Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:00]

This is Keegan Michael Key. Welcome to Drafted. This podcast series follows eight players as they enter the 2020 NFL draft.

[00:00:08]

We go behind the scenes before, during and after one of the biggest days of their lives. And we relive every detail from the players perspective. Please join me on the first step in their journey to greatness. Welcome to Drafted. Listen to Drafted on the I Heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:00:30]

Are you ready to vote? Well, stuff you should know is partnering with Head Count Dog to get you all the non-partisan election information you need, whether you're voting by mail, voting early or on Election Day. Visit head count, dawg. Today, everybody, it's Josh and Chuck, your friends.

[00:00:46]

And we are here to tell you about our upcoming book that's coming out this fall, the first ever step you should know book, Chuck. That's right. What's the cool, super cool title we came up with? It's stuff you should know is an incomplete compendium of mostly interesting things.

[00:01:03]

That's right. And it's coming along so great. We're super excited, you guys. The illustrations are amazing. And there's the look at the book. It's all just it's exactly what we hoped it would be. And we cannot wait for you to get your hands on it. Yes, we can't. And you don't have to wait, actually. Well, you do have to wait, but you don't have to wait to order. You can go preorder the book right now, everywhere you get books and you will eventually get a special gift for preordering, which we're working on right now.

[00:01:32]

That's right. So check it out soon. Coming this fall. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know. A production of radios HowStuffWorks. Hey, and welcome to the podcast, I'm Josh and there's Chuck, and we are much, much more than we are so much the jury's out there, too. This is stuff that's very cute.

[00:02:02]

You miss, uh, iTunes, I guess, on our phone is stuck on Macho Man. Like, any time she plugs it in in the car, that's what comes up.

[00:02:10]

I guess the deal with that, what, like the same first song starts off? Yeah. And it varies. It's annoying.

[00:02:17]

I don't know what it is, but that's the way it is because Tim Cook said so by the way, if I may here at the beginning I joined Instagram finally because of that Gwyneth Paltrow thing. What or is this totally unrelated to Moccia. Just totally unrelated. OK, well welcome. Do you thought I joined Instagram because of Gwyneth Paltrow?

[00:02:41]

I thought this was the Segway into the March episode.

[00:02:44]

No, I just finally got on Instagram because I loathe Facebook and yeah, the only thing I will do on Facebook now is I do not pass go I go straight to Movie Crush and Movie Crushers, which is a great community of really awesome people. It's a little wonderful corner of Facebook that's not snarky and fun and supportive and movie talk mostly. But I finally got on Instagram because everyone was like, did you just get on Instagram? Because it's not like that, even though Facebook and Instagram.

[00:03:16]

Um, and so I did. So if you want to follow me, you can find me at Chuck the podcast or. That's OK. Full stop, there was there was a pregnant pause, no check, I'm going to say mine, too. I'm at Josh Clark.

[00:03:33]

Yeah, it's you know, I'm I'm. Posted a few personal pictures and posted some movie stuff, and he's shirtless once, not yet. I'm posting some. You know, I've always kind of consider myself an amateur photographer. So with just things I find beautiful or funny or fun or interesting, huh? Not a ton of stuff, but, you know, I'm there now.

[00:03:57]

Sounds like you've got it all figured out, Chuck. How many followers you have? How many do I need to beat?

[00:04:03]

I think I'm right about, I think 20000 matches. You'll make it to that. I'll never make it there. You will. You know, I think I'm mad about that. And that's a good little crew going.

[00:04:15]

What kind of stuff I need to follow.

[00:04:17]

Anyway, better post some Momoh pictures. OK, um, what else do I post?

[00:04:23]

Just my my picture. Oh, pictures. Pictures of me with food, pictures, that kind of stuff. You know, the usual Instagram stuff.

[00:04:33]

I don't know how personal to get as much as you want to be. I guess it's all I mean if you do like confessional videos where you're crying, it might freak people out a little bit. Oh, can you do video? Oh yeah.

[00:04:46]

OK, well, you are new aren't you? I think I might just keep it very basic and just do the old. Here's a picture. OK, ok. I predict that that will change eventually you think.

[00:04:56]

Oh sure. Cut to me. Crying I'm going to go follow you right now. I'm at twenty seven point nine, by the way. Oh, wow. Check the podcast. Go ahead.

[00:05:08]

I haven't announced it yet, so don't make fun of my numbers I'm following you probably got no more than a couple of hundred.

[00:05:15]

You got 945. All right. That's pretty good. Not bad preannouncement. Well, yes, that is not bad at all. Wow. So the reason I thought let me do this, OK, because I have some explaining to do. The reason I thought you were talking about Gwyneth Paltrow is because Gwyneth Paltrow is the person that the current deep and abiding love for all things Marcha that America has. Gwyneth Paltrow is the person that is chalked up as kicking that off back in twenty fifteen.

[00:05:49]

Did you know that? Yeah.

[00:05:50]

They laid at her feet. Is that fair? Because I feel it's not at all fair. Yeah.

[00:05:54]

I feel like the much a sort of hipster macho boom happened before that.

[00:05:59]

But I think what they're saying is like she popularized it and it was no longer just relegated to hipsters because, you know, hipsters are so rare. They're rare creatures and they don't have much, much reach in the popular culture. It takes a Gwyneth Paltrow to really spread an idea these days.

