A Fukuokan's Notes from Sapporo

528 JPY/ 12 tea bags (loose leaf and flavoured teas are also available)

Today I found black tea produced in Yame, about 50km away from where I live, at a local Daiei,

and suddenly my 40-and- extra-year memories of tea suddenly came up to my mind. In term of black tea, I have come a long way from the 1960s…

1.    Lipton Period  (when I was at the grade of elementary school)

2.    Twining Period (after my mother found Prince of Wales blend sounded prestigious)

3.    HEDIARD and Fauchon period (aka. Japanese Bubble Age)

4.    Nittoh Period (after I got married and realised tea leaves were quite expensive)

5.    Health-tea Period (rooibos, oolong, dokudami, and ma-yuen….I am having none of them now)

6.    No-tea Period (when I was addicted to coffee, Hills Bros and MJB 1kg cans occupied my kitchen )

7.    Whittard Period (after you started sending tea from the UK…)

And now we are here, starting having domestically grown and processed black teas, which cost much more than most of imported teas (within my reach). I have never imagined Daiei, a nation-wide giant supermarket chain, would set up “Eat Kyushu, Eat Fukuoka” section in their branches, and the yen would become irrationally strong against foreign currencies (I know  the days when 1 dollar was about 300 yen),  and “made in Japan” food would sound so luxurious in the very same country where I was born.