Japanese tea specialist works with designer to embed safe cultural experience for children

Senchado Tokyo, a specialist tea store in Japan, has worked with Lucy Alter Design to create an unbreakable transparent teapot for bilingual early learning service Kinder Kids, combining the offering with a workshop from Sekisen Pty Ltd, designed to teach the children more about the importance of tea in Japanese culture.

Kinder Kids International is a kindergarten-integrated bilingual nursery school that offers an integrated English education program from the age of 6 months. In addition to 23 schools in Japan, the brand is due to expand overseas to Canada and Hawaii. 

Innovative on a number of levels, one of the core drivers of the program, creators said, was the opportunity for children to engage with the sensory experience which is brewing tea, and to change the perception of many Japanese children that tea comes pre-made in PET plastic bottles. 

“Now that the opportunities to come into contact with Japanese culture are gradually decreasing, it is important to stimulate curiosity by having them come into contact with “tea” in early childhood education, and to sow their interest in culture and seeds of learning for the future,” a Senchado Tokyo spokesperson said.

The “safe for children” teapots are molded with extra-thick resin that does not crack, is not hot to the touch, and which allows children to observe the changes as the tea brews. 

For Japanese people, the process of brewing tea is important and significant in engaging all five senses: 

“Taste”: The umami of tea, which is one of the five flavors.

” Smell “: A delicate scent that differs from tea to tea.

“Tactile”: Touching the tea leaves. The act of brewing using tea utensils.

“Hearing”: The sound of hot water and the crackling sound of the tea leaves left in the Kyusu, as it is said that the sound is also a feast in the tea ceremony.

“Vision”: The opening of tea leaves and the color of tea.

A video of the children enjoying the tea workshop may be found here.