[00:06:16]

I thank God for her. But there was a a post that she made back in twenty fifteen that says that.

[00:06:24]

Oh, a lot to late S.H. a latte. Yeah. Too late March. A latte was a dreamy new discovery on Instagram and that apparently made people go start drinking moccia because she discovered an 11th century tea powder.

[00:06:44]

That's right. Good for her. It's dreamy. I'm glad we're doing this because first of all, I love Moccia. Yeah, I do, too.

[00:06:52]

And I think I got into it. I've fallen out of it. But this made me buy some more that I bought online is being shipped now as we speak. Oh, yeah.

[00:07:02]

So I got out of a for a little while I guess maybe because I can't go to my little Japanese store and get it in person. But what kicked off my love of Moccia was my friend P.J. in Los Angeles. So it was a while ago.

[00:07:19]

And then I was reminded from the watching Top Chef the other night. They did they had a you know how much I love that show. They had a a challenge where it was they had to prepare a traditional Japanese kaiseki, which is a progressive taste, not not quite a tasting menu, but a progressive dinner, formal dinner, which is very much reminded me of the Moccia formal tea ceremony. Right.

[00:07:46]

Which we'll talk about. But I just want to say that I think it would be deliciously ironic if you learned about Moccia from PJ and PJ learned about it from Gwyneth Paltrow on Instagram.

[00:07:57]

But now this is way pre 2015.

[00:08:01]

So what about Moccia? Everything, Chuck, what about Montrachet cats? Are they your favorite Kit Kat flavor?

[00:08:08]

Did not care for those. I had them. Yeah, I did not like them at all.

[00:08:13]

Do you have have you had like a good match. A lot of tea from Starbucks have not had a match. A latte. It's pretty good. I think it just like Moccia tea.

[00:08:22]

So Yonit so you like the traditional moccia powder in hot water stirred together. There's your tea. Yeah. Great.

[00:08:30]

I mean that's the that's the purist approach there is. And that's like what you said. People have been drinking that since like the 11th century. Yeah, or add it to like just a regular steeped green tea might add a little dash of Marcha or to a smoothie, which I have a smoothie almost every morning.

[00:08:48]

Yes. OK, so there's a lot of different ways that you can enjoy Moccia. And I think what it is, you know, we're about to I think we should also say that we're not invested in any kind of Moccia outfit or anything like that because we're talking it up a bit like we are like we're in the midst of a pump and dump scheme or something like that. We're just fans, right? Manchester's great. So we should say, like you're saying, Marcha is tea, but it's tea in powdered form.

[00:09:17]

And it's specifically a very distinct type of tea grown in a very distinct way and processed in a distinct way, and that it's really unlike any other kind of tea, so much so that it's a really weird thing if you think about it. But then it's also a very delightful and calming, soothing thing to learn about. Two I found.

[00:09:39]

Yeah, and big thanks to HowStuffWorks Dotcom Maria Hunt, the American Specialty Alliance. And then this great article on Good and Proper from Emily Holmes helped me out for this one.

[00:09:52]

But yeah. So the Marcha is the these tea leaves that have been steamed, then dried, and then you get those stems out and see want. Yeah. The seeds and seeds. That's the rule. You don't need any Schlag tea, right. So you get that stuff out of there and then you grind that stuff into a fine powder and we'll talk about the different places where it's grown, but and then about the history. But what you end up with is this ideally very bright, bright chlorophyll.

[00:10:28]

Green powder, almost neon green.

[00:10:31]

Yeah. If it's, you know, the good stuff, right? Yeah. The greener, the the greener, the brighter, the almost dayglo it is usually the the better the actual matter is. And we'll see exactly why. But somewhere along the way, about the 11th century or the 12th century, I guess it would be I think back in 91, the Japanese imported this idea from the Chinese. And it's weird to think like there was a point in time where they're like, OK, we're going to start powdering tea from this process and then this will be go on to become Moccia.

[00:11:12]

We're up to that. Nobody made tea like that. They made tea like you would think they grew tea. They kind of packed it into cakes or bricks and they sold it like that. And you would stop it and you would drink the liquor is what they call it, and you would remove the tea leaves. That's not at all matches, matches, straight up ground, powdered tea leaves. And you're drinking the tea itself. Not steeped tea.

[00:11:36]

That's that's come out of the tea and you're throwing the tea leaves away. You're drinking the whole kit and caboodle, as they say.

[00:11:42]

Yeah, pan. Yeah. Which is why there are so many great health benefits which we'll get to. Yeah. Yeah. There was a well first of all it's in Japanese Maat means powdered and charmings tea so bada bing ba boom moccia powder tea. But there was a Zen monk name ISSI.

[00:12:03]

I believe so. OK, who brought these tea seeds after going on a trip to China?

[00:12:09]

And I think this is the person who in 1891 started cultivating what I say, eighteen ninety one sorry, seven hundred years, started cultivating this stuff and then had a pupil.

[00:12:23]

And this stuff was very popular with the monks because they could get caffeine loaded and stay up all night and pray. Right. But how do people name Moae who was a Buddhist monk there in the mountains northwest of Kyoto? And I think this is the person that really took this cultivation seriously and started to sort of make it a larger scale operation.

