Japanese Tea Talk and Tasting in London – 25th September 2015

Matsu and Simona from Obubu have returned to Europe for the third time with another Euro Tour opening in London. While the London event was one of the last ones to organize, it turned out to be a great success. All thanks to the Japan Society in London, that has been incredibly helpful and welcoming.

To tell the truth we were in touch with the society three years ago to spread the news about our first event in London. This year within just a month before the event date, Will Upton from the society helped us to both arrange the event venue and promote the event to their members as well as others interested in Japanese tea culture.

Held in a beautiful Swedenborg hall, the event gathered nearly 100 people – one of the biggest audiences we have had abroad! People from all walks of life: Japanese culture enthusiasts, tea professionals and event Japanese embassy staff came to listen about Japanese tea. We could see some familiar faces too, such as Martin and Desiree, who have visited our tea farm before and could share their experience in our town with the event audience.

The event was mostly a talk about Japanese tea with a few teas to taste along the way. With such a big group of people we could only serve small cups, but everyone was eager to learn about Japanese tea and asked a lot of questions. For example, what is the best way to preserve Japanese tea? Green tea is sensitive and gets damaged when exposed to high temperature, light, moisture and oxygen. So our suggestion is to keep Japanese tea in a closed container in a cool dry place.

Some of the guests could not have enough of the talk and after the event got in a queue to talk with us. Lots of them were interested in seeing more Japanese tea in London, others thought of visiting Japan and tea sights. After the event some of the guests even joined Obubu Tea Club to support our activities and to be able to continuously enjoy fresh Japanese tea.

We were really moved by how many people in London were interested in Japanese tea and got energised to come back next year. A big thank you to all Japan Society team for welcoming us and assisting though the event.