Before Obubu
I studied food science and agriculture quite broadly for 3 years, after which I specialized in European labels of quality and the link of terroir to food products. During this time, I studied in Romania, Italy and Greece, where I was able to meet lots of local producers and people from all over the world. This opened a new perspective for me and a passion for high quality products of origin. I worked in a chocolate company dedicated to offering high quality products and reducing carbon emissions in transport, and then a baby-food company whose mission was to prevent the development of allergies in babies through early introduction to allergens.
Without having much knowledge about tea at the time, I knew it was a fascinating and diverse product. One of my classmates in university was previous assistant manager #2 Jean, who I watched go to Obubu have the time of his life in 2019 during his summer internship (#107), and then again in 2023 when he left for a year to become AM. When we were talking about me potentially working at Obubu, he told me « you will never regret this » which seemed like a pretty compelling argument and I decided to apply.
During Obubu
If you have read any blog written by interns or assistant managers you probably read this before « Many things happen » and it could not be more true. 12 months have flown by and yet it feels like several years have passed since my first day at Obubu. I drove on crazy japanese mountain roads (which felt surprisingly natural), I harvested and processed tea for the first time, hosted tea tours, and discovered the intricacies of Japanese tea farming. To summarise my experiences throughout the year, I wrote about my tea adventures during each season : Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
In general, I was taught so much about tea from my amazing senpais Sarah (AM #4) and Pau (AM #3), from Akky-san, from Miwako, and from all the other Obubu staff members and interns alike. Everyone brings their own unique knowledge to Obubu, whether it’s about the ideal wagashi to pair with specific teas, life-changing Taiwanese oolongs, or how to pour 4 teas at once to the song Sandstorm by Darude (objectively the best tea-brewing song). This year has been an incredible learning experience, with valuable life lessons, business lessons, and of course tea lessons.
While assistant managers have very versatile tasks, we also specialise in certain leadership areas, which helps to better organise the workload and to delve deeper in specific topics. Some of these for me included scheduling intern’s day-to-day, writing Obubu’s monthly newsletter, and internship recruitment, to cite just a few. We were also able to choose projects outside of our typical duties. I collaborated with George to work on the wholesale side of the company, with different projects including the creation of the Wholesale Website. I also decided to combine my love of tea and cheese to write pairing advice for different kinds of cheeses: soft cheeses, blue cheeses, uncooked pressed cheeses, and cooked pressed paste cheeses.
The introduction of the Ambassador Program this year was a great opportunity to connect with previous interns when we hosted the Assistant Manager Education (AME) courses online. Throughout the year, it was always such a pleasure to welcome back previous interns and to learn about their experiences at Obubu, all the similarities and comparing everything that had changed.
There are many highlights of this year at Obubu, but the main one is of course, the people and spending meaningful time with them, from kotatsu evenings in the winter, and weird old Japanese movie nights, to trips all over Kansai. It felt like such a privilege to meet people from different walks of life, get to know them, and understand all the different reasons that brought them to a tea farm in rural Japan: from seeking tea education, a break from their day-to-day, or sometimes simply to enjoy Japan.
After Obubu
After studying Japanese Tea for one year, I want to keep learning about this topic but I also want to learn about different tea cultures around the world. I will be going to Taiwan and South Korea and visiting tea farms. Of course, now that I am an Obubu Ambassador I am planning on sharing Japanese tea with the world! Katrina shared her passion and has now infected me with a love of drinking tea outdoors, and I also want to pursue my Sado tea ceremony teachings that I was able to start here in Japan.
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