[00:12:46]

Yeah, the the Buddhist temple that moae lived there, I think was in charge of what's called Cosan Ji on the tongue. No mountain. I checked with Umea. I was like, do you say both those? And she said, Yeah. And I practiced. And it's not coming out right. But Taga no mountain OK, outside of Kyoto and moae just so happened where, where he lived, where he started planting this tree had these incredible like natural conditions that just so happened to come together that, that produced exactly the kind of tealeaf that you would want for Marcha.

[00:13:28]

But it was just a basically a freak of nature that it happened that way.

[00:13:33]

Yeah, it is like, you know, we got this great soil, super fertile. We have this morning dew that comes in because of the river nearby and that that really rests on those tea leaves and just makes it all pop with chlorophyll. And it became more popular.

[00:13:49]

And as it became more popular, it was the third shogan of the Chicago Shogunate and his name was Ashika. Yoshi Metsu. Beautiful. I love Japanese. Well, no, it's wonderful, isn't it?

[00:14:06]

Yeah, there's something about it. It just appeals to my eyeballs and it's appeals to my tongue when I can manage to get it out of my mouth correctly, there's just something about it. I really like it, but I know he's the one that said, all right, we got to get more of this stuff and fast because people love this Marcha.

[00:14:24]

So let's get it going here in the Eugowra era area right outside of Kyoto.

[00:14:30]

So it was originally just on Tokino Mountain and then it was expanded to a wider area and it was there when they expanded to Oggi in Yuji is now like the place where you get the world's greatest Marcha, they decided. But at first the tee that they were starting to produce in Uji when they first expanded it. Um, but they were like, this is this is not nearly as good as is the stuff that they're making over there. Untagged no mountain.

[00:14:57]

Right. And they could not figure out why. And then they went back and they looked and they realized that on the mountain there was a lot of forest that was naturally shading these tea bushes and that that was the big difference. Then they started to study it more and more and more, and they realized that they could kind of mimic this forest, shading it, and that if they did this at a certain amount or sitting at certain times during the growing season, they could actually force the tea to produce exactly the kind of leaves that they would want to to turn into Moccia, because it takes a very specific kind of growth pattern.

[00:15:38]

And it's just so beautiful and Zen, especially because these were Zen monks who were figuring this out.

[00:15:45]

But it's just like this, like delicately manipulating the plant to get it to do what you want so you can get the most remarkable leaves to use for Moccia. I just find it seriously, like when I was researching this and studying this, I was just so much just it was this calm and, like, really soothing, you know? Yeah.

[00:16:09]

I don't think we said what the name of it, but it's called Chincha. Before it becomes much, it matches that final ground up powder.

[00:16:16]

Yeah. Everything leading up to that is, like you said, Tanesha. So technically you don't grow Moccia. So we'll talk about exactly how it's cultivated later.

[00:16:24]

But the the upshot of it is that by noticing that the forest around these these plants shaded them, they figured out how to simulate it by building structures around them. And what they've come up with finally in Uji is what you would call ceremonial. Great moccia. Yeah. And you know what?

[00:16:45]

I look that up and saw a couple of things. I saw that ceremonial grade was used to be reserved for royalty and that it's the, you know, kind of the best stuff out there as opposed to culinary grade, which you cook with. But then I also saw other places that said. That's sort of a tag you can't even trust anymore that's sort of thrown on there for Americans, right? So I don't really know what to believe. I do know that like a high quality Japanese, moccia is not cheap.

[00:17:16]

Right. So that's that can always be a decent guide if you're online trying to buy some if you see something super cheap, it's probably not great. But there are four regions in Japan where it's produced.

[00:17:27]

Uji, Fukuoka, NATIO and Shizuoka in Uji is the most renowned.

[00:17:35]

Obviously the article from Etre that I saw said it's sort of like seeing Bordeaux on a wine label. I see the next best would be Fukuoka, which is on the island of Kyushu, and they're sort of newer in the last like 10 to 20 years, but apparently are putting out some really, really good stuff. Nescio is the largest by volume of Moccia. Right. And they're sort of the more mass market style. And if you get that in the US, it's not going to be very good, apparently.

[00:18:09]

And then the last one is the Shizuoka, and they're the largest producer of all green tea by volume.

[00:18:15]

And it's not very well regarded as like really good moccia.

[00:18:19]

I got to go for that Oogi or go for the Fukuoka if you want the good stuff.

[00:18:24]

So I say we take a break and then we'll come back and talk about maybe the tea ceremony. How about that? Yes.

[00:18:30]

Let's take a break, OK.

[00:18:41]

Hey, I'm Charlie Sanders, and I'm bald, and I am Brian Husky, I am also bald. We're the host of the new podcast Bald Talk from the Big Money Players Network and I Heart Radio. Before this, I was a writer and producer for Key and Peele and created the show Weird Settlin than I appear on Bob's Burgers and Veep.

[00:18:56]

But the show is not just about being bald. So for you Harrows out there, there's a lot to glean from our show. It's about insecurity, vanity.

[00:19:04]

That but you rub your eyes on every season. You knew that. Oh, you were the mean congressman dude, right? No, no, no. That's Dan back at all. He's actually a guest. Oh, OK. You were the press dude, Mike McClintock. No, no, no, no. That's Matt Walsh, who is also against. Oh, wait, wait, wait. I remember you you were a TV producer, the presenter that that's Paul Scheer.

[00:19:20]

He was on Veep, too. But we have him on the podcast as well. Yeah. The show is not about having people who are bald from Veep to hell of a coincidence. You got to say that, right? So we'd be very limiting.

