Shop for Mulberry Tea & Mulberry Tea Powder from Mr. Sato
At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, my life changed forever.
Until that day, I owned a croquette store in the city of Kesennuma, one of the cities devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. As soon as I could recover from the initial shock, I ran to check on my wife and my mother, then led them to an evacuation shelter.
Then, I rushed around the town, instructing anyone and everyone to evacuate. When the tsunami hit, I barely managed to climb to safety in a nearby office building.
Magnitude: 9.0, Intensity: lower 6
The height of the tsunami when it reached my home was seven meters (23 feet).
Peering out from a small window in the office building I was in, all I could do was watch as my house was washed away.
After two long days, I was finally able to see my family again. Since our home had been destroyed, we had no choice but to live in a shelter for two months. It was terrible! Fortunately, we have now been moved to temporary housing, which is a great improvement. I have been chosen to be the head of this new community, and I make it my responsibility to develop a sense of community among the residents.
Since I had lost my home and my livelihood, I was at a total loss of what to do next. An acquaintance of mine, a farmer, began to talk to me about the possibility of earning a living with Kuwacha.
I did lose my house and my own little store, but I DID NOT lose my family. For my family’s sake, as well as for my own, I thought this would be my last chance to possibly move forward, considering my age. So, I determined that through the Kuwa Cha business I would contribute to the reconstruction and recovery of our lives in Kesennuma.
The leaves of mulberry that are used for Kesennuma Kuwacha are grown chemical-free by contracted farmers in the Shishiori area in the city of Kesennuma, and in the town of Minamisanriku.
The tea leaves are plucked in the morning and refined, avoiding nutrient loss. The end product features a delicate sweetness and is deep green in color.
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]]>To attend, signup here: http://obubutea.com/about/obubu-world-tours/tea-party-in-london/
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]]>The post Obubu World Tour – Europe 2013 appeared first on YUNOMI.
]]>Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms has a mission to bring Japanese Tea to the world and help spread Japanese tea culture and its centuries-long values of harmony and peace. Not only have we welcomed visitors from around the world to learn more about and enjoy Japanese tea with us, and have invited international students to join us on a unique internship program to deepen their knowledge of tea industry. Every year our president Akky-san and our vice president Matsu-san also set out on a trip to visit far away countries to build an international Japanese tea lovers community. Since 2004, Obubu’s visits include several different places in the United States, such as Colorado, New York, Hawaii, etc., while 2012 was dedicated to pay a tribute to Tohoku region in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. Having built some strong connection in the US, in 2013 Obubu Tea turns to Europe and plans to visit the United Kindgom, Hungary, Germany and France with the aim to spring the love for Japanese tea there. You can find our itinerary below, the information of which will be shared all the way before the trip with frequent updates while on it. If you would like to meet us in your country or would like to help us on the trip, please get in touch.
09/26 – Tea Event in London
09/27 – Tea Seminar in Sheffield
09/28 – Tea Tasting Event in Preston
09/29
09/30 – Tea Event in Budapest
10/01
10/02 – Tea Party in Dusseldorf
10/03 – Tea Event in Dusseldorf
10/04
10/05 – Tea Event in Paris
10/06 – Tea Party in Paris
10/07
10/08 – Tea Seminar in Lyon
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]]>The post The Kinezuka family of NaturaliTea wins National Award appeared first on YUNOMI.
]]>From the time my father first started farming tea without pesticides 39 years ago, we have held tea picking events and events for consumers and students from across Japan. And now, the younger generation continues this not only with green tea but also making black tea, rice planting and harvesting in the rice paddies, miso making events, participating in organic farmers markets, accepting farm work volunteers, doing tea field tours for both japanese and foreign visitors. This diversified [effort to bridge people with food creation] was recognized by this award.
There is a mountain of issues we must deal with as mountain based farms, including an aging population, abandoned fields, etc. but we have been supported as we gather people, benefiting from the great energy that is created when we see your eyes dazzle as you experience nature. I feel from this that farming not only about making food, but about creating a spirit that helps people live rich lives. We’re only halfway there though. If farm villages have more vitality then society will change. I want to continue the work of bridging people and nature.
And finally, this award was possible because of all of you who supported us in our production efforts and cheered us on. Thank you very much!!!
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]]>The 13th Annual Japan National Black Tea Summit ended and our owner Okamoto has returned from a business trip to Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture.
Next year, the summit will be held in Shimoda city, Shizuoka Prefecture. If you are interested, please write it down in your calendar “National Black Tea Summit on November 1st and 2nd”.
Recently, we have been tasting water that is to be used at our new shop.
