Japanese Green Tea - Matcha & Sencha

Matcha and Sencha are both made from green tea however Matcha is grown in the shade and uses the whole leaves made into powder so it is stronger then Sencha, which is grown in full sun. 

Matcha powdered tea is stronger and is usually better in the morning as it has more caffeine than coffee, yet many people comment that it is much more calming and you don’t get the jittery feeling that some people feel from coffee. Put a small amount around 1 tsp or more to your liking, into a cup. Add hot water (just under a boil). Then use a chasen bamboo tea tool and whisk vigorously in a zig zag motion until the tea is frothy and enjoy. This Macha powder is also used to make sweets, cookies, ice-cream, as well as beauty products. Masha tea is popular because it has more nutrition in it as the full leaf is dried and grated where as with Sencha or other teas, you lose some of the nutrition when you throw away the old leaves. Macha has more vitamin B6 and beta-carotene while Sencha has more vitamin C and vitamin E. 

Sencha has less caffeine so you can drink it later after dinner without worrying about not being able to sleep. This more commonly comes in Leaf form as opposed to powder form. Generally best to use a small amount in a Japanese tea pot. People often brew the tea for too long, for good tea you should brew the first batch for about one minute. Keep the tea in the pot and you can usually get at least 3 brews. The longer you keep it, the longer you brew the tea, about 2 minutes. 

Green tea is full of antioxidants, lowers cholesterol, is known to fight cancer, does not raise insulin. It is also known to calm and relax you and is used during meditation. 

Having a cup of green tea is proven to keep you healthy. Green tea skin products are also known to be effective. Enjoy your tea in whatever way you like it! 

Wine Cooler

Our Japanese wine cooler by Azmaya. Made from Hinoki Cedar wood from the north of Japan, which has anti-bacterial and anti insect and mold qualities. Hinoki wood is used for baths, hot springs, kitchen ware and anything involving water. The density of the wood is strong so it doesn't expand or shrink as other wood. The copper surrounding the wood additionally keeps everything in place as well as giving a beautiful accent to the object. 

To use: First rinse this in cold water and then dry and store in a cool dry place, out of direct sunlight. Occasionally the copper might loosen but this can be easily fixed. Please do not wash this in a dishwasher, with continue care and maintenance this product will last you for many years. Fill with water and ice and use as a wine cooler. 

We hope you enjoy your summer with this product to keep your wine or rose chilled!

Kinto Coffee Accessories

Time slowly goes by with each drip of coffee.
The series 'Slow Coffee Style' was born to bring you the taste of coffee brewed by the pour-over method with the relaxed passage of time.

The stainless steel filter is durable and can be used repeatedly. As this filter leaves more coffee oil in the dripped cof-fee, you can enjoy rich aromatic coffee. It can be used with the heat-resistant glass carafe, porcelain brewer, or the plastic brewer.

The Filter:

Place the stainless steel filter on the carafe and put medium ground coffee into the filter. Then drip the coffee by pouring hot water slowly. Coffee dripped through a stainless steel filter retains more coffee oil, which brings you the rich aroma of coffee. The stainless steel filter is durable, and so can be used repeatedly. You can see the dripping process in the glass carafe and know the amount of dripped coffee when it reaches the dot on the server. After dripping, you can place the used stainless filter on the holder, which comes as a set. The holder can also be used as a measuring cup for coffee beans. All parts are stackable to save space.

The Kettle:

The gently curved narrow spout lets you adjust the pouring speed and volume of hot water. The lid won’t fall off when you tip the kettle as it is connected to the body. The kettle can be heated on the direct fire as it is made of stainless steel.

The Tray:

A pressed plywood tray with a non-slip coating on the surface. The wide lips on the ends of the tray provide an easy stable grip, while the narrow width lets you use it as a placemat.

Arabic Yamato

"Arabic Yamato" is the most widely used liquid glue for office and home purposes in Japan. Decades ago, there was a product called "Arabic glue" or mucilage. Its main ingredient was Arabic liquid gum harvested in North and West Africa and shipped via the Middle East - Arabia to be precise. It was sold in bottles and applied by turning the bottle upside down and having the liquid seep through a sponge applicator. The "Arabic Yamato" is an advanced and improved version, referred to this handy product. Its distinguishing characteristic is the round sponge head. The creators realized that by making the head round, they would enable even glue application regardless of how teh container is held. Still, because of the pressure applied during use, it was necessary to make the head restorable. This development took about three years, but it was from a household plastic strainer that the idea to combine a sponge with a strainer came about, resulting in the perfect level of elasticity we are so accustomed to now. 

Binchōtan - Japanese Charcoal

Activated charcoal is a potent natural treatment used to trap toxins and chemicals in the body, allowing them to be flushed out so the body doesn’t reabsorb them. 

Water Filtration

It traps impurities in water such as solvents, pesticides, industrial waste and other chemicals. This is why it’s used in water filtration systems throughout the world. However, it doesn’t trap viruses, bacteria and hard-water minerals.

According to a study published in the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association, activated carbon filters (activated charcoal), removes some fluoride. Avoiding fluoride and detoxing from it is important for oral health, proper immune system functioning, and healthy kidneys and liver.

Drinking water is essential to good health; however, typical tap water is toxic and laden with chemicals, toxins and fluoride. Ingestion should be limited whenever possible. Activated charcoal water filters are available for whole-home systems, as well as countertop models. Drink eight-10 glasses of pure water per day to help soothe the digestive tract, fight fatigue, keep organs operating, and provide lubrication for joints and tissues.

Makanai - a century's worth of Japanese Beauty Secrets

Makanai’s products are a collection of more than a hundred years’ worth of Japanese beauty secrets unlocked from the best harvests of Japan’s nature. 

