Tea game

A Japanese friend told me that she had done one, but not sure if it’s the same as it was on olden times. Basically it’s about finding which teas belong to which regions.

Although I did not recognize the name I heard of it before. But in a historical sense. It was played a lot before Rikyu and others developed the well known ceremony. This development was actually (among on other things) a reaction on this kind of games where very valuable prices could be won.

I also encountered it on a few other places in Japanese tea history, but I did not realize it was still being played.

It has been a while, but I think I encountered the most extensive story in:
The Japanese way of tea by Sen XV Soshitsu

Which I found a found a very worthwhile read.

The tocha of Japan was likely directly inspired by the doucha 斗茶 custom of Song China — except the rules and game were completely different in Japan. In Song China, the aim was to produce the whitest froth, the longest lasting froth, and finally and most skillfully, conjure pictures in froth (much similar to latte art). Unfortunately, the latter skill died out and has been difficult to reproduce.

In today’s China, doucha now means to compare and rank various samples of a specific tea either professionally between tea producers or tea companies, or informally between tea friends.