hi,i'm planning to make an order at horaido's teashop.
could you recommend me some of their senchas or give me some tips?
Re: horaido
Oni has tasted some of Horaido's senchas.
If I remember correctly he liked very much the top-grade Shuppincha.
2500Y for 100g seems to be a fair price.
If I remember correctly he liked very much the top-grade Shuppincha.
2500Y for 100g seems to be a fair price.
Re: horaido
My basic principle when trying out a new teashop, is to try one of their middle grade tea, one of their high grade teas, the owner has small plantations in Uji that are only in his high grade teas.
I tried Sencha Seiryu, for 1500 Yen (15 $) it is fantastically good, it tastes like salty seaweed with some peaches, sencha Shuppincha HG (high grown) is the best sencha I have tried, very intense, sweetness and astringency in great balance, lot of kick in that tea.
Their gyokuro Fuuki is sae midori breed, middle grade and burnt sugar taste, Kame no Yowai, gokoh breed, similar to hibiki-an`s super premium grade, smooth sweet tea, Rinpou, it is a true beauty, I haven`t seen such intact leaves in a japanese tea before.
I tried matcha Miyako no Shiro , and HG version, basically they are the same only the HG in sweeter, much sweeter, it is well worth the extra 5 $, great koicha, like in the old days rustic and robust, Horaido is an old traditional kyoto teashop, it is on the same street with Ippodo and Kambayashi, their teas all have caracter, generally as I read on a friends blog who visited all these teashops this year, mostly old people drink team without much ceremony only for sake of tea, no walking on eggshells, oldtimers with strong tea, as Marukyu - Koyamaen strives to produce ever sweeter and "newby" friendly tea, these older teashops try to make good tea as their master remembers how the great teas were once.
I tried Sencha Seiryu, for 1500 Yen (15 $) it is fantastically good, it tastes like salty seaweed with some peaches, sencha Shuppincha HG (high grown) is the best sencha I have tried, very intense, sweetness and astringency in great balance, lot of kick in that tea.
Their gyokuro Fuuki is sae midori breed, middle grade and burnt sugar taste, Kame no Yowai, gokoh breed, similar to hibiki-an`s super premium grade, smooth sweet tea, Rinpou, it is a true beauty, I haven`t seen such intact leaves in a japanese tea before.
I tried matcha Miyako no Shiro , and HG version, basically they are the same only the HG in sweeter, much sweeter, it is well worth the extra 5 $, great koicha, like in the old days rustic and robust, Horaido is an old traditional kyoto teashop, it is on the same street with Ippodo and Kambayashi, their teas all have caracter, generally as I read on a friends blog who visited all these teashops this year, mostly old people drink team without much ceremony only for sake of tea, no walking on eggshells, oldtimers with strong tea, as Marukyu - Koyamaen strives to produce ever sweeter and "newby" friendly tea, these older teashops try to make good tea as their master remembers how the great teas were once.
Sep 16th, '09, 18:25
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Re: horaido
thanks. as i was trying to not think about buyin tea (and drink the ones i have) you give me the urge to try them out! 
Re: horaido
I am a confirmed organic sencha drinker. This limits my choices, but, I thought I would mention a tea that I was given that is not organic and really excellent. Hibiki-an's Sencha Premium. It's an asamushi with big and deep flavor. The dry leaves smell like no other I have had. Price is right and if I were a non organic drinker, this tea would be in da house all the time.JPX wrote:thanks. as i was trying to not think about buyin tea (and drink the ones i have) you give me the urge to try them out!
Re: horaido
thanks oni !!!very helpfull reply.
i think i'll try seiryu and shuppincha and maybe some gyokuro.
i think i'll try seiryu and shuppincha and maybe some gyokuro.
Re: horaido
Horaido all in all is way better in the middle category than hibiki-an, and you can get it for half the price, Horaido is way better than hibiki-an, try it and you`ll see. Their sencha premium was mediocre and for 27 $, seiryu was way better for 15 $, better leaf quality, better taste, more durability, the same with Kame no yowai and Super premium, you get same quality or better for half the price.
Re: horaido
With tea you may ask him to send with other shipping method than EMS, but with teaware I don`t think he would take the risk.
My ordering from him was a little bit slow paced, but I am satisfied with the price, it is really low, 5500 Yen for a banko kyusu, even with EMS it was only 70 $, artisticnippon sells the exact same kyusu from 95 $ + EMS, Hojo 100 $ + EMS, now tell me was it worth ordering a little bit slow paced, waitng more, I saved 40 $ on a teapot.
