Izzy
From the UK
Instagram: izzys_tea_notes
The Idea
For my project, I had the idea to create a tool that would help people decide on a tea, this could be deciding which one to buy from the shop, or just which tea to drink reflecting the mood of your day. It would ask a series of questions and pop out a final result based on your answers. I wanted to undertake this project on a personal level as way to gain a deeper understanding of the profiles of Japanese teas, and practically as an interactive tool to help people who are new to Japanese tea and not sure where to start—if you are already familiar with Japanese tea then it can just be a fun game to play in a ‘which tea are you’ sort of way. The final result would also include a small intro to the tea, some brewing recommendations, and a link to a playlist inspired by the tea.
I wanted to design this tool, but I had no idea how I would actually bring it to life in an interactive format, which was a bit of a spanner in the works. However, one morning whilst setting up for the tea tour with Zehra, by a wonderful coincidence we discovered that we both had the same sort of idea for our project, and Zehra had the pro coding skills to bring the tool to life! So, we decided to collaborate on the project, Zehra would create the coding and I would draw up the design elements. Together we would create the questions, analyse the teas to create the selection logic, and collect input from Obubu staff, interns, and alumni to create something that reflected Obubu as a whole. I enjoy working in a collaborative way, so I was excited and extra motivated to be working with Zehra on this project [see Zehra’s blog here].
The Method
The first thing we needed to do was choose which teas would be included. We wanted enough to make it reflective of a variety of teas, but not too many that it became impossible (Obubu has a lot of teas). In the end, after consulting with Pau-san, this is the final list that we decided on:
- Sencha of Spring Sun
- Heavenly Drop Gyokuro
- Kabuse Sencha
- Tencha
- Okumidori Matcha
- Hojicha Basic Roast
- Kyobancha
- Wakoucha
- Genmaicha
- Suzume Kukicha
- Mejiro Kukicha
- Natural Sakura Sencha
Alongside this, the next job was to put together the questions that the quiz would take you through. We selected questions that go through the decision making steps that you usually would when recommending a tea to someone e.g how familiar someone already is with Japanese tea, what time of day they are drinking tea (to determine caffeine strength), and what sort of flavours they like.
For the answers to each question, we assigned values for specific teas that were best suited. For example, if someone answered the question “how do you feel about caffeine” with “a teenie bit is OK,” then we assigned positive values to low-caffeine teas such as hojicha and kukicha; and if they answered “YES PLEASE,” then we would assign positive value to higher caffeine teas such as matcha and sencha. I found developing this part really fun, as going through each question allowed us to explore the flavour profiles and discuss the vibe of each tea, such as on what sort of occasion, and what temperatures we would recommend brewing them at. We had the perfect excuse to do plenty of tea tastings and together we found common ground on the characteristics of each tea.
There were some answers to which the assignment of teas was too subjective, for example, the question “who do you enjoy drinking tea with?”, which had answers (a) drinking alone, (b) drinking with a friend, (c) drinking with a larger group of people. We were slightly stumped as to which teas to assign to each answer here, so to help us out we created a questionnaire to get input from the wider Obubu family, including staff, interns and alumni, on these more subjective questions. Other questions such as the flavour profiles and caffeine content of the teas were more objective, so we figured those out ourselves. We then analysed all the data to create the quiz logic, I then left Zehra to work her coding magic to implement this into the code!
Whilst Zehra was coding, I was working on the front-end design of the tool. I wanted to create something cute and simple, so I came up with the idea of something similar to a retro game, that takes you on a little journey before reaching your final goal/answer, with inspiration from the early days of internet games and Tamagotchi. This is how the name of the tool ‘Tea Quest’ came to be. Zehra gave her approval of the nostalgic vibes and we went ahead with this.
Design
I wanted to design some cute tea-related characters to take you along the journey. I have always had a love for pixel designs, and for the past couple of years I have enjoyed designing pixel images to translate into crochet designs, so I decided I would play around with this to create some 8-bit animated characters to include in the quiz. I made a yunomi, the Tokoname kyusu, a chasen, a chawan, the Shigaraki shiboridashi, and a ‘one-bud-two-leaves’ guy. I had a lot of fun designing these on Piskel, creating the character and then bringing it to life with a very simple 2 or 3 frame movement. Some of the movements were inspired by how a Tamagotchi would just bob up and down, others were inspired by Akky-san’s dance moves.
I also created pixel icons for the various elements of the design, including the thermometers for the brewing suggestion, the restart button, the harvest season images, the music note for the playlists, and I was quite proud of my replication of the Obubu logo.
Music
Before the project, I had already been enjoying creating music playlists that reflect the vibe of different types of teas. So I thought it would be really cute to integrate these playlists into the project, making them more specific to Obubu’s teas, and then they could be featured in the final answer card of the tool for people to listen to whilst they enjoy their selected tea.
I love music, and I love tea, so I enjoyed having the time and space to explore bringing them together for this project. The aspect that draws me most into tea drinking is the moment and the feeling that it brings; whether it is a moment shared with a group of friends over conversation or a moment of peaceful reflection, having a good soundtrack to match the vibe is essential!
The inspiration for each playlist came from different elements associated with each tea. For some, it reflected the flavour, e.g., ‘kabuse’ features deep, natural ambience to reflect the rich umami flavour and dark green. Others reflect the time of day that you would be drinking the tea, for example ‘houjicha’ is a warm, toasty, caffeine free tea, you might be drinking it in the evening or anytime throughout the day, so it features easy listening background jazz. For some teas I took inspiration from the specific interpretation of the tea by Obubu, for example all of Obubu’s kukicha are named after Japanese birds, as the stems are like the skinny legs of the birds, so the Mejiro kukicha playlist features birdsong to reflect this specific interpretation of the tea.
I enjoyed discovering new artists in this process, with an emphasis on including Japanese artists and musicians somehow related to the Obubu community as much as possible. For example, whilst looking for some Japanese Jazz, Mia shared a playlist by her dad, which features classic and rare Jazz from the 70s and 80s. I also included songs by KD’s fiance, who released music during the internship, the style fuses traditional Filipino music with a modern world music genre—we mutually decided it was Kyobancha vibes. Earlier on in the internship, I made a music playlist for Jackie’s project event ‘Of this Place’, with some help from George too, and through this process I was searching for songs that reflected time at Obubu and the vibe of the event, so I could transfer some of these discoveries to the playlists too. I would take recommendations and requests from interns over the course of the project too, and I really enjoyed the discussions that contemplated the vibe of tea with different music genres.
(Playlists can be found on Spotify – click here)
In the internal staff and intern questionnaire, we also asked which music genre or songs people would associate with each tea to help me create playlists reflecting a cohesive Obubu vibe. Some of the responses resonated with the vibe that I was already going for, and some totally random, which was entertaining. I loved reading everyone’s suggestions and listening to some new genres I may not have contemplated—I am grateful for all the contributions which have broadened my tastes; it’s really cool. I tried where possible to include all the suggestions, but some were impossible to reconcile—for example, there was a suggestion for matcha to have Charlie XCX Brat (for the vibrant green?) vs. a suggestion for ‘no music’ (to appreciate the sound of the foam bubbles)… In the end, I took my creative liberty to curate the playlists in my own way and I hope everyone enjoys them. They will likely change as I keep adding to and adjusting them along my tea journey!
Final Result
Click the link below or scan the QR code to take the quest!
https://obubu-teaquest.netlify.app
(If you are taking it on your phone or tablet, remember to screenshot the final page to save your results!)