Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world

So said Ming dynasty scholar-poet Tien Yiheng.

And for an afternoon yesterday that was what happened at Ichigo Ichie, where Akane-san's place turned into a tearoom in collaboration with the folks from Silk Tea Bar.

Ichigo Ichie x Silk Tea Bar: 冬の言葉/Words of Winter

The tea selection and the food menu were carefully chosen and curated by them to evoke the images and feel of winter. Subtly perfumed roubai (wintersweet), the crisp winter air, snow-dusted bright red nanten berries, young winter sprouts, puffed sparrows. All wonderfully and vividly captured through the fragrances and flavours created. Their intention had been to evoke winter which, according to Akane-san, is also a language of quiet emotions, stillness, warmth, anticipation and reflection. And that was what I experienced. For an afternoon I was transported to misty mountains where the noise of the everyday was muffled and fell away to a golden solace.

Ichigo Ichie x Silk Tea Bar: 冬の言葉/Words of Winter

The opening tea was a 2025 Lincang White Gushu (临沧古树白茶), a gushu (ancient tree) white tea from Lincang in southwest Yunnan; here steeped gongfu-style with a gaibei (Chinese lidded teacup). Akane-san paired it with smoked scallop and lightly salted soramame (broad beans). It was a delightful opening and introduced the winter theme very well.

2025 Lincang White Gushu (临沧古树白茶), smoked scallop and soramame

The pale yellow liquor in the flared, eggshell-thin white cup; intense nectar-like fragrance, with a gentle candy-like sweetness. The lingering refreshing mouthfeel, rather like a fresh, cool breeze swirling in the mouth. For a moment I did feel like I was in a meadow of perfumed roubai, taking in the subtle yellows, the crisp and perfumed air. Just breathing and I felt my mind being cleared. The sweet scallops accentuated the tea’s sweetness, while the soramame highlighted the refreshing, meadow-like notes.

The second tea was a 2021 Mengsong Baotang raw pu'er (孟松保塘普洱生茶), steeped gongfu-style in a tapered gaibei, and served in a narrow, straight sided Chinese tea cup. A gushu tea from Baotang village in Mengsong, Menghai county in south Yunnan. To pair, Akane-san created a dish of kuzu somen noodles in a tangy, shoyu-based sauce with blanched nanohana (rapeseed blossoms) and fresh suisho buntan (crystal pomelo from Kochi).

2021 Mengsong Baotang raw pu'er (孟松保塘普洱生茶), kuzu somen, nanohana, suisho buntan

This was my personal favourite pairing in the collab menu. It was like a symphony; the aromas, flavours and textures interplaying in such a way that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. The citrusy and sweet notes of the suisho buntan (crystal pomelo) brought out the fruity and honeyed notes of the tea, while the bitter, herbaceous flavour of the nanohana accentuated the soft bitter, subtle “green” notes of the tea. The tangy, savoury sauce provided contrast and balance, and the delicate, chewy kuzu somen noodles mirrored the smooth mouthfeel of the tea.

Along with the tea’s lingering sweet aftertaste came what felt like a crisp, clean breeze. For a moment, I keenly sensed the crisp, brisk air of winter. So, in this tea, the sense of winter’s brisk air was well-evoked. It felt like the cobwebs of my mind were blown clean by this brisk wind, and I could almost imagine myself on a verandah on some mountain, just breathing the clean winter air, and feeling the weight of the world fall away, muffled by the thick blanket of snow.

Nanten berries give a splash of colour in winter, a bright red against the white snow

The third tea was one from Japan, a 2025 Yamanami Shizuoka Red. Shizuoka is generally known for its sencha, in particular its fukamushi sencha, something that I had the pleasure of experiencing on a trip to Hamamatsu last year. (I came home with many packets of Honyama, Kakegawa and the Shizu-7132 cultivar.) So, it was a lovely surprise to see a lesser-known tea from Shizuoka. Likewise brewed gongfu-style, but in a small, rounded Yixing teapot. Unlike the other teas, it was served in a wide, flared Japanese sometsuke tea cup. This tea had a lovely deep coppery liquor, and bright, malty, berry-like notes which stood out and seemed to signal a change of tone in the menu. It did kind of evoke snow-dusted nanten berries, a classic winter plant in Japan whose bright red berries give a splash of colour against the white snow. Nanten are also often seen in Shogatsu decorations.

Akane-san paired this tea with a satoimo puree flavoured with Akita miso and garnished with small, toasted arare crackers. Velvety, slightly sticky and ever-so-slightly slimy satoimo puree, flavoured with deep, rich umami and sweet hint of the Akita miso, contrasted with little crunchy, toasty pops of arare crackers. The mild, nutty flavours were given depth with the miso. And together with the malty and berry notes of the Yamanami Shizuoka red tea... Wow.

