There are lots of metaphors about the incessant chatter going on in most our heads, that datastream of conversations, impressions, admonitions, and other mental events that seem to occupy most of our waking moments, but I like one best. The most awake zen guy I’ve ever met, the great zen teacher and
The Japanese tea ceremony as it is practiced in Japan can be a thing of beauty. The tradition is roughly 830 years old. Like so many other traditional Japanese arts, the formal study of tea can take decades to “master” and get right, and must be done according to the many and varied rules of [...]
Plenty of people consider matcha to be a new trend. In reality it’s been a trend in Japan for roughly 830 years, started by those crazy trend-setting zen buddhist priests. But in a sense, “plenty of people” are right: It is matcha’s introduction into the American and European palate that constitutes
By now, most people with even a marginal interest in food and food trends have heard of matcha. This is a good thing, and its overall popularity continues to climb. The confusing issue is that many people consider matcha to be in essence a kind of exotic spice, to be used as an ingredient for cookin
The fine people at Dwell Magazine are such matcha converts that they invited Breakaway Matcha to exhibit and pour matcha shots for all the designers and design-lovers that will flock to the LA Convention Center from June 22-24 to attend the Dwell on Design Conference. For anyone even remotely intere
I recently had what can only be described as a transcendent matcha experience: I drank the equivalent of about 12 servings of matcha, but did so in just three stunningly beautiful bowlfuls as I sipped a viscous, almost pudding-like manna that summarily blew out some neuronal pleasure circuits and la
We’re doing it again: another workshop at one of my favorite places on earth, the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, in the Ventana Wilderness, southeast of Carmel, taught by myself and the delightful Ikushin Dana Velden. It’s from May 31 to June 3, and will be all about cooking with tea. Or at least mo
I recently had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at the home of musician, radio host, and deadhead extraordinaire David Gans and his lovely wife Rita. They were curious about matcha, so I brought some along and taught David how to make a cup, breakaway style. Great merriment ensued, David got ou
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