The pastries are sprinkled with green tea powder.
They are painted with flowers and other decorations, and once held tea, powder, pastilles and tobacco.
I find that vanilla is the safer bet if matcha green tea powder isn't an option.
It turns out that chickens are sometimes fed coffee pulp and green tea powder to keep them awake so that they can spend more time eating.
One of the "milk-based creations" on offer, for example, is Berry Me in Green Tea; a combination of Kellogg's Rice Krispies, strawberries and green tea powder.
4 For the buttercream, beat the butter with the green tea powder until smooth (and bright green), then gradually stir in the icing sugar.
But others are more startling, like sprinkling meat with tea powder, or mixing ground meat with cherries, or just marinating meat before cooking.
"Another [torture method] is when they spread tea powder mixed with sugar and some water – and then spread it on you, so that it attracts flies," Sofia recalled.
Look for black sesame seeds and matcha green tea powder in Japanese food shops (also widely available online), but don't worry if you can't get hold of either: use white sesame seeds instead (first toasted for 10-15 minutes at 200C/400F/gas mark 6) and swap the green tea powder for vanilla extract.
Not just any tea, but fine green teas like Genmaicha with Matcha (green tea blended with roasted brown rice and green tea powder) and Sencha Haru (made from the noblest leaves of the early spring harvest).
I used to blend matcha powder (Japanese green tea powder) with fresh lime ginger and honey as a pick-me-up and one morning I was lying there thinking, "if only I could grab a cold one from the shop".