2025 Yamanami Shizuoka Red, satoimo puree, Akita miso

The fourth tea was Rougui Wuyi Yancha (肉桂 武夷岩茶), a rare, highly prized oolong tea grown only in the rocky crags of the Wuyi Mountains of northern Fujian, China. The tea’s namesake is the spice cassia (Chinese cinnamon) because of the tea’s natural spicy, cassia notes. If the Mengsong Baotang raw pu’er was my favourite pairing, the Rougui was, by far, my favourite tea in this experience. It was definitely the highlight of this tea tasting collab.

The Rougui was steeped in an Yixing zisha teapot, gongfu-style, with 3 infusions, each served in tiny, one-mouthed tea cups, to savour the changing character and notes of this tea. This tea is said to showcase the terroir of the Wuyi Mountains. And indeed, each infusion highlighted the different flavour profiles of this one tea; first, its spicy, cassia notes, then its minerality, and finally its wet, mossy profile. Its depth and layered complexity, its lingering aftertaste that reverberates long after the tea has been swallowed, and the aroma that perfumes the mouth and continues to unfold even within. One couldn't help but think about the parallels with fuyu-moe, of young green sprouts slowly growing and unfurling beneath the snow.

2024 Rougui Wuyi Yancha (肉桂 武夷岩茶), first infusion

Akane-san paired the Rougui with tender braised abalone and crunchy lotus root (renkon) with a delicious gobo (burdock root) sauce. The lotus and gobo sauce went really well with the first infusion, earthy, spicy, and then sweet. The abalone more with the second infusion, highlighting the mineral notes of the tea. I confess the dish was delicious and well executed, and it was a good pairing, but the rougui tea was the star that outshone everything. In a great way.

2024 Rougui Wuyi Yancha (肉桂 武夷岩茶), awabi, renkon, gobo sauce

The fifth and final tea was a 2023 Mangfei Gushu Ripe Pu’er (忙肺古树 普洱熟茶), a gushu aged pu’er from Yongde county in western Yunnan. For this final tea, Akane-san crafted a dish with a balance of sweet, sour and earthy with the inarizushi, shiitake mushroom and Hokkaido azuki bean paste.

Inarizushi, Hokkaido red bean paste

I couldn’t help appreciating the deep burgundy liquor against the dark red of the Hokkaido azuki bean paste. And most delightfully, the azuki bean paste complemented the tea’s deep, sweet and earthy notes, its thick, smooth mouthfeel and lingering sweet aftertaste. With the dab of cream giving it all balance by pulling back the sweetness, while still mirroring the rich smooth mouthfeel of the tea. The flavours of the inarizushi and its oily mouthfeel went well with the tea’s oily, rich mouthfeel, nicely balanced by vinegar of the sushi rice filling. Likewise with the pop of sweetness and earthiness of the shiitake mushroom. I think the azuki bean paste and tea were the best mates in this pairing, but without the inarizushi, the combination of just these two alone would have been too much.

2023 Mangfei Gushu Ripe Pu'er (忙肺古树 普洱熟茶), Hokkaido red bean paste

At the end, I thought of the words of the Tang dynasty poet Lu Tong, from his “Seven Bowls of Tea”:

一碗喉吻润，二碗破孤闷。三碗搜枯肠，惟有文字五千卷。四碗发轻汗，平生不平事，尽向毛孔散。五碗肌骨清，六碗通仙灵。七碗吃不得也，唯觉两腋习习清风生。蓬莱山，在何外？玉川子乘此清风容归去。

Or in translation:

The first cup moistens the throat;

The second shatters all feelings of solitude;

The third cup purifies the digestion,

re-opening the five thousand volumes I've studied

and bringing them to mind afresh;

The fourth induces perspiration,

evaporating all of life's trials and tribulations;

With the fifth cup, the body sharpens, crisp;

The sixth cup is the first step on the road to enlightenment;

And the seventh cup sits steaming—

it needn’t be drunk, as one is lifted to the abode of the immortals.

Well, our seventh cup was drunk and with that I floated out of Ichigo Ichie, feeling a measure of inner peace, and thinking it was time to revisit Silk Tea Bar, and make it a regular tea ritual thing. It seems no matter how far or how out of touch some of us have become from our cultural roots as ethnic Chinese, tea is simply soaked into our bones, steeped into our very marrow, deeply woven into the fabric of our soul.

As I walked home, I also pondered another point. Food truly has no boundaries and bears no grudges. In our many conversations over the past 6 years, I’ve learnt a little of Akane-san’s passion and respect for tea and tea culture, whether it be Japanese, Chinese, Western or some other country or culture. Her passion for tea and tea culture shone throughout this event. The fact that it was 2 years in the making also highlighted her determination to have a collaboration with Chinese tea at its centre. And in the current geopolitical climate, it is nice to know that not everybody is focused on conflict and differences.