Assistant Manager Blog by Alix [Winter 2024]

Hello everyone, Alix here (AM #6) ! In this blog I am writing about my experience of my last quarter at Obubu, which seems a bit surreal after such an amazing and intense year. Winter is the most quiet period in terms of activities at Obubu since there is little to no farming and tourism […]

Cooked Pressed Cheese and Tea Pairings

Cooked pressed cheeses, like Comté and Gruyère, develop deep, caramelized flavors through careful aging, making them an exciting partner for a well-chosen tea. Let’s dive into the best pairings to enhance their savory-sweet complexity. Abondance & Natural Okumidori Matcha Why not swap out your wagashi for (w)Abondance ? This pressed paste cow’s raw milk cheese is […]

Winter in Japan – Assistant Manager Blog by Mac

As the first signs of winter creep into the valley, the landscape slowly transforms into a serene tapestry of soft whites and deep greens. Wazuka takes on a quiet beauty during this time and this winter has been no different. The mist rolls through the hills, tea bushes are dusted with frost and mountains are […]

Blue Cheese and Tea Pairings

Known for its pungent aroma and tangy bite, blue cheese can be an intimidating yet rewarding choice for tea pairings. The right brew can balance its intensity, mellow its saltiness, and highlight its complex flavors, let’s find out how! Bleu des Causses PDO & Natural Sakura Sencha As its name suggests, Bleu des Causses is […]

秋: Assistant Manager Blog by Katrina [Autumn 2024]

Hey hey, Katrina here! I am back! In autumn 2022, I joined Obubu as an intern (#138), and while I was volunteering at the sister project Ikedoki in Higashi Sonogi last year, also made a brief return to Wazuka, where I had a great time getting involved in the construction shenanigans during the renovations of […]

Uncooked Pressed Cheese and Tea Pairings

When you think of cheese, you probably think of wine and bread as good foods to pair it with. While these are, of course, great options, one of the products that pairs surprisingly well with cheese is tea ! There are many ways to pair tea and cheese but here are some of my personal favourite […]

Assistant Manager Blog by Alix [Autumn 2024]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my third blog about my adventures as an Obubu Assistant Manager! Autumn in rural Japan is the season of higanbana (red spider lilies), persimons, chestnuts, beautiful fall colours everywhere, and cooler weather (we finally brought out kotatsus in Obubu house!). It was also my third quarter at Obubu, marking my transition from […]

An unexpected party – Assistant Manager Blog by Marcello [Autumn 2024]

My name is Marcello, and I’m from Italy. I recently joined the Assistant Manager Team as its 7th member. I studied at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Piedmont. But my passion for tea started at an early age while I lived in the UK. As well as drinking it daily I also went […]

Wazuka Water : The Prime Water Experiment

Over the last several posts we’ve tested four of Obubu’s teas from all over Japan and all over the world. At least as much as one can do with eight waters, but it does illustrate an important fact. Depending on the water used to brew tea, the flavour of the tea can be drastically changed. […]

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 […]

Akky-san’s Autumn Tea Farm Report

Hey, everyone! How are you doing? Autumn is well on the way! Winter will be here before you know it! The cold weather has arrived😱! It’s so cold! It’s cold in the morning and evening, but it’s cold during the day too! The weather was kind of gloomy all day long. We’ve started harvesting the autumn bancha tea! The second harvest season […]

2021 New Tea!

2021 Obubu’s Shincha – New Tea Arrival In the middle of April in 2021, Wazuka town, where our farm is located, had a huge amount of damage from frost. Usually, at this point of the year, tea fields are full of beautiful fresh green new buds just like the photo below. And this is what […]

Hoji-chai Latte Recipe

Hi everyone, it’s been a long time! This is Marie from Obubu! As you already saw in the title of this post, today’s tea recipe is a delicious Hoji-chaï Latte! A lot of you may already know what Chai Tea is, but for people who have never tried this fantastic drink yet, “Chai” or “Masala […]

Genmaicha powder Focaccia

Focaccia is a popular italian flat bread made with wheat flour and olive oil and usually seasoned with herbs such as thyme, rosemary and oregano, or tomato. Here, I made a version with genmaicha ! It turns out that for some reason, I prepare dishes that require some preparation the day before…But as usual, you […]

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 […]

An Old Tea Box Revival

Hello everyone! How are you doing? I think there are many people who are having troubles or are having a hard time due to the influence of the new coronavirus. I hope that these things will come to an end quickly. At times like this, everyone is amazed with the power of Japanese tea. For […]

Non-traditional Tea Brewing Methods And Tools I Part I – Brewing With Siphon

By Giedre Trumpiene   Tea has thousands of years of history over which many different forms and brewing techniques have been developed. Interestingly, unusual brewing techniques and tools foreign to our current times can be read about or seen in museums – it is a great testament to the lengths that tea has evolved over time. […]

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 […]

Autumn Moon Sencha Production Day

  In September last year we started out our Autumn Harvest season with a harvest and production of our Autumn moon sencha. The field we harvested may be recognisable to some of our tea tour guests! We started the day by headed into the fields at 8:00am and made our way through the rows of […]

The Magic of Hojicha

    When asked ‘What is your favourite tea?’, one tea which I find myself drinking every day is Hojicha it’s soothing, robust and always a good choice. I may be bias on my opinion for this tea, however, once you have tasted this tea you will feel the same I have no doubt!   […]