Japanese Tea Workshops in Berlin 16th-17th November, 2017

The stop in Berlin this year was the first for Obubu. We really wanted to come once we have heard about the creation of the Berlin Tea Academy. The Berlin School of Coffee has already been around for a decade. In the group they also have their own coffee roaster, coffee and tea shop; and café. Finally, the time has come to establish a tea academy, that is planned later this year. What is more exciting is that our internship alumni Jenny Swann will be part of the academy. So this year together with the future tea academy we went to hold two tea events: Sencha Workshop and Matcha Workshop.

As the events were organized for the first time and the Berlin Tea Academy was still under construction – the events were quite small, but we could have a personable time with everyone. The day started with a Sencha workshop, where we introduced Japanese tea and showed some different kinds of Sencha. The second event was all about Matcha, and of course it was a bit more popular. There everyone could see a Matcha making demonstration and could try their hand at Matcha whisking.

Luckily there also was a bit of time to explore Berlin and visit a few tea places there. First, we wanted to see what is available to the general public in Berlin, so we went to a supermarket. Except for specialized organic supermarkets, the selection was quite poor, unfortunately: only teabags often with artificial flavors were available.

Then we stopped at a few Japanese tea places. A Japanese tea café –Kame, that serves some teas and Japanese sweets was the first. Then we went to see MachaMacha, where Jenny used to work and were pleasantly surprised by their tea selection as well a nice Japanese atmosphere (a beautiful room with tatami floor). We also stopped by a Taiwanese tea house – Chen Tee, that had some wonderful teas and a very beautiful and relaxing atmosphere too.

But what would be the trip without meeting the familiar faces. Our internship alumni Jenny is already based in Berlin and Zyhong came all the way from Dusseldorf! What a wonderful first stop in Berlin.