For latecomers just discovering the trendiest beverage in town—buh-bye boba!—Forest Tea Bar proprietor Eunice Lam introduces the idea of matcha tea by comparing it to chocolate.
“Each chocolate has a different origin and taste profile,” she said during our phone interview. Varieties of matcha can land on the “grassier, fresh spring” side of the palate, or they can be umami and bold. “To understand the taste profiles of matcha, because matcha is also like wine, different cultivars have different characteristics,” Lam said. When drinking it, matcha should be savored and allowed to slowly melt in the mouth the way chocolate does.
Lam runs Forest Tea Bar with her sisters, Elaine and Gigi. Matcha lovers in Berkeley might recall Three Tea Bowls, the name of their initial foray into matcha tea-making. The Lams made the transition from that pop-up to a brick-and-mortar after two years of planning and building out the current space on Shattuck. It’s a small unit on the ground floor of a new multiuse building not far from Berkeley Bowl. While their roles in the business overlap, Eunice is the operations manager. Elaine works on developing recipes and taking photographs. And Gigi is responsible for branding. Her logo design incorporates the sisters’ last name, which means “forest.”
Eunice Lam said the logo represents the family’s connection to nature. “We want to be carrying the ancient wisdom of tea rituals within each bowl that we serve,” she said. Part of the ritual includes whisking the matcha powder, which is imported from a family tea farm in Uji, Kyoto.
The process of making each cup of tea at the cafe takes a certain amount of time and effort. Yet the persistent lines at Forest are mostly populated by a younger generation of consumers who are stereotyped as darting social-media swipers. In this case they bring their curiosity and patience to the cafe in order to share an IRL experience.
By using the authentic tools of the trade publicly, customers have been inspired to ask questions about the tea ceremony. “Just by placing the chagama [cast iron tea pot] in the space, without doing more beyond that, it sparks conversation and encourages some to read more about it on their own or ask us when they see we have a moment,” Lam said. She admits that the chasen (whisk) and chashaku (bamboo ladle) may slow the process down, but she and her sisters don’t have any plans to take shortcuts.
In addition to the tea itself, Lam hopes people will learn about the tools, which are all handmade in Japan. “If they travel to Japan they can think, ‘I’ve seen this,’ then maybe they will have more interest in supporting the craftsmanship as well,” she said. “We’re playing our little role in preserving these traditions to support those artists handcrafting them one by one.”
The Forest tea-makers are set up at an open counter in the middle of the cafe. After an order is placed on a digital screen, customers can move to their right to watch the chasen getting busy inside the next cup or bowl of tea. Koicha is the name of the thicker variety of matcha. Lam described the consistency of it as “very intense.” A bowl of it is meant to be shared. “We serve it with a sweet called wagashi, a bean paste that’s very soft and melts in your mouth,” she said.
Forest Tea started with Lam simply looking for a good cup of tea. For her, that meant natural ingredients combined with the beauty and nuance of a tea ceremony. Even at the pop-up, the Lam sisters used the chasen and chashaku. “If we’re serving tea, why not share those tools in the way we serve each cup, even if it’s in a grab-and-go setting,” she said.
“I’m not sure what the syrups and ingredients are in the boba scene right now,” Lam said. “I want to make something that’s focused on real food ingredients, where there’s no preservatives, no food coloring.” Forest Tea makes syrups in small batches with organic ingredients whenever possible, including rose buds, black sesame seeds, ginger and turmeric. “I want to have a healthy, delicious drink to share with the community,” Lam added.
Forest Tea Bar, 2628 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. Open Fri-Sun, 11am to 6pm. IG: @foresteabar. forestea.life
Is that gum on a napkin in the photo? Well done! Delicious