Aiya America' Matcha Blog

Aiya America is happy to announce that in addition to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, we are now on You Tube as well!  Jump over to Aiya America’s You Tube Channel and watch our first 8 videos which cover the history, production, blending, and making of the perfect cup of Aiya Matcha.  While you are there, make sure to subscribe to us so you don’t miss out on all of our future videos!

In addition to the opening of our own You Tube channel, Aiya was also featured in one of the most popular online healthy food and living You Tube channels – Veg TV.  Our very own James Oliveira was interviewed during the Natural Products West 2012 Show in Anaheim last month about our Matcha.  Take a look at the video and listen to James discuss a bit about Matcha and how to make it both traditionally and with our Matcha Zen Café Blend Sticks.  If you haven’t had the chance yet to visit our booth during a show, you can even sneak a peek at our team and booth!

We have received the test results for our monthly boat shipment for the month of April.  The test shows that all Aiya green teas and Matchas are still safe to consume.  We are happy to disclose the specific results upon request.

This past Thursday and Friday The Los Angeles Urasenke Tankokai Association celebrated their 60th Anniversary.  There were lectures about formal tea ceremonials given on the first day.  On Friday, three separate formal Matcha ceremonies were held – two events in the Huntington Library in San Marino and one in the Langham Hotel in Pasadena.

This year in particular was special because in addition to being the 60th Anniversary of the Urasenke Tankokai here in Los Angeles, a special guest was also in attendance; the 16th-generation successor of Sen Rikyu in the Urasenke Line, Grand Master Zabousai, made the trip from Japan to participate.  This was his first ever trip to the United States.  Over 300 guests joined this event and celebrated with the 16th Grand Tea Master.  Even our own General Manager, Fumi Sugita, attended the event as both a representative of Aiya and a student of The LA Tankokai.

Aiya’s Matcha was also used for one of the tea ceremonies!  The Grand Master and all the guests enjoyed it very much.  We at Aiya America consider it truly a great honor to have had our Matcha used as a part of this event and served to the 16th Grand Master himself.

Urasenke events such as these are a very important element of Japanese culture.  We at Aiya America consider it out mission to not just provide Matcha but to also educate those who may be unfamiliar with it, its role in Japanese culture, and its rich history.  It is extremely important to us to invest the time to continue to share this knowledge with all of our customers in North America.  We consider it a deep honor to have had the opportunity to support an event such as this.

We at Aiya America are not just about providing you with the highest quality matcha available in North America.  We also consider it our responsibility to teach more about Matcha and what it can be used for.  As such, we have launched our  newest online consumer promotion:  ”Cook With Matcha.”  For the  entire month of April, enter that code upon checkout in the consumer store and receive 20% off all 100g bags of Cooking Grade Matcha.  In conjunction with the new promotion, we have also re-launched and fully re-translated our Matcha-inspired recipes on our website (http://aiya-america.com/consumer/recipes).  Each Friday we will be posting a recipe of the week to Facebook and Twitter.  If you have always wanted to try making something using Matcha, this is the perfect opportunity to give it a try!

This past weekend, our newest member, Daniel, made the current recipe of the week – Matcha Melon Bread!  He wrote some impressions and took some pictures to share:

“Although I am not a novice and am relatively comfortable in a kitchen, baking always makes me nervous.  I have always been a big fan of Japanese melon breads of all flavors and particularly love Matcha desserts, however, so I decided to give it a try.  After completing the recipe, it is even more straight forward to make than I thought it was going to be.  The bread dough came together pretty quickly and just by letting it rest for the suggested amounts of time, it really did rise nicely.  Forming it and shaping it wasn’t that difficult either.  Also, let me stress that when the recipe says the cookie dough is STICKY, it is the truth!  I let it chill for about 30 minutes before I tried rolling it out and it was still sticking to the rolling pin.  Next time I would give it some more time.  Overall, it took a bit of finesse and I was worried the finished melon breads wouldn’t be too nice to look at but both doughs have a way of melting together so the finished product looks fairly professional even though what I put in the oven looked like something a child made.  All in all, it was an easy and delicious recipe to make.  We certainly enjoyed them; those Melon Bread didn’t last more than a few days before they were all finished down to the  last crumb.  Please take a look at my pictures!  (Also, if you really like the cookie  topping, you can make the cookies by themselves!  Just spoon them out onto a cookie sheet bake at the same temperature for the same amount of time.) ”

It is hard to believe it has been over a year since the triple disaster struck off the coast of North Eastern Japan. Life in the most hard hit areas is slowly returning to normal but the impact of such a catastrophic event will never be forgotten.

In their continuing efforts to keep their citizens safe from the potential dangers of radiation exposure, the Japanese government has announced it will be lowering its radiation exposure guidelines as of April 1st 2012. Specifically referring to the total concentration of CS-131 and CS-134 per kilogram, the current Japanese guideline is set at a maximum of 500 bq/kg. When the new regulations come into effect, that figure will be cut by 80% to 100 bq/kg, making Japanese regulations the strictest in the world. (The United States guideline is 1,200 bq/kg while the EU guideline is 1,000 bq/kg.)

We here at Aiya America are just as committed to the safety of our customers. Customer safety has always been and will always continue to be our primary concern. To that end, we have been conducting monthly radiation tests on our Matcha and loose leaf teas at an independent third party lab. We have conducted over 120 tests since shortly after the disaster and plan on continuing to do so for our 2012 harvests as well. From those test results, we can confirm that our Matcha and green teas are safe to drink under all international regulations. Even when the new, extremely strict Japanese regulations come into effect, Aiya products still fall well below the set guidelines.

We are happy to provide fully detailed test results to our customers upon request.

Aiya America
2807 Oregon Ct. Unit D-5
Torrance, CA 90503
Phone: 310-212-1395
Email: info@aiya-america.com