Farm To Cup

Farm To Cup

Tea From The Fields Straight To Your Cup

Where’s Your Tea From?

Have you ever thought about where the tea that you are drinking comes from? Do you know where it is grown? What about the farm that grows and harvests it? Most tea found in stores and online are blended teas, which means that they come from multiple different farmers and many different areas. Major tea companies source their teas at auction, purchasing from small-scale farmers to subsequently blend the teas into a finalized product. While this method produces tea at a large scale level and in more economical means, the tea farmer’s hard work, history, and story is lost in the process. 

Aracha vs Shiagecha:

There are two categories of Japanese teas: Aracha and Shiagecha. 

Aracha is unrefined tea, meaning that it has not undergone any additional sorting or blending. The veins, stems, and all components of the leaf are included in the final product. The stems, for example, have an entirely different set of fresh flavors, and when present, adds to the complexity of the tea. As a whole, Aracha tea beautifully encompasses the specificity of the season, harvest, particular year, region, and farmer. This variation is something to be appreciated and explored. 

Shiage is known as the secondary processing. After the initial process is complete, Aracha is typically refined into Shiagecha. In Japan, the refining process is usually done by the tea wholesalers. It consists of three basic steps: firing, sorting, and blending. The firing process helps to reduce moisture content down to roughly 3% and improves the aroma and taste of the tea. Next, tea leaves are sorted with different styles of sorting machines, such as mesh, wind-storing, and optical sorting. Lastly, teas from different origins and materials are mixed in the blending process by expert master tea blenders. Through these three steps, tea components are sorted and blended using tea grown in multiple regions by multiple farmers to achieve a consistent flavor profile. 

What About Obubu Tea?:

When you drink Obubu Tea, you’re drinking tea straight from the tea farm. Aracha is a core part of Obubu — we embrace the flavors of all components of the tea and enjoy the variation in seasonality. By focusing on the raw quality of the tea fields, harvest, and careful processing, we are able to produce high quality tea with minimal processing. Through our teas, we hope that you can enjoy the unique flavors of Aracha straight from the luscious fields of Wazuka and straight from the hands of the farmer.