[00:19:29]

What is Macaulay Culkin like? I don't know. I'm not on succession. That's the other one, I think.

[00:19:33]

But that's his brother, right. There are so talented, those to listen to ball talk on the radio, our Apple podcast or wherever you listen to a podcast, only ball talk.

[00:19:43]

It's no secret that in Washington, D.C., corruption is everywhere. You could say it's gone viral. And I should know my mom's the speaker of the House. My name is James Parker. My friends are all in the same boat. Daughters of the DC elite. When are this close to power? There's nowhere to hide. And when my friends and I got a little too visible, our parents broke us up.

[00:20:07]

But now I need them back because I'm in deep. You see, I'm a bit of a hacker in here.

[00:20:15]

No one knows me as James Parker. They only know me as Storm Alley and Storm Alley. Well, she went poking around somewhere she shouldn't have. I'm James. I'm Peyton. I'm Celia. I'm Natalie. And we're the daughters of DC. Join me and my friends, four daughters and DC and new twelve part scripted podcast, political thriller from the team that brought you Lethal It Einhorn's Epic Productions and I Heart Radio. Listen to Dogs for Free and I Heart Radio, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[00:20:47]

Nerdy stuff with Joshua Walsh of. OK, Chuck, so apparently ceremonial grade is totally made up, but if you were going to, I don't think it is necessarily true, but I could.

[00:21:10]

OK, I could see people abusing that. How about that? OK. I could not I could not. Non Japanese retailers abusing that.

[00:21:19]

Yeah. So but if you went to a tea ceremony, that would if there is such a thing as ceremonial grade, that probably would be the kind of tea that they would serve you in ceremonial grade tea or I should say the tea ceremony is called the Shadow, which means the way of tea because again, char means tea and domain's way. So this is like the way of tea and just the name of it, of the tea ceremony being called that kind of gives you this idea that there's like a Zen vibe to it.

[00:21:52]

And they're most decidedly is.

[00:21:54]

Oh, yeah. And like, if you just watch one of these, it's just super calming everything. It's sort of like that formal meal I was talking about everything which is very exact and purposeful.

[00:22:08]

Yeah. Those are the two words. Exact and purposeful is what it's all about.

[00:22:11]

You're not you're not just throwing tea around. I mean, everything from the folding of the napkin to how you sit, it's all just very much planned out and it's just super relaxing to be a part of. I think it really is.

[00:22:25]

I was talking to you about it because she she was trained in it and she said it's super stressful while you're learning because that every single step and every single hand movement, every sound that that you make, like the the wisk clinking up against the bowl, all those things are meant to to be a certain way. And so much of that there's like different schools that do the ceremony slightly differently. But the ultimate point of the whole thing is that it's meant to draw you into the moment.

[00:22:56]

It's meant to be a really meditative experience, not just for you, the person making tea, but the person who's being served tea. And it's it's it is like you were saying, when you watch one of these things, there's plenty of them on YouTube. It's real quiet, really silent, and it's really meditative even just to watch a video of. But it's cool the idea that there's this whole process planned out and that it's meant to to make you observe the moment and also really shows you how this whole thing has its roots in Zen Buddhism, green tea does or moccia.

[00:23:30]

You know, even the white lady in San Francisco. And that video you sent me was relaxing.

[00:23:35]

It was. But then did you see the. With the French one, too? Yeah. And that was just like I was like in my chair drooling while that was going on because it was just totally quiet. But when you watch the tea ceremony, you see that there's a specific way that you're supposed to to produce, to make green tea like the way that you drink it. Marcha, where it's just powder and hot water mixed together. And then there's your tea.

[00:24:02]

But then so you're supposed to use to Scoop's if you've ever seen, like, one of those little bamboo hooks skewer kind of things. It's called a shuka. Yeah. Shochiku, OK, those are equal to about a third of a teaspoon. And you want two of those. So roughly half a teaspoon if you don't have one of the bamboo scoops for green tea and then you put in a little bit of water and you stir it together with the bamboo whisk until a froth forms.

[00:24:33]

And then there you go. You've got your your moccia prepared the traditional way. And you're supposed to drink it in about three sips, from what I understand.

[00:24:40]

Yeah. And it's you know, you can get more detailed than that if you want to if you want to get out of strainer to keep it from jumping up, you can do that. The water should be warm. You don't want to just throw boiling water in there. Apparently anything over eighty degrees will scorch it and that will increase the bitterness. Unless, I don't know. You really like a bitter moccia. I guess that could be a call you could make, but there's a fine line.

[00:25:10]

I think bitterness is a part of Moccia to a certain degree. Right. But it's not it shouldn't be the overriding characteristic.

[00:25:18]

No, no. It's meant to be balanced out by a sweetness because I mean moccia. It's like if you've had tea, but you've never had much. You can't guess what Mozza tastes like just by having had any other kind of tea before. It's got its own flavor for sure.

[00:25:31]

Yeah. I mean, green tea will give give you a hint. Like if you really like green tea, you'll probably like Moccia, but it's still not quite the same thing.

[00:25:37]

No, because the other thing about Mozza too is it foam's when you weskit, which indicates that it's got a mouth feel to it that tea doesn't have a green tea is like tea. The consistency of tea matchers almost like creamy. Yeah, it has a creaminess to it, even though it's just powdered tea. There's no cream in it, but it has a creamy consists. And see to it, too, it's basically magic green potion from Japan land.

