Imagining Tea

Here at Obubu, we often say: “Tea is freedom”. And while it usually denotes the flexibility of brewing parameters, and the subjective nature of how we perceive taste, I think this saying serves to remind us to explore the deeper potential of tea. Tea is more than a drink; it’s an invitation to pause, to […]

Assistant Manager Blog by Pau [Summer season]

After the spring harvest, we had a bit of a downtime from extensive fieldwork like harvesting. Soon after, we switched to farming mode again to prepare for summer harvest and also had the chance to do some deep cut trimming in our somada field, where we harvest our kabuse sencha. Usually, tea bushes get a […]

Tea History in Depth

An Overview of the Commodity and its Trade in Japan from 538 AD to 2024 AD Jack A. Ryan Obubu Intern #180 Foreword About the Author and Introduction This work is a brief primer which focuses on the commodity and trade history of tea in Japan. The impetus for the writing of this document stemmed […]

closeup of a bud growing from a tea bush

Experimenting with Oolong Tea Processing

Hello, I’m Holden (Intern #179). Getting the chance to work on a tea farm is a unique opportunity, so naturally I wanted to make as much tea as I could. At first I wanted to make post-fermented teas like awabancha since that seemed like an interesting project, however, after trying awabancha I learned I didn’t […]

Assistant Manager Blog by Pau [Spring season]

Spring is by far the busiest period of the year at the farm. It is high season for tourism, so we welcomed many guests for our 4-hour tours and our other experiences. For farming, the season started with a late winter harvest for Kyobancha. Then we started with early trimming, shading and many other preparations […]

Cooking with Tea: Matcha Madeleine

Introduction Madeleines is a type of French small sponge cake, with a characteristic shell-like shape. For the French author Proust, in “In Search of Long Time”, the madeleine represents how blocked memories can involuntarily be invoked. With this matcha madeleine recipe, we hope to bring back your memories and experiences from the tea fields, or if […]

Exploring the Art of Photography and Tea Farming: A Journey Through Light and Leaf

Photography, in all its forms, has been a lifelong passion of mine. From the  tactile experience of darkroom work to the precision of digital imaging, each method offers a unique view of the world, reflecting vision in different ways. You’re probably wondering what a tea farm has to do with this type of art? Surprisingly, […]

Beekeeping in Japan and Tea infused honey

By Jason McLoughlin – Intern #178 Beekeeping, primarily for honey production, has a long and varied history around the world and began around 10,000 years ago with evidence of beekeeping in ancient Egypt, China and Greece amongst others. In Japan, the oldest record of beekeeping can be traced back to the 7th century in Nihon […]

Assistant Manager Blog by Sarah [2023.09月 – 2024.09月]

One year as an Assistant Manager at Obubu みなさん こんにちわ! This is Sarah and, together with Pau, I joined Obubu as an Assistant Manager in September 2023. It is now the end of my program, and I wish to give a brief summary of how incredible this year at Obubu has been. Following on my […]

Growing tea, growing people

-My long visit at Obubu- I’ve been at Obubu for just about two weeks – gone too fast – my experience of Obubu has been one similar to the anthropologist conducting participant observation, where each day brings new experiences and realisations, grateful to be allowed into a community and have the chance to take part […]

Specialty Tea Soda’s

The following blog is about some specialty teas I decided to use, one of which Obubu has and another I was able to enjoy and learn about while in Japan. These two teas are Sakura tea and Awabancha.  For the first specialty tea that I decided to use was sakura sencha which is a blended […]

Assistant Manager Blog by Alix [Spring season]

Hello everyone ! My name is Alix and I am Assistant Manager #6 at Obubu. I come from the North-West of France (Brittany and Normandy !) and I studied agriculture and food engineering. My combined interest in Japanese culture and high quality products of origin pushed me to apply for this amazing opportunity. I am so excited […]

Black tea & Roasted tea Soda

In this blog post I decided to make sodas with Wakoucha or Japanese Black Tea and Kyobancha. You can learn more about Wakoucha here in the Introduction to Wakoucha : Japanese Black tea blog. I noticed while looking at the different projects that past interns have made and was captivated by one called  Iced Shiso […]

Tea On the Rise: Sencha or Wakoucha? by #177 Noe

I was lucky that my grandparents served me both sencha (Japanese green tea) and wakoucha (Japanese black tea) every time I visited them in Japan. But as I grew up in New York, my encounters with these teas were reserved to their home for the most part, and the global popularity of the two types […]

Green tea soda‘s

For this blog I decided to make green tea or sencha soda as Japan is known for green tea. Blog post What’s in a Name? Part 1: Matcha, Tencha, and Sencha. It discusses the differences in all of these different teas and what I will be using as the main teas in this blog. With […]

Assistant Manager Blog by Pau [Winter season]

After the Autumn harvest, and having had the chance to process the autumn moon tea and plenty of Bancha, we headed to the fields to do some trimming work. Trimming quickly became my favorite filed work activity, it is a bit more technical than harvesting or other activities. It requires a lot of attention to […]

How to make your own Tea Soda! 

Hello, to all those who love tea and also those who also happen to love soda. I am Jocelyn intern #176 at Obubu studying Biological Systems Engineering specializing in Food Engineering in university and while being here at Obubu I found a new love for tea and hope to share with you all a fun […]

Beyond Green: Exploring the lesser known Japanese black tea with #173 Amanda

Tea is one of the cornerstones of Japanese culture (and history). Perhaps the most well-known of these are the Japanese green teas: sencha (煎茶) and matcha (抹茶). Matcha especially has seen a global meteoric rise in fame in recent years as matcha lattes, smoothies, and various sweet treats. Did you know that Japan produces other […]

Organizing Obubu-san

At Obubu, it is often said “Many things happen. Please enjoy”. If you are lucky enough to spend time here, you will understand what is meant by this. There are many moments of serenity within the chaos, and it’s important to note this chaos is quite benevolent. Obubu-san has doggedly refused to stop growing and […]

Abandoned vs maintained tea!

What is the difference between Abandoned tea and maintained tea? Why is there abandoned tea, and what does it take to maintain it?  Hello! I’m Jordan, intern #172! Here’s why I am interested in abandoned vs. maintained tea fields. It all started on an Obubu tea tour, where I noticed some overgrown tea bushes, more […]

L'expérience de Kyle à Obubu

Hello, I am Kyle, a high school student from South Korea. During summer break, I volunteered at Obubu tea farm for a week (second week of July) to experience tea farming and learn more about tea. I luckily participated in a lot of exciting activities including weeding, harvesting, and tea processing.  On my first day […]

Pourquoi pas faire du Wakocha?

Hey there fellow tea lovers, my name is Till, Intern number #175 and I am currently taking part in a 3-month internship at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms, where I have the once in a lifetime chance to explore the ways and means of Japanese tea production, including plant care, harvesting, machine processing, as well as […]

Accord de Cheesecake au Hojicha avec les thés Obubu

After making the Hojicha White chocolate cheesecake we tasted 4 different teas to find the perfect pairing.  Sencha of the Forest GlowWakouchaSencha of the WindKyobancha  Here’s the results:  Sencha of the Forest Glow A high grade, unshaded,  spring tea with naturally sweet, umami taste. Undertones of orange and cinnamon can be detected.  Harvested in May, […]

Réalisez votre propre oolong!

At first glance, handmade tea is very intimidating. In Wazuka, hand-picked and hand-rolled tea are the most expensive senchas in Japan. Because of its high price, only the masters are allowed to touch the tea during this process. Nevertheless, you can make your own handmade tea at Obubu, and it is actually quite simple. Whether […]