Wazuka is waking up! Spring is around the corner now, sakura blossoms are blooming, and we’re starting to prepare for the spring harvest season.
This month we were excited to welcome our first interns of the year, and complete our Assistant Manager team with the arrival of Fiona! Amidst lots of farming and tea tour training, the team is ready for the madness of the coming spring. We’ve been doing lots of trimming to prepare our fields for spring harvest, filling out some newer fields with baby plants, and harvesting our winter specialty Kyobancha.
Read on to relive our exciting March at Obubu!
First interns of 2026 arrive!
Our first interns of 2026 arrived at the beginning of March! We’re so excited to welcome Doug (from USA, #216), Katy (from Thailand/UK, #217), Kenji (from Japan/USA, #218), Laura (from Belgium, #219), Riikka (from Finland, #220), Ching (from Taiwan, #221), and Glenda (from Singapore #222).
Our interns have spent the last few weeks getting settled, diving into tea tours, helping with the winter kyobancha harvest, and steeping in new tea knowledge. From all corners of the world and with such varied personal experiences in tea, Obubu is entering spring with a full house of tea lovers once again!
Also, finally AM #19 Fiona has joined us, so our Assistant Manager team for 2026 is complete!
Join our community video!
Hello! Marusya (AM #17) here, managing our international Instagram. We’re creating a community video to celebrate tea lovers around the world and we’d love you to join us in “World Wide Cha Kampai!” 🍵
To take part:
- Film a 5–8 second video
- Sit at a table with a cup of tea
- Say “kampai” to the camera & cheers into the camera
- Take a sip
- End the shot as if you’re passing the cup to the next person through the camera – see an example video here!
- Upload your video to https://fex.net/
- Send the download link to Marusya of the AM team at obubuassistantmanagers@gmail.com by 30 April!
Don’t aim to movie-like quality! Phone vertical video is enough as long as it’s fun for you. Let’s create this together — we can’t wait to see your videos!
Kyobancha harvest
On 16th March, we began our annual Kyobancha harvest! This classic winter tea is a local Kyoto specialty, made from hardy winter tea leaves which are steamed and roasted. Because the winter leaves are so mature, they need to be steamed for over an hour. We don’t have the capacity to do this in our small sencha factory, so we work together with a local factory to bring you this sweet, smokey, gentle winter delicacy.
he Kyobancha harvest team after a successful morning at Aoi Mori (photo by Miwako)
Handrolling workshop with Kenta-san
Here in Wazuka we are lucky enough to be home to one of Japan’s top hand-rolling experts, Kenta Hosoi, a local tea farmer who is also president to the Wazuka Hand Rolling Preservation Society. Most of Japanese tea is rolled by machine, so it’s rare to be able to experience this craft, and we’re lucky enough to be able to host regular workshops led by Kenta-san. This one took place on 17th March, and our newly arrived interns were able to join the fun with our guests for the day!
Our next handrolling event takes place on 16th June – you can book to join here.
Our other upcoming workshops:
🍡 28th May: Mochi workshop
🫖 2nd June: Pottery workshop
🌸 4th June: Wagashi workshop
Kyoto Handrolling Competition
Handrolling skills run in the Obubu family – this month, various Obubu staff members demonstrated their prowess in the Kyoto Handrolling Competition, with Pau’s team winning 1st place (with Minato-san and Natsu-san), Katrina’s 2nd (with Chiharu-san and Nao-san), and Miwako’s 3rd (with Akio-san and Neo-san). Pau and his team will officially participate in the national competition in Shizuoka in November 2026!
Katrina also won 1st place for the general public in the Kyoto Chakabuki competition! CongraTEAlations 🏅
Baby Ujihikari planting
Akky-san and the rest of the farming support team (staff, AMs, and interns) helped to plant some baby Ujihikari plants in our young tea field Kouminkan. The first bushes were planted in this field in autumn 2022 by previous interns Patrick #136, Justin #139, Hannah #137, Alex #135, andKatrina #138 (now staff) with further help from Tran #141 (now Senior AM) Andri #142, Yanis #143 – how they have grown in the almost 4 years since!
Teas of the month
Spring is sencha season, so we recommend…
-
Sencha of the Wind (80g)
¥1,500 -
Sencha of the Earth (80g)
¥1,300
Sencha of the Wind brings a moss-like green into the cup, offering a notable aroma of willow bark and wet stone. With a beautifully cloudy liquor, it has a vegetal and gentle umami taste. The mouthfeel is thick and smooth. This tea is shaded from the sun for two weeks before harvest and is made from a traditional Zairai cultivar. A wonderful and mellow tea.
Sencha of the Earth is medium-bodied with a smooth quality. It creates a delicate bronze-hued liquor with a hay-like aroma mixed with light notes of chamomile. The taste is decidedly floral with a strong aftertaste evocative of honeysuckles. A perfect spring harvest tea!
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