Dusseldorf Japanese Tea Event – 10th September, 2014

During the Euro Tour we had a chance to hold all kinds of events: from university workshops and more cultural events to some leisurely tea parties. Second event in Dusseldorf was a little different than the rest. That is because it was organized in a temple called Eco Haus. In the temple you could easily get confused where you were, as everything, from exterior to interior, looked authentic Japanese. That is because roughly 100 years ago the temple was brought from Japan as it is.

Perhaps because of the unique venue or because of an article about the event in the regional newspaper Rheinische Post by our host Lucilia Kobayashi, the event gathered a beautiful crowd of 50 people. It was great to see some familiar faces from last year events.

The majority of guest, though, were new to Obubu tea tastings and it was a nice mix: from Japanese living in Dusseldorf, that has the largest Japanese population in Europe, to Japanese studies students, to tea professionals and enthusiasts, some of who didn`t mind coming from neighbouring countries.

We spent two hours making and serving Japanese tea, so that no cups would stay empty for too long. Matsu-san tried his best to make an introduction in German, but luckily we had Taiyo-san, who had also helped us in Dusseldorf last year, to lead the event presentation in German. His wife, Miho-san had hand-crafted some Matcha and Yuzu macaroon to go along with tea. At last we tried serving Matcha Latte and surprisingly enough roughly about half the people refused sugar. Could it mean that Asian sugarless way of tea may already be present in Germany?