However, some water is high in mineral, and looking for the perfect balance between hard and soft water is not as easy as we thought… we haven’t been able to find the right water.
The tasting session will continue.
If there is any water that you recommend, please contact Creha and let us know.
It’s the last day of the holiday.
I hope you all have a great day.
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]]>Today we are having a study session on black tea “Mellow Umegashima”.
Produced in the deep mountains of Shizuoka city, Shizuoka prefecture, black tea of Umegashima is mellow and sweet.
Due to the limited production amount, we do not them in stock either.
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]]>Shincha season is on its way this year.
This year marks our 39th year of the tea picking event we have been holding to share the beautiful shincha green tea field.
We are expecting people from different parts of the world to gather in our shincha tea field. Events such as tea picking, hand-rolling tea, horseback riding will be held for both adults and children to enjoy.
【Date and Time】
April 25(Sat) – 26(Sun), 2015
(from 1:00PM on 25th until after lunch on 26th)
【Venue】
Yamabiko Space; 1417 Takizawa, Fujieda-shi, Shizuoka Prefecture
【Fee】
Adults 7,000 yen
Children(Elementary-junior high: additional fee for beddings) 4,000 yen
(Fee includes Shincha gift, 3 meals, alcohol and drinks for get-together dinner. Partial participation available).
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]]>Due to public concerns about radiation contamination from the Fukushima incident, everyone has been suffering even though our 2011 tea leaves were well under safety limits. (73 Bq/kg last year vs 500 Bq/kg. The standard is now 100 Bq/kg in Japan, and as far as we know, still 1200 Bq/kg in the U.S. Our 2011 first flush shincha tea leaves were disposed of since we were aiming for much safer levels.)
The discussion turned silent as no one had an answer on how to combat the effects of bad public image for Shizuoka tea. What can we do going forward? 2012 tea looks to be almost completely radiation free (test results due in the beginning of May), but the effects of bad public image continue in Japan. It is not the fault of consumers, who feel safe once they talk to producers like us. However, when there are levels of distribution (distributor > retailer > consumer), the relationship of trust breaks down. Understandable, and hard to combat.
Producers, we need to find better ways to communicate through these levels of distribution. We need to find more points of sale. We have worked hard to produce delicious tea leaves, let’s not let them go to waste!
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]]>President and farmer
Vice president and business manager
Shipping manager
[/tab] [tab title=”Products”][product_category category=”obubu” per_page=”50″ columns=”4″ orderby=”price” order=”desc”][/tab] [tab title=”Blog”]Blog content goes here.[/tab] [tab title=”Profile”]LOCATION: Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture
GOOGLE MAP
ADDRESS: 1416-3 Takizawa Fujieda-shi, Shizuoka 426-0134, JAPAN
EMAIL:?organic@naturalitea.com
LANGUAGES: Japanese, some English
URL: http://naturalitea.com
[/tab] [/tabs]
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]]>[product id=”” sku=”TEA-NLT-KC001″]Toshiaki Kinezuka is the president of the Society to Connect People, Agriculture and Nature (i.e. NaturaliTea) in Shizuoka. In one generation has expanded his farm to involve his neighbors, and create a local tea production culture.
静岡県で「無農薬茶の会」の代表をされている杵塚氏は、一代で茶園を広げられ、近隣の農家さん達と協力しながら地元の茶生産文化を守ってらっ しゃいます。
You might say that the pioneering Toshiaki-san has tunnel vision. Inspired by Taiwanese oolong tea as a young man, he ventured to Taiwan to learn tea production there. And before anyone understood the value of agriculture without artificial, chemical-based pesticides and fertilizers, he was attempting to figure out how to produce delicious (what we now call) “organic” tea.
根っからの凝り性である杵塚さんは、台湾のウーロン茶に感動してその製法を学ぶために単身台湾に渡ったり、無農薬の茶にまだ理解が無い時代から、美味しい無農薬の緑茶を作るために大変な努力をされてきました。
When he started producing black tea as well, to really learn it right, he invited a master producer from Sri Lanka, and built a small tea processing facility based on Sri Lankan design. To complete it, he even imported machinery from Sri Lanka. To tell you the truth, even I have never seen anything like it in Japan (Okamoto-san writes this after being in the Japanese black tea business for a decade).
Of course, NaturaliTea’s main business is green tea. But instead of black tea being a product spin off, if he was going to create it, he wanted to create it well. I can only tip my hat to such dedication.
