Japanese tea company Olive has joined the growing ranks offering high-quality tea in tablet form, sometimes cleverly called “chablets” (combining the English with the Japanese word for tea, cha). Its latest chablet offering is sure to appeal to history buffs with its connection to Japan’s Sengoku warring states period from the 15th and 16th centuries, when the families of prominent samurai vied for power in almost continuous uprisings and civil war.
Olive was inspired to create this Sengoku Kamon (煎國花紋) set in response to a theoretical alternative version of history: “What would have happened if warlords competed on the deliciousness of tea instead of military strength”? The name Sengoku Kamon also incorporates some clever kanji play by swapping the character used for sen from “war” to “infuse/brew” and the character for ka from “family” to “flower” in order to mimic the spelling of Sengoku Kamon (戦国家紋), or “Sengoku family crests…”