The exact same Kuro raku, with the same stamp, same maker as hibiki-an sells for 146 $, horaido sells 65 $, almost 80 $ less, so it was worth paying him extra for ems, and the same principle goes with his teas, he sells porcelain houhin sets for 200 $, other places sell for no less than 400 $, he sells those items that you can find on the Japanese version of the site too, now you see why I am making all that commercial for this teashop, they are small and with much less commercial interest than the other bigger vendors out there.
I plan to order a tetsubin from them later this year, this is for me the only trustworthy vendor to order such an expencieve teaware.
My ordering from him was a little bit slow paced, but I am satisfied with the price, it is really low, 5500 Yen for a banko kyusu, even with EMS it was only 70 $, artisticnippon sells the exact same kyusu from 95 $ + EMS, Hojo 100 $ + EMS, now tell me was it worth ordering a little bit slow paced, waitng more, I saved 40 $ on a teapot.
The exact same Kuro raku, with the same stamp, same maker as hibiki-an sells for 146 $, horaido sells 65 $, almost 80 $ less, so it was worth paying him extra for ems, and the same principle goes with his teas, he sells porcelain houhin sets for 200 $, other places sell for no less than 400 $, he sells those items that you can find on the Japanese version of the site too, now you see why I am making all that commercial for this teashop, they are small and with much less commercial interest than the other bigger vendors out there.
I plan to order a tetsubin from them later this year, this is for me the only trustworthy vendor to order such an expencieve teaware.
Re: horaido
Thanks for your reply.
I have already more teaware than needed (which doesn't mean I won't bight some from time to time) so tea is my only concern.
My problem is that with EMS I quite always have to pay taxes (which is quite normal) but also about 25-30$ to the post office per shipment even for small parcels. Good news that horaido doesn't ship via EMS only.
I have already more teaware than needed (which doesn't mean I won't bight some from time to time) so tea is my only concern.
My problem is that with EMS I quite always have to pay taxes (which is quite normal) but also about 25-30$ to the post office per shipment even for small parcels. Good news that horaido doesn't ship via EMS only.
The best place for porcelain houhin is ebay. You can find even better looking houhins for half this price.Oni wrote: he sells porcelain houhin sets for 200 $
Re: horaido
The owner makes special orders from porcelain manufacurers, you cannot find the same qualiy porcelain on ebay, picures cannot show the detail of the craftmanship, for example at the base of the transparently thin cup, is polished in two diffrent angles, and the houhin and yuzamashi are made from thicker porcelain, of course it doesn`t make much a diffrence in brewing tea, but aestetically it is more pleasing.
And try their teas, you can arrange regular airmail shipping, and the qualiy is great, you cannot find asamushi from Uji at that price.
And try their teas, you can arrange regular airmail shipping, and the qualiy is great, you cannot find asamushi from Uji at that price.
Re: horaido
Is trustworthy the correct word to describe your feeling? I think Hojo and Toru of Artistic Nippon are very trustworthy. Being more expensive doesn't mean less trustworthy. I like saving money, too. I bought a banko kyusu from Toru and saved $30 off of Hojo's price. But, Hojo provides a quality control and thorough analysis of everything he sells.Oni wrote: I plan to order a tetsubin from them later this year, this is for me the only trustworthy vendor to order such an expencieve teaware.
Regarding a tetsubin. I will also buy one at some point, but, after visiting Hojo's shop and hand inspecting the kettles, I can't imagine buying one from a photo. The differences in workmanship, feel, balance, and, look, are very important to me. #1 or 2 in a casting of 100 will be far better than the later ones. How will you know if you can't examine and compare? It's the same with a yixing pot. I have to touch it. Just some thoughts.
Re: horaido
When one lives in Europe, examining and comparing yixings/tetsubins is not really possible. I live in Finland and we have one high-class teashop - 400 km from where I live - and they have very limited amount of yixings, kyusus or tetsubins. I'm sure that by buying from Horaido, Hojo or Artistic Nippon I will get much better teaware with same amount of money than from my "local" teashop.Tead Off wrote:Oni wrote:Regarding a tetsubin. I will also buy one at some point, but, after visiting Hojo's shop and hand inspecting the kettles, I can't imagine buying one from a photo. The differences in workmanship, feel, balance, and, look, are very important to me. #1 or 2 in a casting of 100 will be far better than the later ones. How will you know if you can't examine and compare? It's the same with a yixing pot. I have to touch it. Just some thoughts.