July – August 2025
Among other things, Summer at Obubu was full of sweaty farming days, delicious Summer Sencha, insects, countless cold brews, beautiful sunsets, and black tea-making. It was hot yet beautiful and restful yet eventful.
July
One of the highlights of July was making Wakoucha with Tran (AM #12) and interns Zehra (#196), Garance (#199), Izzy (#200), and KD (#201). Those who intern during harvest periods have the opportunity to make their own batch of black tea. Though the general steps in the process of making black tea are the same (withering, rolling, oxidising, and drying), we were encouraged to play around with the parameters and record our processes. Thus, though we all started with the same leaf material, we all ended up with very different batches of black tea.
Together, we drove to Aoi Mori and harvested from one of the Yabukita sections. This was an especially memorable day because everyone got to experience driving the harvesting machine, which made us realise two things: how rewarding it is to create a tea from start to finish and how important Akky-san’s expertise is in the harvesting process (later, we had a lot of thick stems and bancha leaves to sort through). Though I enjoyed this holistic experience of making tea, what made it one of the highlights of the month was the connections we developed through making the tea. None of us exactly knew what we were doing, and the hopeful decisions, hours spent sorting carefully through tea leaves, and late night in the second floor of the factory during which we shuffled and shifted our leaves every so often made it an experience I won’t soon forget!
Another memorable experience from July was the tail end of the Spring harvest. Sencha processing had finished, and Akky-san decided to make some Pine Needle Wakoucha (a black tea rolled, like Sencha, into a needle shape). Mareike (#203), Kirill (#208), and I helped Akky-san harvest Okuhikari in Eriyoshi tea field. It was interesting to go to Eriyoshi, because it was the field I had first harvested at. This had been at the end of March with George (#195) and Akky-san’s kids! It was interesting to see how the field had changed in the last four months and to experience the harvest of two very different teas from the same tea trees.
Between these two tea harvesting memories, we said goodbye to Zehra, Garance, Izzy, and KD and welcomed a new group of interns: Mai, Mareike, Marusya, Milan, Trey, Andreas, and Kirill!
One last memorable experience from July was the Global Japanese Tea Association’s (GJTA) annual Japanese Tea Conference, which was held in both Tokyo and Kyoto this year! A group of the Obubu family attended the conference in Kyoto and heard from a variety of speakers, including innovators in the world of tea; tea Catalysts spreading word of Japanese tea in their own countries; and tea Evangelists, Japanese university students who study abroad and share Japanese tea during their exchange.
Another magical moment of July was tasting Summer Sencha! I was curious to know how the taste of new Summer tea would compare to that of new Spring tea, and I was surprised to find how different it was. For lack of a better way to describe it, Spring tea has a sweet, luxurious, and magical flavour. On the other hand, Sencha of the Summer Sun, Obubu’s unshaded Summer Sencha, has a bright, earthy, and kind flavour. You can almost taste the sunlight in this tea. Someone once told me that their favourite tea was unshaded Sencha because it has an “honest” flavour, and I can truly taste this honesty in Summer Sencha. I love how the teas of both seasons have their unique characters–I think this makes the world of tea even more special.
August
August is bookended by Summer and Autumn harvesting seasons, and thus brought with it a slightly slower month. During this time, Nicole, Marilena, Tran, and I continued Assistant Manager Education (AME) classes, which had begun in late July. AME is a course on Japanese tea developed and created by previous Assistant Managers Jean (AM #2), Pau (AM #3), and Sarah (AM #4). It delves deeper than the Japanese Tea Basics (JTB) course that all interns participate in, and its topics include tea traditions, tea industry, tea regions, tea processing, and tea cultivars, among many others. This education course is one of the perks of the Assistant Manager Programme, and it is available virtually to Obubu Ambassadors.
With August also came the opportunity for Summer holidays, and I had the opportunity to visit Obubu’s young sister company, Ikedoki Tea, with Tran! There, we met Marjolein, a former Obubu intern (#83) who has helped Ikedoki take root. It was lovely to spend time with Marjolein and Matsu-san and to learn about what Ikedoki is doing, and I am so grateful for their hospitality. This was a special trip for me because my grandmother used to live in Nagasaki and is a survivor of the atomic bomb there. It felt so fitting that my tea journey led me here.
In a way, the length of this blog post speaks to the character of summer at Obubu: it felt so short but packed with activity and seasonal changes at the same time. I look forward to watching the landscape even more as the temperatures cool and the leaves turn the fiery colours of autumn.
またね！
ミア