Tea Time
Back at the manor, we moved to the salon for tea. Grandfather and the others were planning to join as well.
Once everyone was gathered, Georges came pushing a cart. Since morning, I’d asked him to spend the short time we had testing different amounts of tea leaves and steeping temperatures to find the tastiest balance.
If it’s Georges, a tea expert, I knew he’d manage. And since we’d be serving dorayaki alongside the tea, I had him test everything while eating them, too.
I know it was a bit of an unreasonable request… so I sweetened the deal with a little perk—or maybe a bribe.
The green tea was a beautiful light yellow-green. As expected of Georges—perfect!
The dorayaki came in bite-sized—well, two-bite—mini versions, in three types: white bean paste, red bean paste, and matcha bean paste.
“This tea is made from the same leaves as black tea. Since it’s your first time, you may find it a little bitter. If you don’t like it, try eating a dorayaki first and then drinking the tea,” I explained to Grandfather and the others.
“Hart, since there are three kinds of dorayaki, does that mean there’s a new flavor?”
“Yes, Grandmother. I haven’t tried the finished version yet myself. The head chef prepared them, so I’m looking forward to it.”
I wanted to try the matcha one first—manners be damned—so I split each dorayaki open to check. The matcha filling turned out to be in the third one… meaning I ended up cutting them all open.
I bit into the matcha dorayaki.
The flavor of powdered green tea spread through my mouth—delicious.
After finishing it, I sipped the green tea.
Ahhh… now that’s green tea. There’s nothing like pairing tea with wagashi—it was comforting.
“The red bean and white bean are both good, but this tea? The flavor carries into the bean paste, and I like that even better,” Grandfather said.
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“This green tea, was it? It pairs wonderfully with dorayaki. Much better than black tea,” Grandmother agreed.
After the dorayaki, they brought out matcha cookies, regular cookies, and matcha milk.
“Please add sugar to the matcha milk if you like,” Georges advised.
“What is matcha?” someone asked.
“It’s green tea ground into powder. We used the powder in the dorayaki filling, cookies, and milk,” I explained.
The cookies were probably a comparison—matcha versus regular—otherwise it would’ve been too much matcha all at once.
The four of them ate silently, no comments, until every last crumb was gone. Then—
“Sell us the recipe.”
“Let us buy the recipe.”
All at once.
Dorayaki is off-limits, but everything else was just a matter of mixing in matcha—there’s no real “recipe.”
“Why not the dorayaki?” Raphael pressed.
“I want to avoid the ingredients being driven up in price. Dorayaki uses commoners’ preserved winter foods, and I developed it as a specialty you can only get in the new district. Matcha, however, should be sold by House Garuda. If possible, keep the price around that of black tea. And please secure enough supply for our household.”
“Reinhardt, you mean we may sell it under our name?”
“Of course. After all, it was Brother Hubert and the Garuda craftsmen who produced it. Well, the grinding machine was built overnight by our family’s magi-tool craftsmen, so you’ll either need to purchase machines or pay a design fee.”
“Thank you. I’ll do my best to keep the price low so everyone can enjoy it. Hubert, is that all right?”
“Of course. But I’d like the artisans and chefs back in Garuda to taste these matcha sweets as well. Hart, could you ask the head chef to prepare plenty before we return? I’ll pay the cooks, of course. And if possible, please include dorayaki. I want our people to develop new sweets to pair with green tea.”
“Reinhardt, my family would like some too,” Raphael added.
“And me as well,” Brigitte said. “I’ll take them as souvenirs for Northtrad. Since it was Young Master Hubert who developed this, Father-in-law will be delighted.”
Wait… Brigitte already calls Uncle “Father-in-law”?
“Yes, Brigitte, you’re right. Please make it a joint souvenir with me,” Diane added. “After all, this is the result of Young Master Hubert’s work with Garuda’s soil improvement. We must share it with Father-in-law and the Northtrad staff.”
… Diane too? Did Uncle force this on them?
“Diane, Brigitte, you don’t have to exaggerate so much—” Hubert began.
““No!”” both snapped in unison.
Overwhelmed by their fierce determination, Brother Hubert gave in.
Well… it looks like he’s already set to be henpecked in the future.
What do you think about this chapter?
