supermarkets are offering teas.
Today’s event is not taking place in a typical supermarket with low prices, but rather in a delicatessen store. Looking at the prices, especially compared to the usual price level of food products in Portugal, the term “luxury supermarket”, which Nina tends to use, holds true to some extent. Curiously, there is no heavy atmosphere of luxury around the store, but rather one very typical for supermarkets: self-service, high shelves, and many people with shopping carts.
One thing is very different: Unlike “normal” supermarkets, there are less customary products, but an upscale choice of delicatessen, which fortunately includes a selection of Marimo teas: A strikingly broad choice of our teas, shows that the people living in this vicinity are actually used to very fine Japanese teas. This makes for a very good place for a Mizudashi Event, so cold-brewed Japanese teas can also become famous in Portugal in small steps.
Here we are, offering the Mie Mizudashi in a tasting, because this tea is also part of the product range of this “high-end supermarket”.