[00:26:05]

Yeah, and it's differentiates there's another type of tea called char, which is reddish brown, and they get that from smoking it.

[00:26:16]

Oh, yes. So, yeah, it has sort of a earthy, smoky aroma. They both have that umami, those umami undertones. But the Hoga is not going to be bitter because that roasting process, I think I said smoking. They actually roast it. Right. OK, makes a little different. And I think Houdyshell doesn't have nearly as much caffeine, as much as much as about three point two grams per 100 grams of caffeine. It's a lot of caffeine.

[00:26:45]

And you just point one three if that tells you anything.

[00:26:47]

Holy cow. And it's three point two. Yeah. Wow. And again, that's because you're drink you're drinking the tea leaf itself. Not just the liquor of the tea.

[00:26:57]

Yeah, but and I found this to be true. It's not a it's not a super jittery caffeine, you know, and we'll talk about exactly why.

[00:27:04]

But no, it's it's world renowned because it's not a jittery caffeine feeling, even though there's so much caffeine. It has what's called like an alert. Calmness. Yeah. Or a calm wakefulness. Something like that, where it's like you're not jittery, but you're kind of in the zone is how a lot of Westerners describe it.

[00:27:23]

Yeah, like the same. Or I drank it for a reason because they could they could meditate, but also knowing someone was 50 feet behind him with a sword. Right. You know. Right. Yeah, exactly. Because they they would sprout eyes in the back of their heads. Right. The other thing, too, is I don't want us to make this sound exotic or unattainable. Like people have been drinking Marcha for a thousand years, more than a thousand years now, or about a thousand years.

[00:27:53]

And it's it's like it's powdered tea mixed with hot water. And then you drink it. It's wonderful. That's it. Like, you don't have to have the ceremony. No, you don't have to. There's a purpose to the ceremonies to take time out from your busy life. But if you just want some good magic by some good moccia, get a half of a tablespoon or half of a teaspoon, some warm water, stir together and enjoy your meal, it doesn't have to be some.

[00:28:18]

You don't have to be pretentious about it. No one does. And that's not to say the Japanese are pretentious about it, but just talking about it like this can come off as pretentious, even though it's not meant to be that way at all. And I don't want to scare anybody off or make it sound like it's unattainable. It's super attainable. Yeah, it's really beneficial too, which is why I'm saying go try it if you haven't. Sure.

[00:28:40]

I think it's the same sort of inaccessibility that some people might feel about wine and a wine tasting can be intimidating for people. Or, you know, if you go to a place that has the power over coffee and there are lots of different ways to skin the cat. And you can you can certainly I mean, I think Gwyneth Paltrow showed us that it was accessible. Right.

[00:29:01]

A dreamy new discovery. She grouped it up for everyone. Yeah. Uh, and by the way, you said that to drink it in the three slurps, apparently that last one is when you turn that bowl fully up in sort of the point of that is your you're sort of in that bowl with the tea. Everything else is blocked out around you because it's completely held up to your face. Just savor that last that gulp in that last bit of serene ness before, you know, get on Facebook and talk.

[00:29:31]

Yeah, that's the that's the we didn't say you're supposed to traditionally drink it out of tea bowl called the chow on. And that's another thing to like. It's nothing to go to your local Japanese store and say, do you have stuff I need for Moccia? And they'll say, here's the bamboo whisk. They'd love it. Here's the bamboo scoop. Yeah.

[00:29:49]

Here's your tea bowl. Give us twelve dollars, please. Totally. It's not hard to get into it all, even in the traditional ceremonial way. But it's like you said, drinking it out of that tea bowl is is it's a different experience than just drinking out of a mug, you know, and it's meant to be that way.

[00:30:05]

Yeah. And there's you know, you don't have to be pretentious about it, but there's also something to be said for honoring their tradition in whatever way you feel comfortable doing.

[00:30:14]

Yeah, because, I mean, I was reading about this this morning, drinking coffee and I'm like Marcha. An experience of mine is basically the opposite of coffee. Yeah. There's not it's not meant to be like go, go, go, let's go. Let's get the day started. It's like drip, drip, drip brew brew. Right, exactly. It's meant to be like let's take some time out of that day and just reflect and chill out for a minute but get a little buzz going.

[00:30:39]

Yeah exactly. You can have it all.

[00:30:41]

So when we kind of like just glanced over the fact that, like, moccia is grown in a really unusual way, I feel like we should talk about that a little bit. You want to? Yes. Okay. So when they figured out that there was a way that the. Forest shading, the tea bushes were doing something special to it when they started growing in the moccia they produced or the Tenshi, I should say, wasn't nearly as good.

[00:31:10]

They started really studying what was going on and they figured out that if you deprive the tea of the tea bush of light at certain times and in certain amounts, the tea bush will respond by producing exactly the kind of leaves that you want to turn into Moccia eventually.

[00:31:30]

That's right. You're affecting the light cycle and you start this in about mid-April and they figured out what you do as you just build a little covering a little hut over these bushes and you can apply straw, more or less straw to allow more or less light in to the bushes. And around mid-April, you cut that light down by about 60 to 70 percent. And then I think 10 or 12 days after that, you cut it down almost to darkness to 90 percent.

[00:32:01]

And that's sort of where you get your good money, chlorophyll and Marchek going on. Right.

