The Kyobancha Harvest

What a first day in the field for the new Interns Obubu! At 9 o’clock this morning, Kali, Kamiko, Lana, Nathan and Patrick, joined their senpais Kirstine and Jenifer for the first harvest in Aoimori, the Blue Forest tea field. Ready with gloves, boots and rain pants, at 9 o’clock the team went up the […]

Life of an Obubu Intern, 163 Jason

Introduction Hi everyone! My name is Jason, and I am intern number 163 here at Obubu Tea. I’m from the United States and I graduated in May of 2023 from Truman State University. I came to Obubu to learn more about tea and to experience Japanese culture as I want to potentially teach English and […]

Autumn Season Internship Recap by Gabrielle

Konnichiwa!! This is Gabrielle (intern #161). Sadly, it is my last week here at Obubu.. Where has the time gone?! It has been an unforgettable 3 months full of many memories. My internship period was for the Autumn season and I lived in Wazuka from September-December. Here is a recap of my time at Obubu! […]

Making Black Tea by Hand

Hello! I’m Cameron, intern #160, here to tell you about how I got the chance to make my own black tea by hand. We got up early to hand pick our tea, getting to the field about about 7 in the morning. We used Aoimori 青い森茶畑 (Blue Forest) tea field, an all natural tea field […]

Tea Blending Guide

Tea blending is one of the most involved activities anybody can engage in when it comes to tea. It can be one of the strongest acts of appreciation any tea lover can do and holds the potential to push products to new heights and beyond any flavour profile you have experienced. The only downside to […]

Wazuka Water : The Prime Water Experiment

Over the last several posts we’ve tested four of Obubu’s teas from all over Japan and all over the world. At least as much as one can do with eight waters, but it does illustrate an important fact. Depending on the water used to brew tea, the flavour of the tea can be drastically changed. […]

Solan & Suntory Water Experiments

Hi! The Tea Potato this week! And nothing has caught on fire. We will always consider that a win. The Waters We have something special today for water. No, it’s not the Suntory Natural Mineral Water. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fantastic water. But we’re constantly dealing with Japanese water in these blog […]

Acqua Panna & Kuju’s Water Experiments

Hi! It’s the Tea Potato again and welcome back! Today is a very exciting day for me in terms of water, so we’re going get right to it. The Waters The two waters we have for your tasting pleasure today are Aqua Panna, a natural mineral water from Tuscany, Italy and Aso Kuju’s Natural Mineral […]

Tea Adventures of Current Interns

Justin, Patrick, Katrina, Hannah, Alex, and Satomi-san here! During our internship, we went on several trips and tea-related festivals and events, both individually and as a group. Being located in the Kansai region, there are countless possibilities for discovering many different places in Japan. In this blog, we will tell you a little bit about […]

Crystal Geyser & O.S. 99 Experiments

Intern Tea Potato here with even more water experiments!   The Waters The two waters we’ll be experimenting with this week are Crystal Geyser and Onsen Sui 99. Crystal Geyser comes from the United States of America. There are several different springs from where the water is sourced, so it’s important to check the bottle […]

Sencha, Houjicha, Wakoucha, and Matcha

Mt. Fuji and Evian Tea Experiments

Hello hello hello! Tea Intern, the Tea Potato, here! We’re going to start a really fun and interesting journey today.  It involves *SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS* With water!  … Wait! Don’t go! I swear, this will be really fun. Water makes up more than 99% of tea.  If you’ve ever tasted a water that was awful, it […]

【Intern Introduction】No.126 Kenji Tanimura

【Intern Introduction】No.126 Kenji Tanimura   We welcomed a new talent to Obubu, intern No.126, Kenji Tanimura.   He is originally from The Philippines and now lives in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.   Actually, he is a friend of our former intern, Mikie(No.123). He saw Mikie’s activities at Obubu on social media and got interested in our […]

New addition for Japanese Tea Books

The research our staff member, Moe-chan did with Professor Lee Jolliffe when she was in Canada about Japanese Tea and Tourism has been published as one of the chapters in the book, Responsible Rural Tourism in Asia. She originally came to Obubu as an intern in 2018 during a year off from her university to […]

Matcha Hojicha Cookies

Hello everyone! This is Marie from Obubu! The Tea Recipe that I would like to introduce to you today will probably sound familiar for some of you as our interns already made it so many times here at Obubu: the amazingly delicious “Matcha Hojicha Cookies”! This time, the concept of this recipe video is a […]

Autumn brings new arrivals

This time, we are harvesting our Autumn tea on a clear sunny day. Claire, originally from France, will be graduating tomorrow from her internship at Obubu, also helped with the harvest. I thought she might be a bit sad to see her working in the tea gardens for the last time, but she was as […]

Summer Tradition in Japan

Original article https://www.obubu.net/oblog/31693.html?fbclid=IwAR0FGgixtwhcLXl7RlvJnHZTBv_L20j5LAfWpKUfHgX5wmEsT1446Q7yMDw Summer Tradition in Japan   Hello Everyone, Today I would like to introduce you to Japanese summer tradition.   Have you ever heard about Nagashi Somen? Nagashi Somen is one of the summer traditions in Japan.   Somen is a white thin noodle made from wheat flour. It’s usually eaten cold and […]

Comparing Matcha Powders

May it be for baking, cooking, making drinks (anything that comes to your mind!) — doesn’t it ever make you wonder “Hmm, which Matcha should I use?”. At the Obubu house, it is a common question when we are up to something. Before we go through how our taste test went, let us first give […]

Matcha Cream Cheese Cookies

We’ve been playing around with recipes recently using other tea powders — somehow straying away from the commonly used Matcha as we want to explore the unique flavors and qualities of the lesser known wakoucha, houjicha, sencha, and genmaicha powders. However, it should also be known that Matcha comes in multiple grades out there that […]

Chunky Houjicha Cookies

As a person who is fueled with sugar, I have a special place in my heart (and tummy) for sweets. However, living in the countryside (which is awesome btw), it will probably take a lot of time and distance for me to get my sweet fix. Oh noooo. What to do?! Simple. This calls for […]

Summer Tea Hand Picking and Hand Rolling Event 2020

On Saturday, July 11, 2020, Obubu’s “Summer Tea Picking & Handmade Tea Making Experience” was held! Due to the influence of COVID-19 this year, Tea Loves from all over the world participated in the situation that it is difficult to participate from abroad! After the greetings and explanations on how to pick the shoots were […]

Five Types of Activities at Obubu for Interns

There are five main activities you will be involved in during your time at Obubu as an Intern. How many hours you will do of each will be determined by the season and weather.   Field work Days with Akky-san: these will most likely be your most memorable days at Obubu; Akky is a character […]