Sencha, Houjicha, Wakoucha, and Matcha

Mt. Fuji and Evian Tea Experiments

Hello hello hello! Tea Intern, the Tea Potato, here! We’re going to start a really fun and interesting journey today.  It involves *SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS* With water!  … Wait! Don’t go! I swear, this will be really fun. Water makes up more than 99% of tea.  If you’ve ever tasted a water that was awful, it […]

Volunteer Event – Kanagawa Cherry Blossom Project

The best cherry blossom production area in Japan: Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture A project to pick cherry blossoms and leaves, make tea and deliver them to the world. We are looking for support volunteers! You think cherry blossoms are for watching! Actually, in this volunteer activity, we pick cherry blossoms and leaves! Details: Date and time: […]

Tea Garden Update – I’m working on it!

Good morning(*^^*)Ladies and gentlemen, it’s me, Akky!How are you doing?It’s getting warmer these days and the pollen is flying and flying.My nose just won’t stop running today!Well, this time we will continue with the previous re-planting project 😊 I put in the bamboo last time and then backfilled it.From here, we can start replacing the […]

Welcome to Tea Planting!

Hello everyone!How are you doing?It’s getting warmer during the daytime these days!Risshun has passed and the tea season is just around the corner😄.This time it’s a planting change! Replanting is not about having dinner together ❗️….Plant again! The first is “the start time”.Due to the old age of the predecessor, Mr. Yabukita ↓. Some of […]

Tea of the Month – August 2021

Introduction For Tea of the month this month we bring you something special, a new brewing method for a fast and easy cold brew. Combine this new brewing method with a rarer tea and you will get a sweet and refreshing cuppa, ideal for those hot summer afternoons!   This month we have another of […]

What is ‘sustainable agrictulture’ and a new Gyokuro tea field!

Akihiro Kita, the President of Obubu Chaen, has been a tea farmer and processor for about 25 years including his training period. From the emotional encounter with a cup of Kabuse Sencha Tea by experiencing a part-time job at a tea farm in Wazuka,   Introduction to Japanese Tea Akky 16 years ago?! He dropped […]

Herbs and tea ・Our experiment of a mint infused Matcha!

Have any of you been annoyed by the hundreds weed and grasses growing on their own in your garden at home? We perfectly understand… But we have actually a good news for you tea lovers!  Yes, a lot of herbs, plants and flowers are very delicious when brewed with tea! And one of the most […]

Tea Storage Tips at Home

Today’s topic is about tea storage! I love tea, but always the flavours decrease before I finish it. I receive high-quality tea as a gifts, but I tend to hesitate to open it because I don’t want the tea taste to become stale before I finish it. You may have felt the same before. I also […]

May’s Spring Harvest 2020

In May the Spring Harvest is well under way! The terrain is very steep at the top of the mountains, so we will carefully harvest the plants while paying close attention to foot placement! The harvesting machine weighs about 10 kg. As the harvested leaves are blown into bags, the weight of each bag is about […]

Rescuing a Tea Field!

DEEP CUT??   Hello and thank you!   How is everyone doing?   Here in Kyoto it’s so cold in the morning and at night but gets really hot during the daytime.   Each year the tea harvesting season starts earlier and earlier – I wonder when this year will start …       […]

Obubu’s Original Tote Bag

Hello everyone~! It’s early March. In winter, when tea farming calms down a little, what are Obubu doing? Todays blog will be an exciting one! Obubu original tote bag is finally completed! ! This tote bag project is led by Marie of Obubu staff. The design, of course, the choice of tote bag fabric, the […]

Sweet Sakura Tea 2020

Sweet Sakura Tea Marie   Sweet cherry tea is also available this year!     What is Obubu Tea? Obubu Intern Raw Tea Sample Sakuracha This year, Obubu is preparing sweet cherry tea for spring! In Japan, cherry tea pickled with salt and plum vinegar is common and the most drunk, but for a few […]