In Japanese, makanai refers to  'knowledge and supplies from the workplace or kitchen'. Women of the past who worked at Yoshitaka Gold Leaf Foundry used makanai such as rice bran and green tea, and Japanese washi paper used for pounding gold leaf to formulate skin-care products by hand. Makanai's products are a tribute to the women who worked in harsh conditions of a gold leaf foundry. Over a century's worth of hand-made, natural beauty "recipes" created by the wisdom of these women to keep themselves beautiful have been further researched, developed and evolved into a century's worth of Japanese beauty secrets found in Makanai products.
 

Golden Beginnings
Makanai was born in 1999 as a tribute to the century-old tradition of goldbeaters manually making gold leaves at its predecessor company, Yoshitaka Gold-Leaf Foundry. The gold foundry was established in 1899 in Kanazawa, the central part of the mainland of Japan. Women who worked in Yoshitaka were exposed to harsh working conditions such as intense heat, extreme dryness and minimal ventilation while making gold leaves by labouriously pounding solid gold that are interleaved between layers of paper into microscopically-thin 1/10,000 millimeter sheets.

Natural Beauty Secrets
Like the dazzling gold leaves that the women at the foundry had spent much effort making, they wanted their skin to dazzle as well. They started thinking of ways to beautify themselves amidst the harsh environment they worked in by using their makanai (which refers to 'knowledge and supplies from the workplace or kitchen' in Japanese), such as rice bran and green tea, and Japanese washi paper used for pounding gold leaf, to formulate skin-care products by hand.
Their skin gradually became brighter and more beautiful. With more confidence to head out to the streets on their days off, these women enjoyed better times than before.

Keeping the Tradition Alive
For over a century, the women from Yoshitaka Gold-Leaf Foundry continued to try out different ways to beautify themselves and have been putting together many natural beauty concoctions. These "Makanai beauty recipes" were collected, further researched and developed, and has since evolved into a collection of products for women to maintain their beautiful skins. This collection led to the founding of Makanai Cosme -- a brand that conveys a century's worth of Japanese beauty secrets.  
 
In 2005, the Yoshitaka Gold-Leaf Foundry lowered its curtain on its history in the business of producing gold leaf, and moved to Kagurazaka in Tokyo, a district that retains some of the ambience of the Geisha world it once was. The ongoing process of making even more reliable and effective products continues there today.

At Makanai, specially selected premium ingredients are combined together using tried-and-true treatments passed on for the past century by women who worked in harsh conditions at a gold leaf foundry. These beauty secrets are now perfected and made relevant in our modern world to provide skin with the ultimate, natural pampering.

Makanai’s logo was inspired by the moon rabbit. In Japanese and East Asian folklore, the moon rabbit lives on the Moon and is seen pounding rice cake in a mortar and pestle. 

With Makanai's historical origins in goldpounding at a Gold Leaf Foundry in Kanazawa, their logo shows a moon rabbit pounding gold and representing abundance of harvest, beauty and longevity. 

Makanai is committed to providing women with the best natural, reasonably-priced products that are cruelty-free and safe. They test them on themselves, just like how the women in Yoshitaka Gold-Leaf Foundry had used beauty secrets on their own skin. The formulas provide skin with the most essential and holistic skin nutrition.

SIWA - Taking Japanese Washi to the next level

SIWA is a brand of Japanese paper products that can be used in daily life. It was developed jointly by Onao, a Japanese paper manufacturer located in Ichikawadaimon, Yamanashi Prefecture, and industsrial designer Naoto Fukasawa. The brand capitalizes on the benefits of Naoron, a type of paper for sliding doors developed by Onao: resilience, lightness, and high water resistance. Although the products in the Siwa brand are made of washi, they can be used in daily life just like leather or denim items.

The name Siwa is both a reversal of the characters in the word washi (Japanese paper), and a word meaning „crinkle“ in Japanese. As the name suggests, all products in the SIWA series are made of washi. Ichikawadaimon, a town located in Yamanashi Prefecture and home to Japanese paper maker Onao, the company behind SIWA, boasts a washi-making history spanning 1000 years. Today, it is famous as a production center for shojigami (paper for sliding doors). Not only does Onao manufacture such paper, but it also develops and produces washi accessories.

Ai Ichinose, brand producer at SIWA, was originally involved in manufacturing washi accessories. After realizing the limited sales potential of such products, however, she felt a growing aspiration to create washi products geared toward the modern lifestyle that both men and women, and she personally, would like to use. That led to her encounter with industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa, another native of Yamanashi Prefecture.

Their research led them to shojigami that is commonly used in homes as well as commercial settings. Shojigami is extremely resilient, but the drawback ist hat once it crinkles, the paper cannot be smoothed out – even with an iron.

Designer Fukasawa, however, felt the texture created by such crinkles had appeal and pushed forward with product creation. The first items to be developed was a simple bag and book cover. Today, they have become representative products of the line, but the creation team had to initially overcome a series of difficulties, including developing techniques to dye the originally white shojigami and to sew paper.

As for the most important element, the crinkles, Ichinose explains that there are good crinkles and bad crinkles. Just because something is crinkled does not mean that it is aesthetically appealing. According to her, while there is a baseline, as feelings and intuition also play a significant role it was difficult to standardize the product. Furthermore, since Fukasawa is an industrial designer, his specifications and size designations are precise to the last millimeter. That is why the finished products are so crisp and sharp, despite being handmade from paper. Some of the crinkles appear during the creation process, others in the process of using the product. Making a modern product appear vintage is what Ichinose refers to as a subtle balance.