While we have had a few Euro Tours, an opportunity to visit Madrid came only this year, as we got invited by an enthusiastic tea sommelier Charo Izquierdo. To tell the truth, Charo had visited our tea farm about two years ago and got in touch with us last year with a suggestion to hold an event in Madrid. At that time we had already finished our Euro Tour schedule and didn’t have any free day left. We didn’t forget the invitation, though, and finally could visit Madrid a year later.
With Charo’s and her friend’s Ines enthusiasm and confidence, we did not hold back for Madrid and went on to organize 4 events over two days. Hosted at a beautiful Japanese tea salon – Panda, inside Hatori Hanzo restaurant: two events focused on Matcha, one on Sencha and one was a general talk about Japanese tea. To our surprise all 4 events got fully booked. Some guests travelled as far as 200km-300km to meet us and some even attended all 4 events. Matsu-san even prepared a small speech in Spanish and by the 4th event it was perfect.
Another interesting encounter was with Amalfy, who stood out from other attendees, as she came dressed in a traditional Japanese clothing. It turned out that she was a tea ceremony teacher from Uruguay and we had a unique chance to collaborate. For the Matcha workshops she had a tea ceremony demonstration and explained the tea ceremony tradition to the attendees, after which everyone could make Matcha themselves.
Another pleasant surprise was meeting one of Obubu internship graduates – Fernando from Madrid, who has completed the program just half a year ago. Fernando knew about Obubu so well, that in addition to coming to say hi, he also helped us translating one of the events to Spanish.
We were really surprised how friendly and warm-hearted Spanish people are. Even after the end of the events everyone wanted to socialize and have a chat, so we had lunch and dinner together. Our host Charo has been really welcoming and hospitable, and in addition to helping us organize tea events in Madrid, she had also invited us to stay at her apartment for a few days. We are fantastically grateful to Charo and Ines for all their help in making the events a real success and hope to see everyone in Madrid next year.
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