[00:32:06]

And so, I mean, what's neat, though, is like we can explain this now, but these guys figured this out centuries, almost a thousand years ago how to do this. But now we understand that two things that give Moccia its sweet taste and its bitter taste are thickening. And catkins, there are two different compounds that are found in green tea and Moccia. And Theunissen gives it its sweet flavor. Catkins give it its bitter flavor and that through photosynthesis, thinnings become catkins.

[00:32:38]

So if you can keep the plant from photosynthesising as much, there's fewer thinnings that are going to be turned into the bitter catkins. So that's one reason you're depriving it of light. That's a pretty big step. The other step, Chuck, is that they figured out that chlorophyll is related to the amount of theUN. I don't know if one produces the other or what, but they're they're related to one another. So the more chlorophyll there is, the more thinnings they're going to be, hence the sweeter the march is going to be.

[00:33:07]

And that if you deprive the the T bush of light, it's going to produce more chlorophyll to try to carry out photosynthesis. So not only does its its color get greener, it produces more thinnings as a result. So by depriving it of light at certain times and then using the T bush, that that comes out of like winter and has like a bunch of nutrients pack down in its roots and it's now sharing them with the young buds. And that's what you harvest is the first leaves of spring.

[00:33:39]

That's how you get the tanesha that it will turn into the best kind of moccia. Yeah.

[00:33:43]

And you also get those good. The leaves get wider, you get those broad leaves because they're seeking out the light that they're not getting. Right.

[00:33:50]

It's actually very cruel. I thought about that too. I was like, the Japanese know how to torture some plants between this and Bonzai, you know? Yeah.

[00:33:58]

It reminded me of the marijuana podcast, too, the cultivation one, because it's it's another plant that, you know, you just throw a seed in the ground and grow tea or grow marijuana and not worry about it because it's just a plant. But if you alter the light cycles, they both do something extraordinary. In the case of marijuana, I believe altering the light cycles is what causes it to bud, OK, at specific times. And it's kind of really similar with the Marcha.

[00:34:24]

It's kind of the same process.

[00:34:26]

So with marijuana, is it kind of like you're you're making it think like the days are getting shorter and so it needs to start budding or I think longer. OK, yeah.

[00:34:34]

You're artificially manipulating what would naturally play out over probably a longer period of time, as much is my guess, ever growing marijuana.

[00:34:43]

But I'm just guessing it right. You're like there is a high times that my dentist office, that's probably about right. So yeah.

[00:34:52]

So they figured all this out. Like to do this with tea and they started up by adding like little bamboo or reed covers to deprive sunlight and then they would put straw mats over that. Now they use aluminum structures around the the bushes and then they use just kind of that black cheesecloth fabric that you see to like sometimes people put it down to keep weeds from growing up in the landscape fabric. Right, exactly.

[00:35:18]

That's exactly what it's called just now. They use that to cover up the tea bushes. They've got it down kind of pat, but it's remarkably similar to the same techniques they've been using since the thirteenth, 12th, 13th century.

[00:35:33]

Yeah. I mean, you know, they made the switch to aluminum because they would have to take these wooden frames out and care for them in the off season. And I think the same holds true with the straw. I'm sure there are probably some traditionalists that are doing it in the old way. But yeah, aluminum in landscape fabric is sort of the modern version.

[00:35:53]

Have you ever smelled musty? Straw? It's not a good smell. I believe I've been on a hayride or two, is that what you mean? Yes. Yeah, basically. But when you make something out of straw, like something to cover over shrubs with or whatever you should put out in the rain, roll it back up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's not a good smell when you unroll it again. Yeah.

[00:36:15]

Like if you have a straw hat that falls in a body of water, it's never going to be the same again.

[00:36:21]

Has that happened to you, Tom Sawyer? Yeah, Emily. I mean, Emily has he's she's a gardener, so she has a huge straw hat. Oh, OK. And if they get wet, they get kind of stinky. You're I got you.

[00:36:32]

So you want to take another break and then we'll talk about health benefits of Moccia. Sure. OK, we're going to do that, everybody, and we'll be right back.

[00:36:50]

High people to get here, maybe you know me as mayor in my new podcast, I'll be talking to people from every field whose ideas and actions will shape an era that is about to begin.

[00:36:59]

We can take this time and use it in a way to bring people together.

[00:37:03]

When people protest in a courtroom, that means they still love it enough, but they still believe change is what.

[00:37:09]

I have hope that we are actually going to figure out how to allow people to be free hearted, free thinkers.

[00:37:15]

Listen to the deciding decade on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:37:21]

Hi, this is Melanne Verveer and this is Kim Mazzarelli and where co-hosts of Senecas Conversations on Power and Purpose brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. We're launching a brand new season of this podcast, which brings you fascinating conversations with leaders like two time gold medalist, author and activist Abby Wambach, an actor, producer and entrepreneur Justin Baldoni, among many others. Listen to Senecas conversations on power and purpose on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and stuff with the Joshua.

[00:38:08]

So I think we should say, Chuck, before we get before we get into the health benefits, when when Tanesha is produced, apparently all of it is brought to one market in Kyoto. And Kyoto is like one of the greatest cities on the entire planet. And it's just perfect that they have the Moccia market is in Kyoto and people go there and say, I really like this leaf and I'm going to buy your entire stock.