Planting a Tea Garden

Today is a sunny day and the staff and the intern all planted baby tea trees. The variety is called Saeakari and it is the first time we are planting this cultivar! This is going to be a gyokuro tea field, so we will set up more shading shelves for this. We are making it […]

A brief summary of Japanese Tea – Carly De La Cruz

This blog post is the creation of one of our amazing previous interns Carly De La Cruz. She came to Wazuka to learn about tea and she delved into the rich history and culture with fervour. It’s always a pleasure to see people so passionate about tea and so keen to learn more about how […]

Kayo’s Tea Kitchen

Tea ZUKUSHI dish Today, I taught tea tasting dishes to all intern students. It’s possible to cook and eat tea! The kinds of Tea we will use today: Fresh tea leaf Roasted Tea Tea Powder Brewed tea leaves Tea So please try by all means. Fresh Tea Leaf Tempura Because it isn’t time for the […]

Nick Kandilarov intern #115

  Today, I would like to introduce one of the interns!   This time it’s intern No.115, Nick from Bristol the United Kingdom originally from Bulgaria!   Speaking of Bulgaria, it is the country that everyone in Japan knows for its famous yogurt. Nick, moved to Bristol to five years ago and has been stocking […]

The 88th Day: Spring tea picking tradition!

Hachijuu-Hachiya, the 88th Day  八十八夜 The 88th day of traditional Japanese calendar, which falls right around May 1st or 2nd, is famous as an important date for farmers, and especially tea farmers. For several hundred years, the 88th day has been considered the best day to start the spring tea harvest. Those tender new shoots […]

Tea Cultivars: All About the Plant!

During tea tours, we are often asked whether there are different types of plants for different teas. Read on for the answer!   Tea Cultivars A cultivar is a group of plants that have been bred by farmers for desirable characteristics. Cultivars can be more or less suited to weather conditions (frost hardy or early […]

What’s in a Name? Part III: Bancha & Hojicha

Are you ready for part 3?! Here come bancha and hojicha!  Bancha  番茶 The character for ban includes the characters for rice and field, and refers to a turn or a number in a series. Bancha is usually translated as coarse or common tea, and is made from mature leaves picked in between the four main harvests […]

What’s in a Name? Part II: Gyokuro & Kukicha

Welcome back to our blog series on tea names! Today, we’ll cover gyokuro and kukicha.   Gyokuro  玉露 Gyokuro, meaning “jewel dew,” conjures up an image of morning dewdrops collected from rare jade, and the tea liquor is a vibrant green color to match. Gyokuro is famous as a luxury tea; it’s harvested just once […]

What’s in a Name? Part I: Matcha, Tencha, and Sencha

Hello everyone! This week’s post is the first section of a series on Japanese tea names. If you’ve ever been curious why a tea is called by a particular name, this is the post for you!   Tea  茶 Perhaps the most important word on this list is cha, or tea. The Japanese character has its […]

The Calendar of Tea Fields

Tea fields are spectacular sights regardless of season. During spring, vivid green, well-manicured rows of tea plants look beautiful with the sakura as a background. Warm summer weather signals for the peak of harvest. The autumn foliage provides a contrast between the hues of red and green, then as the winter chill sets in, one […]

6 Reasons Used Tea Leaves are Best Household Helper

In love with your cup of tea but don’t know what to do with loads of brewed tea leaves? Instead of disposing them, Japanese like to dry and re-use these tea leaves (also called chagara) in many ways, be it beauty care or household maintenance. Here’s how chagara can be used to enhance our household […]

Obubu on site: Little Matcha Girl

A Japanese inspired patisserie has freshly opened its doors to curious sweet-toothed residents ( or visitors) of Perth and on their plate – a mix of Japan’s truly authentic and distinguished flavours. Little Matcha Girl is more than your regular sweet shop; it serves up teas sourced directly from Obubu and in-house baked desserts that will surely […]