Until April of 2010, when it closed, Ito En on Madison Avenue in New York was said to be the only place in the USA that kept its green tea inventory under refrigeration. I was fortunate to be able to buy two Japanese chawan there for $60 each right before the potter bacame famous and started exhibiting in galleries.
Ito En still has a Website:
www.itoen.comThe company is famous for having solved the problem of bottling brewed green tea without having it oxidize.
As always, a retail store has
its fans and its detractors.There was a restaurant above Ito En named Kai that served three teas with dinner:
Jasmine Green Superior #262 as “welcome tea.†(Ito En carries three jasmine teas.)
Next, Kaiseki Hojicha tea #142 (“roasted twig tea, toasty and warmâ€)
Finally, a Honyama Sencha (“‘bright’ green tea, generous and softâ€).
I had dinner at Kai with some friends once. A woman at a nearby table objected to every dish on the menu. I watched with satisfaction as the waiter finally asked, very politely, why the woman had come to a Japanese restaurant if she did not like Japanese food. It appeared that the only thing to which she did not object was the Kirin beer, which was served in distinctive asymmetric glasses from Japan that I believe are in the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
