Each morning, you probably wake up with the feeling that you want to stay in your bed a little bit longer. Yet, you will eventually get up and start your day. To become fully awake and feel refreshed, you will need something.
In Japan, having Japanese tea in the morning has been considered for long as an important part of your daily activities, since it was already recognized by the people in old times that the morning tea was good to refresh your body and mind. In Japan, the Japanese tea you have in the morning is particularly called ‘Asacha” where “asa” means morning and “cha” means tea, and there are many proverbs about Asacha. The following are some of them.
“Have Asacha, even if you have to walk back home 30km (18mile).”
If you left home without having Japanese tea in the morning and you are already far from home, you should go back home and have your tea before leaving home again. “Umm.. walk back home 30km?” you may ask. This is probably an exaggeration, but the person who left this proverb must have wanted to emphasize that having tea in the morning is so important.
“Asacha increases your luck” “Asacha drives off the day’s trouble”
These 2 proverbs also refer to the importance of having Japanese tea in the morning. It is considered that if you have Japanese tea in the morning, the tea will bring you luck and/or drives off trouble and protect you from it.
Now let’s find out what type of Japanese tea is suitable to have in the morning. Japanese tea has caffeine as well as nice aroma, and these elements will stimulate your brain to help you become awake and get you ready for the day. Especially, Sencha (a high grade Japanese tea) is suitable for morning as it has a relatively high content of caffeine. However, because of the caffeine content, if you have the Sencha drink straight away after getting up, it may be too strong for your stomach. Therefore, it is recommended to have the Sencha drink after having some food. When making tea with Sencha in the morning, please throw away the tea leaves used on the previous night, since the tea leaves left in the tea pot overnight are oxidized and this is not good for your body.