Simon-We're gonna learn a lot today. Martina-This is gonna be some serious stuff.
S-Get on your education hats, people.
M-Take out your backpack and put a bento in there.
S-Pull out your protractor and your rulers.
M-Make sure you pack your calculator cause you won't have those in your phone's in the future.
S-Make sure you got those markers that smell like stuff, M-[Gasp]
S-and you were told not to eat them them, but you tried it anyways. M-So good.
Put on your sunscreen. Let's go!
[Music begins playing] [School bell rings]
M-Let the field trip begin, Simon!
M-Now I know we are normally pretty huge coffee snobs S-Yes we are.
M-[American reverend voice]I think I converted you to the world(dah). S-Finally.
M-Of coffee(yah).
S-I have seen the light(ah). M-Yes(ah).
M-But we kind of realised as foodies who are living in Japan,
it's kind of silly that we don't really know that much about green tea.
S-So we're going on a field trip today to learn more about green tea
and we're not heading to Kyoto which many people think of for green tea; we're actually heading to Shizuoka.
[Martina voice over] I really love the way Mount Fuji brings out her eyes
[Simon voice over] Serving up raw fish and raw looks
M-We're gonna be getting a mountain of tuna. S-400 grams.
M-400 grams of tuna. S-Each.
S-We're actually headed to Shizuoka because it produces 40% of Japan's green tea export.
If you wanna learn about green tea, this is where you gotta go.
So we're starting off at Maruzen Tea Roastery,
which I didn't actually know that there are shops that do green tea roasteries,
M-Right. S-and hand dripping. This is a whole new world to me.
I know about coffee roasteries and whatnot- M-Yep. Like when we go for coffee there is a shop
that will roast the beans. Here they're actually roasting the tea to order.
So, like, when we order tea- S-At a specific temperature. M-Yeah, specific temperature.
You can say "oh, I wanted to have it steamed vs having it actually roasted"
which I didn't even know there was a steamed version. S-Right?
M-You pick which temperature you want to roast it, so it's like having a custom cup of tea.
[School bell rings]
M-I could just chug this.
I could just chug mine down, super fast.
S-Wow.
This tastes so dramatically different. M-Yeah. This is citrusy almost.
S-I know. I have the 100 degrees at deep steaming.
Martina has 200 degrees, at light steaming.
You can already see they look vastly different.
M-So I picked this for a reason. And this is not brown rice tea.
Or, you might think that it's the kind of green tea that has rice that's been puffed and roasted in it, which they also have here.
I chose the darkest roast because I have never heard of that before.
They have these little tiny glass tubes. S-Yeah.
-And I was, like, going around smelling them all.
And when I got to the final one - the 200 degree one - I was like, I don't even know what this is.
And as a coffee lover, I thought "Maybe this will be something similar?"
So for people who might be trying to get into green tea, it might be neat to try this one- S-Yeah.
-And then, like, work your way down.
S-If it was up to me I'd say this is better for, like, winter's. It has like a more warming kind of flavour. M-Oh, sou desu ne.
S-That's like the lighter more acidic one, that's really good for really hot days.. M-Yeah.
S-So we have three different serves here. We're starting with the regular matcha.
M-I don't think they're syrup, I think they're green teas.
S-Yeah? M-I think they're, like, really intense green tea.
S-Alright, well let's see.
[Both moan] (Heads out of the gutter, please)
M-Okay. S-Wow.
M-It's got like a syrup in it, it's not just... S-Yep. It's definitely syrup. M-Wooow.
S-Matcha is usually intense, this is so much softer. It's really lightened by the flaked ice.
M-Green tea is also really good for you, so, technically, aren't we eating health food right now? S-Yes!
This is a super food. M-This isn't actually like a summer dessert.
S-This feels like a science experiment. M-Woah, Simon.
S-I really feel like I am learning by being able to taste so many different ones.
S-You can tell that this is a fancy place, because the glasses are just so tiny and dainty.
M-These are three different types of gelato here, and each one of them has been roasted in a different way.
The only kind that I'm used to having is just, like, a ubiquitous thing of matcha ice-cream at the end of a sushi meal
S-Exactly. M-That's, like, rock hard.
S-It's time for some... M-This does not look like this. S-High end ice-cream.
M-That is a total level up than what we're used to doing.
S-Wow, that- M-Right?
S-That almost like a... like a fruity aftertaste. M-Mhmh, mhmh.
S-I'm used to, like, matcha ice-cream just tasting like matcha and powder. Like, the chalkiness.
M-And it's creamier.
S-So this one's very white looking.
M-Woah. Rice, immediately roasted. S-Yep.
M-Woah, it's so nutty. It almost tastes like a sesame ice-cream. Like a goma-ae(?) taste.
S-That first one is so much more refreshing. M-Right.
S-On hot days like this, you gotta go for that one. Wow.
M-But, but what about the middle one, Simon? Right?
The real question is: what does the baby think of it?
We've had many babies in our videos lately. S-Too many babies.
M-And they've all been having different opinions of things, remember?
S-We've made a clear choice to not have any babies.
M-But the time we were in Sweden- S-But they follow us around everywhere.
M-That's the world, Simon, that we live in. You see they're allowed to roam free.
S-Ah, yes. Babies have free rein. I forgot about that rule. M-Right. Yes.
S-Alright, so this is the second one. Is there any difference.
They're not visibly different though.
M-Mmm. S-Ahh.
M-That's a lot creamier. S-That one's a lot creamier.
M-This one almost has, like, umm. S-And there's no fruitiness at the end of that. M-No, not at all.
So this one definitely was roasted longer. S-So this definitely proves that just the temperature that you roast your green tea at
gives you a completely different flavour. From, this ricey-ness to the fruitiness
M-Simon's in his, uh, field trip mode as we see. S-Yeah, no I'm here to learn. Alright? M-Wait, teacher?
M-Gonna pull out my paper- S-This is my opportunity. M-I have my pencil.
S-I'm not sure how many more chances I'm gonna get in life. M-I've got my checklist.
Because we said that this was a field trip, we should get on, like, our, like, Magic School Bus
and we should go to a field for the rest of this trip, cause we're gonna go to a green tea field. Get it? Get the joke?
S-I feel like because we've learnt so much about the different tastes and different styles of roasted of green tea
we should probably go to a field now and learn a little bit more about it.
But we don't need a bus, we could just run there. Because I don't even blink anymore, I just feel super excited.
Who's ready to go for it? I am. One two three, let's go!
M-It just seems a little bit like... he might need to simmer down a bit
[School bell rings]
S-Which one's your favourite so far? M-Oooo
S-I think the gyokuro. M-The gyokuro was great.
S-Gyokuro was my favourite, it's such an interesting taste. M-Hmhm
I really liked the sora(?). S-Yeah, sora's(?) my number two.
S-If you could only choose one... choose gyokuro.
It's like a TV commercial.
Dan-It literally looks like a TV commercial. S-Does it?!
D-You've got Fuji in the background. S-Oh there is a Fuji in the background! That's perfect!
M-Well I sincerely hope that you learned something from this video.
I certainly did. I think that I'm a certified green tea doctor now.
And for those of you still thirsty to learn, we've got ourselves a bonus video.
And make sure you visit the info box for a link to Shizuoka's english green tea magazine.
It has tonnes of other green tea locations for you to check out all around Shizuoka.