The Glossary

Glossaire · The Maison's Vocabulary

The words of NEIGE & THÉ

The words the Maison holds close, set down one by one — the vocabulary tuned through dialogue with growers and makers.

Terroir

Terroir — the expression that can arise in no other place, woven from soil, climate, landform, and the human hand. NEIGE & THÉ carries this concept, nurtured in the world of wine, into a non-alcoholic beverage Maison as its founding axis.

Maison(Maison Brand)

Maison — a way of naming a house not as a trademark or a visual sign, but as a posture carried across inheritance. The French word maison means house, residence, school, and the unit of inheritance; NEIGE & THÉ calls itself a Maison as the single roof under which several houses — the grower, the F&B floor, and the guest — join in line.

Active Choice

Active choice — the shift in register from “cannot drink” to “choosing, intentionally, not to drink,” a central posture of NEIGE & THÉ. It treats non-alcoholic not as a reluctant substitute, but as a vessel of its own, chosen for the evening for its own sake.

Discovery Phase

Discovery phase — the phase before Premier service. Through 2026, it is the time in which we tend the Maison's design language while in dialogue with growers and makers. Rather than naming validation or precedent, we speak in the present continuous — we are tending, weaving, listening — as our signature.

Premier service

Premier service — the word NEIGE & THÉ uses for its first service occasion. Not a “launch” nor a “release,” it carries the resolve to meet that first occasion with the finest gesture: Premier service: 2026 (Discovery phase).

The Four Lines

The Four Lines — the fixed four-part composition of NEIGE & THÉ, in the fixed order Tea, Herbal, Fruits & Veg, Infusion. Tea draws on wakōcha, gyokuro, sencha, and hōjicha; Herbal on Japanese herbs and spices; Fruits & Veg on fruits and vegetables of restrained sweetness; Infusion is a layered composition of tea, fruit, and spice.

Né à Murakami

Né à Murakami — French for “born in Murakami,” the phrase set in the NEIGE & THÉ sub-title (Maison de Thé Japonais — Né à Murakami). The base is Murakami, Niigata Prefecture — Japan's northernmost tea region — and the warmth of the hands that have kept tending tea through deep-snow winters is where the Maison begins.

Japanese Herbs

Japanese herbs — the herbs and spices that grow in Japan, such as sanshō, yuzu, wa-hakka, and shiso. They are the materials of the NEIGE & THÉ Herbal Line — the vocabulary through which the aromatic and flavour contour of a place is woven into a single drop.