紅茶製造を始められる際も、より本格的な味を求め、スリランカから技師を招き、その指導のもと紅茶製造工場も設計されました。その為、機材、設備ともに本格的なスリランカ方式で、正直私も日本で見るのは初めてというものばかり。あくまで「我らの会の主役は緑茶」という考えではありますが、「ついでに作る」という発想ではなく、作るからには本格的な物を、という考え、そしてその意識の高さには頭がさがります。
Right now, daughter Ayumi-san is primarily in charge of black tea production at the Kinezuka’s farm. Ayumi-san, like her father Toshiaki-san, pays very close attention to details…recording data for each production lot. She’s very interested in seeing how each production creates a different flavor when she does her cupping later. Part of her research into creating Japanese black teas.
現在は、主に娘の歩さんが紅茶の製造を担当されています。歩さんもお父さんに負けずの凝り性で、ロット毎にすべてのデータを記録し、後の ティスティング結果を参考にしながら、日々研究を繰り返されています。
Black tea made from Yabukita tea plants are basically what we call 滋納 jina, or sweet / lacking in astringency. However, the Kinezuka’s Setoya Momiji is actually quite close to what we call a 望欄 bouran type – a black tea that is close to what is found in the Western tradition with a stronger flavor. So, don’t steep it too long to try to bring out the savoriness you usually find in Japanese black teas because it just isn’t there. I recommend a 3-4 minute steep.
やぶきたを使った紅茶は、基本的に「滋納」タイプが多いですが、瀬戸屋もみじは望欄タイプに近いので、あまり長く蒸らしすぎても旨みは出てき ません。ただ、あまり短いのも良さが引き出せませんので、3?4分がちょうど良いようです。
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]]>Akio is in charge of the actual farming, while elder brother Yuji is in charge of the business. At Yunomi.us, take our farm questions to Akio, and negotiate pricing and discuss strategy with Yuji.
]]>The post Yokota Blog: Teaching elementary students on tea appeared first on YUNOMI.
]]>As a cooperating store of the event, we taught them about the “competition on naming tea type” and “competition on tea steeping skills”.
We are wishing them the best and aim to become “Cha (tea, in Japanese) -mpion” at the event.
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]]>Brochure of the event: http://t.co/mmyoAFU45B (In Japanese only).
The brochure available only in Japanese. Sayamacha (Yokota Tea Farm) booth will be at C-1.
Image source: http://live3.info/
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]]> T-1 Grand Prix is a competition for elementary students held in various places to decide the tea champion.
The contents are:
Cha-llenge 1 (茶レンジ1, cha 茶 meaning tea) – quiz on tea related topic
Cha-llenge 2 (茶レンジ2) – quiz on choosing the types of tea
Cha-llenge 3 (茶レンジ3) – how to prepare/steep tea
There were all together 75 participants at this year’s Sayama Competition.
In the final round, 3 participants competed on tea steeping skills.
Being it a competition it is unavoidable to rank the participants, but it was a moment that I wished for these children to prepare tea at home, creating an environment to start a conversation and bring smiles to the family.
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]]>Snow in Sayama region was recorded for the first time in the past 5 years.
The newly grown buds seem to be freezing.
We are just hoping that the temperature will not drop so low overnight.
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Yunomi.us staff Mariko driving the tea tank (this kind of harvester used for flat fields feels like driving a tank)
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]]>What is this auction exactly? Well first, tea producers within the Kanto block (all prefectures north of Shizuoka) submit their finest products. Then these products are judged and ranked on their appearance, flavor, etc. After that (on 9/26 this year), an auction is held featuring all of the top-ranked tea products. This auction is not open to the public. However, Yokota-san was kind enough to invite me:
“If I say you’re part of the Yokota Tea Farm staff, they’ll let you in. Haruna-san, would you be interested in going as part of your study?”
I responded, “Yes, I’d love to go!” and he took me along!
There were a bunch of tea leaves inside a wooden box at the entrance…what do you think it’s for? Well, since part of checking the tea involves touching it with your fingers, you’re supposed to wash your hands in this tea before entering so that the smell of your hands doesn’t rub off onto the tea you touch later! Everyone was putting their hands in the box and washing them with tea leaves. How luxurious.
Inside the event area, everyone had already begun to inspect the various teas.
Since most of these tea-makers know each other, you could hear greetings and friendly conversations being exchanged all around.
According to Yokota-san, “Some of these people you only meet here, and some you meet everywhere, so at these auctions you do a lot of greeting and exchanging information. But in reality, they’re also trying to sniff out who’s going to bid how much for which teas.”
While looking at his own tea on display, Yokota-san remarked, “Shizuoka fukamushi-cha is yellower than Sayama fukamushi-cha. I tried to make ours yellower to match that, but when you put it next to the Shizuoka tea you can see it’s still greener.”
