Thanks for the museum link, might check it out next week.

I'm an avid drinker of at least one cup a day, I'm sure it's doing some good inside in the long term! If anyone is in Japan/Asia I would say stock up with as much as you can carry because it's so expensive everywhere else.

I tend to make it reasonably weak though and not in the traditional way as it takes a bit to long.

I went to a traditional tea ceremony whilst in Kyoto with a woman that converted her house and devoted her life to it, when she made it it was so thick and bitter but of course finished it to be polite

Few pics and details of the process on my partners blog if anyone's interested:

http://www.thecutlerychronicles.com/...ony-kyoto.html