Hello again, Fiona AM #19 back from more adventures.
When I last wrote, spring was just starting to leave us, and I was excited (and slightly scared) about discovering my first Japanese summer. And, well, it’s been hot, but also more manageable than I thought.
But between the heat, the rain, the farming, the tea processing, the adventures and all the people coming and going, the last few months have been full of new experiences.
The end of Spring
The end of spring also meant saying goodbye to our first group of interns. It is always a strange feeling when people who have become such a big part of your everyday life suddenly leave. One day you are farming, cooking, drinking tea and chatting together, and the next they are all getting on a bus together to go back to their previous, or on to other adventures
But before everyone left, we still had plenty of fun:
- Katy found her first ever four-leaf clover, which felt like a very appropriate Obubu moment.
- I also had one last farming day withRiikka. It was a lovely way to finish our time working together in the fields
- Katrina, Madeline and I went to harvest Inari in the morning and then spent the afternoon together in the factory processing bancha
- One last rainy weeding in Somada with Tomáš and Jennifer just after the landslide
Gorilla Field: my black tea making adventure
One of the biggest highlights of this period for me was getting to properly focus on making black tea. And by properly, I mean: trying, experimenting, questioning every single decision, and hoping that at the end I would have proper tea.
I was offered to use the leaves from Gorilla Field. This field is managed by Katrina, Pau and Miwako. And this year it was harvested by Katrina, Doug and Kenji.
This was my first proper attempt at making tea on my own, other than the little experimental pocket teas we sometimes make.
So here is how it went:
- The leaves were harvested at 6am.
- I took them at around 6pm, so they had already been sitting for about 12 hours and had started to slightly oxidise.
- First, I separated the stems but decided to keep the bancha leaves and buds mixed together.
- Then came the withering. I left the leaves on the balcony overnight and went to check on them every two hours to ruffle them and turn them around.
- After sunrise, I continued doing the same thing inside until around 11am.
- Then, I spent about an hour wondering what on earth I should do next.
- Eventually, I decided to sew two cloths together and use them to roll the leaves.
- I rolled for around 1 hour and 20 minutes, gradually applying more and more pressure throughout the process.
- Then I left the leaves to oxidise under the shade of the chestnut tree while I went for chai in Tsunagiba.
- Later, I brought them out into the sun and let them oxidise again between around 5pm and 6:30pm.
- Finally, it was time to dry them. I used the self-style dryer for around 40 minutes.
And after all of that, from 1kg of leaves, I ended up with 183g of tea. And honestly? I was very happy. The colour was beautiful, it had a sweetness and a slight bitterness, with something that reminded me of apricot. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. Was it exactly what I was hoping for? Not necessarily. But that was never really the point. I had made tea. My tea. And for a first proper attempt, I was incredibly happy with the result.
One of my favourite moments was also the tasting session we had afterwards with everyone. It is always amazing to me how many different flavours can come from the same field. We had leaves from the same place, but each person processed them in their own way. It really makes you realise how much of tea is not just about the leaf itself, but also about the person making it. The tea becomes a reflection of the person behind it. I think that is one of the things I love most about tea.
Mid-August, will be my turn again to make black tea, and I’m already looking forward to seeing what I can do differently next time.
Of course, there were many things happening outside of farming and processing too.
I got to go to the Yoshidayama Daichakai with Jennifer and Leah, a yearly tea festival located in shrine in Kyoto. There is something special about drinking tea surrounded by so many people who are equally excited about it.
I have also become slightly obsessed with summer sunsets.
After long days, and often rainy days, stopping for a few minutes to look at the sky is probably one of my favourite parts of summer. The colours, the mountains, the fields… Sometimes Wazuka really does feel like a movie.
And finally, an honourable mention to just everyday life at Obubu. The random tea breaks, cooking together, walking along the river after work…
