What surprised me on an overseas business trip

It was more than five years ago. We exhibited our Japanese te a products at a business meeting for professionals such as chefs in Europe. We provided tasting service of sencha. Visitors tasted it, saying, "Japanese tea? It's not hot drink." "What's this? Amazing! It's delicious. I thought Japanese tea was astringent taste before." Incidentally, I provided the dry natto I had as samples. "Is this natto? This is very nice too." 

10 minutes later he came back to our booth with his two friends. And they were tasting the Japanese tea and dried natto. By the evening of that day, they stopped by our booth about four times, winking "Do you still have them?" And enjoying sencha and dried natto.

They were pastry chefs from a store famous for macaroons. I visited the place written on the back of the business card at a later date saying that you would come here because I am interested in Japanese tea.

It was a famous chef's restaurant, and some people in the kitchen tried to taste our Japanese tea. May be they are their friends. I gave a ZENJIRO Sencha to the staff, and he extracted with boiled water. ZENJIRO Sencha is a high-class tea, so it is quite good compared to the Japanese tea sold in that country. However, the brewing method was not good.

He brewed in boiling water like black tea. Moreover, the water was hard water.

"It's different from the taste I tasted at the business meeting. Why?"

What is surprising about overseas business trips is that even the best stores have little knowledge about Japanese tea. When he brewed Japanese tea in boiling water, I was so surprised.

"OK. I'll try it." So I took out the Volvic water, poured water into the server, put the sencha tea leaves in a disposable tea pack and dropped it on the server. Volovic is soft water.

It took about 15 minutes for some store staffs to get together and chat with all other by the time it was completed.

"I think it's okay." I said that and offered cold water brewed sencha to everyone.

"It's delicious!" They were impressed.

The restaurant has staff who are skilled in brewing coffee and tea. However, they have no knowledge of Japanese tea. At this shop, only a handful of Japanese customers request Japanese tea for after-dinner drinks. However, after that, it seems that Japanese tea has been evaluated as delicious at this shop.

They are looking forward to explaining not only the deliciousness but also the health effects of Japanese tea to their customers.

The same can be said not only for overseas restaurants but also for Japan domestic cafes, hotels and restaurants. Everyone is enthusiastic about cooking and dessert, but careless about the last Japanese tea. Am I the only one to be disappointed at the final closing?

We would like to convey the correct knowledge of Japanese tea that customers will be pleased with and the knowledge that sellers need in this blog.