Wow. I can’t believe I haven’t posted since July. The problem with going away for an extended period of time is that you have to do a lot of catching up afterwards, and I think I never caught up from the July trip before I went away again at the end of August! But it was amazing and I’ll try to write it up soon.
In brief:
- UK Tea Academy Tea Champion course! I am now a Tea Champion. ^___^
- London School of Coffee Introduction to Cupping/Sensory course with the lovely Daisy Rollo of Coffea Arabica!
- International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (bit of a mouthful…) Level 1 and Level 2 Certificate in Chocolate Tasting courses, back to back! (It was a bit mad.)
- Kanpai London Craft Sake “Meet the Brewers” at Benihana, hosted by Enshu.
- Union Coffee SCAE Introduction to Coffee course
- Mashiko ceramics exhibition at the Japanese Embassy in London. Small but lovely and showing the BBC documentary on links between Mashiko and St Ives in Cornwall, and the influence of English potter Bernard Leach on the Japanese mingei (folk arts) movement.
Plus hanging around Prufrock talking coffee and chocolate with the baristas and blowing my birthday present of a gift card – er I mean putting it to good use – on Coffee Life in Japan, Water for Coffee and some lovely chocolate from the Cocoa Runners stand, hitting Sourced Market for more craft chocolate (where I ran into Martin Christy of Seventy% who runs the chocolate tasting courses with Terese Weiss), and watching Japan Centre being dismantled as they prepared to move to their new location.
After that, a brief hop to Italy to spend some time with my other half’s family in Lake Como, the weather wasn’t great but it meant we saw the wonderful Educational Silk Museum and Tempio Voltiano, the neoclassical temple to Alessandro Volta, early investigator of electricity and inventor of the battery – both great places for steampunk-eque design ideas. Then it was back to London for two more days before I went home (glossing over the cancelled flight and general mayhem) and, um, immediately came down with a cold. Then lots of translation work (including sake!) and finally got my flight to Japan rebooked and started organising the trip. More work. Getting travel plans in place for Xmas. Work. Still the cold. Contact breweries I met at the Japanese Embassy IWC event and WABI in July to see if I can take them up on their invitations to visit. And so on.
So, lots to write up, including more chocolate tasting notes! Not much on from now until I go to Japan (3 Nov – 3 Dec) so hopefully will be caught up soon.