[00:38:38]

Yeah, they have an auction. It's amazing that they do this this way. They have an auction, I think, once a year at the Kyoto market, which opened in seventy four, nineteen seventy four. And now I'm getting on my century's is wrong. But this was 1974 and like you said, these wholesalers and vendors, they come in and they do blind tastings, which is really cool. So you can't say like you know, you're just not acquainted with the brand before you taste it, because every year is going to be a little different.

[00:39:10]

Even if you're trying to produce a consistent product year over year, you know, every year brings a little different thing, just like the wine business.

[00:39:17]

So they go in there, they blind taste the stuff and they're looking for kind of, you know, you end up mixing these things together to get your match at the end. I had no idea. Did you? Yeah, I think I'd heard that it's not just one kind of tealeaf. If you want a variation for fragrance, for flavor and for color and these two masters pick this raw potential leaf blindly and just say, hey, this is what I'm looking for and looking for this one and I'm looking for this one.

[00:39:46]

And I'm going to get all three of those and I'm going to bid on them at this auction and then dried up. Stone grain, that junk and the good, good green powder, magical Japanese powder, and then blended together.

[00:40:01]

And there's your Monsur pal. Yeah, that's the slogan. So the reason we keep calling this magic powder is not just because of the ceremony and like the whole Zen vibe that it has to it. It definitely has all that. But it it is verging on magical as far as the health benefits that it bestows on humans goes. At the very least, it is very clearly qualifies as a superfood. If there is such a thing as a superfood green tea and specifically Moccia.

[00:40:34]

Definitely is that.

[00:40:36]

Yeah. And you talked already about the thanin a little bit. Hmm. They've been using this in Japan and China for a stress remedy for thousands, literally thousands of years. Mm hmm. They say that it can help with aging, with memory and recall, apparently, if you drink, gentlemen, if you drink five to seven cups of a, it can really reduce your chances of prostate cancer. Mm hmm. That's what they say. Yeah.

[00:41:08]

And and green tea is good for you. We should point out. But this is just like on steroids. Yeah, that's the thing.

[00:41:14]

Like machos green tea. But most of the time we drink green tea again. You're sleeping green tea leaves and you're not actually ingesting the leaves themselves with moccia powder. You are. And so you're getting exponentially more of this stuff, including Theunissen, including the catkins, including something called Epper, Gallo, Cadigan, Galit, which has been shown to improve memory mood along with healthy eating. And then one of the other things is these catkins are antioxidants, Chuck, which I know you're kind of chomping at the bit to give a bit of an overview of how antioxidants help us combat disease.

[00:41:58]

The back story. We were poking fun at each other because you sent me a thing, a primer on antioxidants. And it's like this is like the fifth or sixth time we've probably given an overview of antioxidants. Right.

[00:42:08]

But but out of that back and forth, we agreed to finally do an episode on antioxidants and aging. Right. Did we agree? I suggested it. I just assumed that you didn't respond, that you were agreeing. No, no, we should do that.

[00:42:20]

And then we'll never talk about it again. Right. I can't guarantee that. No, but that may be the last overview. So this may be the last overview. How about that? OK. Sure. So in your body, you have something there called free radicals, which is a type of molecule that have an extra electron or missing an electron. Either way, they like to go around and bind other stuff. And when they do that, something called oxidation occurs in your body.

[00:42:47]

Right. And oxidation can be good in that, like you might have a pathogen floating around your body. These free radicals, which are naturally occurring, can bind to these pathogens and neutralize them. And you don't get sick from a pathogen. So it's good. The problem is, is you can have too many free radicals in your body. And so when you're when you're out of balance, you have too many free radicals. You suffer what's called oxidative stress, where the free radicals start attacking stuff you need, like lipids, fats, like DNA, like proteins in your body.

[00:43:23]

And that's not good. So you have antioxidants in your in your body. But if you're not producing enough antioxidants, your free radicals can get out of balance. And it's good to do things like drink green tea, which introduces a ton of antioxidants to your body, and then they seek out those free radicals. They bind with them and neutralize them. But the thing about antioxidants is they don't lose their stability themselves. When they bind it, they just keep on, keep it on.

[00:43:50]

But now they also have this free radical attatched for a ride and everything's all good. So that's why they think that antioxidants are kind of the key to healthy aging, because when those free radicals start attacking your DNA, it can lead to things like tumors and cancer. It can lead to all sorts of other problems, breakdown of cells and tissues and just general disease. They think like that is the basis of aging is oxidative stress. And antioxidants can counter that.

[00:44:19]

And Moccia in particular is lousy with antioxidants like catkins.

[00:44:25]

Yeah, and much as I mean, is literally good for almost every organ in your body, and it's certainly not bad for any of them. It helps with your liver. I think we already mentioned the kidney, certainly the brain and memory and the combination of that delfine and caffeine supposedly actually helps you multitask and like to go back and forth between tasks more easily. So like we mentioned earlier, you're alert, but you're still calm. It is a bit of a miracle powder.

[00:44:54]

It is because they're leaning can cross the blood brain barrier. So it goes right to your brain and starts pushing it around, like do this, do that. But it works synergistically with caffeine and that it also releases GABA, which is a calming, I guess, inhibitory molecule. I'm not sure I remember, but it works together with with with caffeine. So like you were saying, like you have all of the all of the focus, but none of the jitters.

[00:45:24]

It's just amazing stuff.

