On the 10th of July, we had a wonderful summer tea picking event with 5 groups of participants.
Once again, we had to limit the number of participants to less than half, but they came with their families and friends. Everyone seemed to have so much fun!
It’s really hot at this time of the year, and you’ll be sweating in the fields and at the factory, but the taste of the tea you’ve made is exceptional!
We all did our best to pick the tea! Time to make some delicious tea!
First, a greeting from our President, Akky-San. Sencha and Hojicha also greeted us warmly. The tea girls are so cute!
3 Freshly picked tea leaves. I was worried because the buds are small, and we were picking a little slowly for one hour. However, we picked enough tea!
Tea lunch box It was a delicious and refreshing lunch box with vinegared rice balls for summer. Obubu’s tea noodles were also delicious!
Moe-chan has this smile on her face from lunch!
We are very satisfied with this bento every time. This lunch box was specially made by Cafe Lantana in Kizugawa City.
After lunch, it was time to try making tea. We are explaining the procedure very clearly. The first step is to heat the tea. The oxidation of the tea is stopped by the heat. The tea is heated in a large metal pan, and the tea is turned over carefully. We work in pairs to heat the tea in the pan.
Rolling the tea together as a family. It is essential to work together as a team! The condition of the tea leaves is checked in the middle of the heating, is it almost finished?
During the tea making process, we have some other activities for our guests to experience such as, grinding your own matcha and then brewing! People enjoy drinking freshly ground matcha.
There is also a Hojicha Roasting experience where we use the traditional clay pot to roast the tea! The freshly roasted tea has a different aroma to regular Hojicha! The roasted tea has a nice aroma with a sharp taste, which is typical of summer.
After we finish hand making the tea we taste all together. How does the tea taste after all the hard work?
It was a fun event with lots of smiles on everyone’s faces.
Please come and experience it in the future!
-Kayo
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