For the Regular Green Tea Finish Tea Division, Sayama tea (from Saitama prefecture) occupied 19 of the top 20 places! This was a complete contrast to Shizuoka’s dominance of the fukamushi-cha division. There were a few Shizuoka teas in the top places, but according to a certain tea-maker, “The people who make these kinds of teas have tried to make them as green as possible after learning that the auction would be held in Saitama. The really passionate tea-makers will go beyond that to find out who the judges will be and what their tastes are. These auctions are held in a lot of different prefectures, but there are some people who will show up no matter how far away it is.”
This is the FGTC Division. FGTC stands for Fresh Green Tea Competition. The FGTC Division is a place where a group of young (up to 40 years old) tea-makers from Saitama compete against each other in techniques for cultivating and producing Sayama tea. So only Saitama teas are exhibited in this division. Morita Tea Farm’s Morita-san’s son will be competing next year.
The auction began at 10:00 AM, and by noon the deadlines for bidding are already over for all divisions. Then at 3:00 PM, the results of the bidding are announced. The highest bid this time was ¥188,800 ($1,900 USD) for 1kg, and the lowest bid was ¥1,200 ($12 USD).
Since it is an auction, the product must be sold to whoever made the highest bid, no matter what the price turns out to be. Even if the only bid you get is a really low one, you can’t say “I don’t want to sell it this cheap.”
Because of this, tea producers use a “guaranteed minimum bid” method. For example, they’ll say to a bidder, “I don’t want to sell this tea for less than ¥5,000. Would you be willing to bid ¥5,000 on it? If someone bids higher, that’s great; if the bid goes to you, I’ll buy the product back afterwards.”
This was my first time to a tea auction, and I don’t think I’ll have many chances to see so many teas (over 300 types!) on display at one time again. Yokota-san, thank you very much for giving me this wonderful opportunity!
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]]>Good morning.
Yesterday’s snowfall remains in Sayama.
Please be careful of where you walk if you are leaving the house today.Today is Smiles Day (the words for 2 and 5 can be pronounced “nico” which is a word used for “smile”)
I hope you give someone a wonderful smile today!
FROM FEB 6th:
Today must be the coldest day of the year in Sayama.
And, it is Matcha Day. “2” and “6” can be pronounced “fu” and “ro”…”furo” which sounds like a bathtub, but actually in the tea ceremony, the fireplace area of a tea house used to boil water is called a “furo”. So, the Nishio Tea Trade Association named today Matcha Day in honor of the 120th Anniversary of the founding of Nishio Tea.
Matcha flavors in ice cream, cakes, and other sweets have become standard in Japan.
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]]>We’ve been having freak weather lately with hail coming down in northern Tokyo.
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]]>Farmer Fujiichi Morita blends Yabukita, Sayama-kaori, Fukumidori, Gokou, Komakage, Okumidori, Kanayamidori cultivars to create his tea products.
[products ids=”6911,7361,8056,8053″]
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]]>Oisakien is a tea brand, so they don’t own tea farms. But they rent some tea farms that were abandoned because the farmers are too old to work or they don’t have any successors.
Once in a year, this season, Oisakien members and local people pick the tea leaves together in those tea farms. The picked leaves will become Handpicked Sayama Black Tea Bag and Handpicked Sayama Black Tea with Genmai and Black Soybean.
Oisakien doesn’t use pesticide or herbicide for the farms. They only trim the trees once a year.
The farm for tea picking on Apr 29.
First, Yuuki-san, a Motohashi-san’s son, teaches us how to pick tea.
Every year, many local customers join the events. The old ladies in the picture say they come to the event for many years.
Motohashi-san picks tea like this almost every morning during the season.
Higa-san, a store staff of Oisakien, joined us in the middle.
I picked and picked for over 2 hours… still this much! Tea picking is a hard work!
A little girl also enjoyed tea picking! Look how much she picked!
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]]>The characters on the cards** used in Yabemura is 松竹梅鶴亀 (translated as pine 松, bamboo 竹, plum 梅, crane 鶴, and tortoise 亀). In the nation wide competition, they usually use the characters 花鳥風月客 (translated as flower 花, bird 鳥, wind 風, moon 月, and guest 客).
*Tocha is a tea tasting contest, or in ancient Japan, it was more of a game comparing the quality of teas.
** The cards represent each tea, and you taste each tea labeled with the card and guess what type of gyokuro or sencha it is. The paper is for the attendees to take notes upon deciding the answer.
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