[00:45:26]

It's great. I can't wait to email. It fights cancer and it puts you in the zone. Although be aware of one thing. If you if you like moccia with like a latte with milk, that milk binds with antioxidants very easily. So it neutralizes a lot of the antioxidant effect in March.

[00:45:43]

Yeah, Emily said I told her that I was going to get some and it had been a while and she said something about making me a much lighter. And I was like, I don't think I want that. I think it just will either dump it in a smoothie or or just make my tea.

[00:45:55]

OK, it's worth trying, though. It's very good. Yeah, maybe.

[00:46:00]

OK, whatever you want to do. I just think it's top notch that we're drinking much of these days. We're going to live to one hundred and thirty hundred and forty maybe.

[00:46:09]

Do you have it every day. Do you drink much every day. No, I don't drink nearly enough moccia but this has gotten me back into it as well. I made a little bit, had the little bamboo scoop, the Shaku, and I started making myself some and you thought I was doing so. She came over and finished making it for me.

[00:46:26]

It was very sweet. She said, Here's what you're doing wrong. You said, move, dummy.

[00:46:30]

But she said in Japanese. And I was like, Why do you say? And she said nothing. Yeah, well, it sounded nice because it's Japanese. Exactly. And then I think we should finish with this great quote from why it's so popular these days. And who is this from? This is from Anna Kevo Linnaeus' of Green Gables.

[00:46:49]

Who is a health coach and co-authored Marcia Cohen, a lifestyle guide. She says this, The Kermit the Frog color just made it so Instagram able. That that we have group to thank for it. That's right. Let's see, that's it for me to go back and maybe go try it yourself. It's totally worth it. And we hope you like it. And since I said that, it's time for a listener mail.

[00:47:18]

I'm going to call this my tapeworm experience from Travis. Hey, guys, big fan of the show. Love the one on tapeworms. And it gave me flashbacks to my own experience. Four years ago, I was working at a fishing lodge in Ontario, Canada, had severe gastrointestinal issues for several weeks over the summer. And I visited a doctor and after a stool sample discovered I had a fully mature fish tapeworm inside of me.

[00:47:42]

Oh, wow, 30 inches. Wow.

[00:47:44]

It made for a pretty miserable summer. The doctor helped me trace the timeline back to infection, and the likely culprit was a batch of Civica that a guest had made.

[00:47:53]

Oh, no.

[00:47:54]

And for those of you listening speeches prepared by soaking fish in citrus juices overnight, essentially cooking it, ideally cooking it.

[00:48:06]

Yeah, chemically cooking. I was into beach. Great. Love it. I was prescribed one pill to paralyze the worm so it would release its hold in my body, could get rid of it. But I had to wait an agonizing three days for the pill to arrive due to my remote location. Nothing like knowing there's a 30 inch tapeworm inside of you leaching away at your body's nutrients. Can't imagine.

[00:48:28]

Can you imagine just a little bit like. All right, three days. I just got to know this about me.

[00:48:32]

So I can't. I can't. I don't know what I would do to numb that pain.

[00:48:36]

He said it took a year of supplements to get my weight back and he lost twenty pounds and V12 back to normal. A word of caution. The doctor told me if you plan to eat any raw fish to make sure it has a hard freeze for at least twenty four hours to kill any tapeworm eggs, a lesson I will not soon forget. That is from Travis in Bend, Oregon.

[00:48:58]

Man Travis, that was a cruel summer indeed. Yeah. I'm glad you made it out, though, buddy. Apparently, it takes forever to get stuff in Bend, Oregon. I didn't realize that. I think he was not in Bend, Oregon, at the time. Oh, OK. I see. Yeah, he was at a fishing lodge in Ontario, Canada. OK, ok. OK, ok.

[00:49:17]

Um, great. Well, thank you for that story. That was just magnificent. It really is a good accompaniment to the actual episode too don't you think. Chuck agreed. Uh, if you want to get in touch with us like Travis did, you can send us an email, send it off to Stuff podcast that I heart radio dot com.

[00:49:38]

Stuff you should know is a production of radios HowStuffWorks for more podcasts, my radio, is it the radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows? Hi, I'm Kristen Holmes. I've covered campaigns, Capitol Hill, the White House and everything Washington for CNN. But nothing tops the importance of this upcoming election and my job is to help you make sense of it all. Welcome to Election 101. For the next 10 weeks, we'll figure out the electoral process together.

[00:50:14]

I'll talk to experts, historians and some of you will address the safety of mail and voting, inform you of deadlines and make sure you know all your options.

[00:50:24]

You'll learn why voter registration is different from state to state and even from person to person. I'll help you figure out how to watch the debates a little more closely and how to get a better read on what the candidates really stand for. Yes, this election year is different and this is a different kind of podcast. Election one. One was created to help you learn how to make the most of your vote this November. Listen to election one to one every Wednesday on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:50:57]

It's no secret that in Washington, D.C., corruption is everywhere, and I should know my mom's the speaker of the House, my friends are all in the same boat, daughters of the D.C. elite. When you're this close to power, there's nowhere to hide.

[00:51:14]

But in here, no one knows me as James Parker. They only know me as storm alloy. You see, I'm a bit of a hacker. Join me and my friends. Four daughters in D.C., a new 12 part scripted podcast, political thriller from the team that brought you Lethal It Einhorn's Epic Productions and I Heart Radio. Listen to Dogs for Free and I heart radio, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.