Hello, I am Kyle, a high school student from South Korea. During summer break, I volunteered at Obubu tea farm for a week (second week of July) to experience tea farming and learn more about tea. I luckily participated in a lot of exciting activities including weeding, harvesting, and tea processing.
On my first day at Obubu, I joined the weeding group to Aoimori field to pick weed for the harvesting that would happen the day after. The driveway to Aoimori field was amazing, and it felt like looking at forests that appeared in the some Japanese movies.
In the morning, the day after, I participated in harvesting with Hiro-san, Pau, and the senpai interns. Here, I was partnered up with Hiro-san and Till, one of Obubu’s senpai interns, to harvest tea leaves. After that, we weighed the harvested tea leaves for the senpai interns’ tea-making.
In the afternoon, we learned about black tea (wakocha) and tried out 4 of George’s black teas. It was interesting to see how the same type of tea can taste different and have varying colors. Also, Jocelyn shared her ongoing project on tea soda, where she used natural ingredients to add the fizzy texture of a soda.
From the third day, I supported Obubu and the senior interns in making their black tea. Here, I learned about the delicacy of tea making, how every step and choice can affect the taste, and what effects every step has on the taste of the tea. Also, I was able to participate in the 4th JTB, where we learned about what factors affect the taste of tea.
On my last day in Obubu, I got to join the other interns in serving the guests who joined Obubu’s tea-picking and hand-rolling event, where I also got to participate in tea-picking with the guests.
Lastly, I would like to thank Obubu Tea Farm for providing me with this opportunity to interact with everyone in the team and learn deeply about tea.
If you are interested in joining Obubu as a Volunteer, send us an email at: obubuassistantmanagers@gmail.com
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