Tea Escapade – Tea Blog Tea isn’t just about drinking…it’s an adventure!

Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto Japan

The history of Japanese tea begins with the birth of Japanese culture over a thousand years ago in the country’s ancient capitals of Nara and Kyoto. Though today the region produces only 3% of the tea in Japan, Ujicha, named after the city of Uji just south of Kyoto, is the most sought after tea in the country.

It is also where I learned not only to speak Japanese but where I first really immersed myself in Japanese culture and society, some 12 years ago.  I have come full circle in partnering with Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations to help promote their Ujicha to the world.

12 years ago, I was a college junior full of wonder at the fascinating country that is Japan. And I distinctly remember how my homestay family never drank water. Never. “Are you thirsty?” “Yes.” And, before me on the table would be a glass of cold houjicha (roasted green tea). My host mother, despite rarely cooking traditional Japanese dishes, never failed to have houjicha—iced in the summer, hot in the winter—ready to serve.

Fast forward 12 years later. Through an extraordinary set of coincidences (some might call it fate), I became the overseas marketing agent for two young farmers in Kyoto in January 2010. They’re passionate about tea…so passionate that while discussing business strategy one day, VP Matsumoto “Matsu”, chatting away about the differences he sees between American and Japanese beverage cultures, suddenly stands up…on his chair, “Yosh! Yaru zo!” All right! Let’s do it! I met Matsu first, and his passion all but sucked me into his business (and inspired me to start my own marketing company to help other Japanese businessmen like him).

Obubu’s president Akihiro “Akky” Kita

However, it wasn’t until March that I first went to the tea fields maintained by Obubu’s president Akihiro “Akky” Kita. If Matsu is the business, Akky is the farm. I knew his story—he gave up college life to become a tea farmer after drinking farm fresh tea. There aren’t too many photos of Akky around. He’s shy apparently.

Shy? Yes, and he makes up for it in pure silliness! The first of Obubu’s tea fields that I saw, that rainy day (never visit a tea field with me, I am an ame otoko—a “rain man”) was a muddy puddle filled with rocks and two silly guys (Akky and his apprentice Kenji) doing the silliest welcome dance. What have I gotten myself into???

Despite the rain, Matsu took me on a tour of the fields, continuing my crash course on tea farming so that I can answer your farming questions in English. Even in the rain—I have now visited 3 times this year and it rained each time, even in July—tea fields are pure beauty.

The dark, moist soil between the hedges are weeded by hand as our intern Diego can attest to, and between your fingers you can feel the richness. There is usually less than a foot of space between hedges, so the dampness of the rain soaks your pants as you walk through them. In July, I had the chance to meet a few of Obubu’s Japanese Tea Club members, who consider themselves “owners” and help maintain the farm through their monthly subscription. We picked, hand-rolled, and hand-roasted fresh tea leaves together as they used to do in the past. Watching Akky help the visitors roll and roast the leaves, going from group to group smelling them in the cup of his hands, mixing them in the hot pan without gloves (rough farmers skin are a natural glove he says), you can see the passion he has for both the leaves and for giving visitors a memorable visit to the farm. My visits have certainly been memorable, and now that Obubu offers private tours to accommodate tourists’ travel schedules, we hope that you will make the trip and take in the beauty of tea fields yourself.

About the Author

Ian Chun is the Co-founder & President of Matcha Latte Media.  Additionally, as the Overseas Marketing Agent of Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations, his passion for tea is quite apparent.