Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms

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Another one where I was saving my last packet to share with a friend, then got a restock from the September subscription box!

Love, love, love this one. Soft and comforting, with strong nutty and grainy notes that almost make it genmaicha-esque. Mellow yet still flavorful, and so cozy for the evening especially.

Gives me all the autumn vibes by tasting like a hay ride!

Pseudo-sipdown. Another one that I have one packet left, which will be shared with a friend.

I love this one. It’s so different from spring and even summer sencha, with no umami at all. The leaves are enormous and there are many stems mixed in. It has a very smooth and nutty flavor, with oodles of sweet hay and dry grass. More grainy than vegetal, but there is a bit of bok choy in there. It’s brothy. There are even some woody, autumn leaf-y notes that make me think of hojicha. A clear, sweet aftertaste lingers on the tongue.

To me it just screams “autumn”. An unusual and wonderful tea that will certainly make its way back into my cupboard.

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Finished off my 40g package of this one! I still have some individually wrapped samples from the subscription, but I’m counting it as a sipdown anyway! :D

I just wrote about this tea yesterday, so I don’t have much more to say. Love the mellow flavor of this autumn sencha, and the gentle, almost white-tea-like oat and hay notes combined with light vegetal and toasted seaweed flavors and very faint sakura-like floral notes..

This will definitely be a permanent cupboard resident!

So I’m going to make an effort to write shorter notes, as I find when I’m reading through others’ notes my eyes sort of glaze over when notes are longer, and I really enjoy those that are more concise.

I really enjoyed this one! It had such a light and mellow flavor with sweet dry grass, hay, and oats in the early steeps. A soft vegetal note, like edamame or lima beans was pervasive throughout, and a light floral appeared in the later steeps. Loved the gentle roasted-seaweed-like umami presence as well, and the refreshing astringency.

Light, soft, smooth, and comforting! Very different from the Spring sencha!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJxPVRiglig/

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I was organizing my Obubu subscription packets by date, as I’ve created a section on my tea nook counter specifically for sipping down Obubu teas, and found that I only had one 5g packet of this tea left for the 2020 harvest. Hooray, easy sipdown! :3

For some reason I never remember this sencha, not sure why that is. It has a lovely light and sweetly creamy vegetal flavor, and also a soft dry grass note that makes me think of tall grass swaying gently in the breeze under the summer sun. A bit specific isn’t it, lol… Creamy edamame fades into a light nuttiness, like a less buttery cashew perhaps. Also getting a fair bit of sakura, especially in the aroma, though the essence also seems to float up from my mouth to my nasal cavity while I’m drinking the tea. There’s a refreshing astringency at the tail end of the sip. Obubu’s description mentions orange and cinnamon, huh? Clearly I’m missing something. :P

A lovely lighter sencha, perfect for a lazy afternoon tea break. Happily, I still have one more batch of this (more, always more :P), from the 2021 harvest. Oddly, Obubu seems to send this tea out at the end of the year, even though it’s a spring harvest. I wonder why that is…

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Technically I have another package of this tea, but it still counts because I said so! ;)

This is a lovely sencha. I was getting a lot of sakura notes this time around, which was so relaxing… Ahh…

A nice combination of mellow vegetal spinach, floral, and light umami notes. My second steep got a little bitter, I was using a new (and cute!) little jade-colored teapot and I must not have drained it enough after the first steep.

I’m happy and thankful that I still have more of this gentle sencha to enjoy at a later date! ❤

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ7eYSuAOgO/

Had a lovely little session with this one this evening, along with my little handmade kyusu from a Ukrainian potter on Etsy. I did 3 steeps – 60s, 15s, and 45s.

This is such a smooth and mellow tea, yet still very flavorful. It has the trademark sencha umami and vegetal spinach notes, but also a really lovely nuttiness that reminds me a bit of dragonwell, and also some nice grainy notes. The umami is rather gentle, and there’s a light but present sakura note that I really enjoyed. And at the end of the sip, a clear sweetness paired with a lighter, more nectarous floral note.

I’ll have to tinker a bit with my steeping parameters on this one, as the second and especially the third steep came out a bit astringent. But still a delicious tea nonetheless!

This is the first of a huge assortment of Obubu Tea Farms samplers I received from Cameron B. Many Japanese tea shops are either 100g or nothing so it’s nice to be able to find samples for a change and try a bunch of teas.

Despite being a Japanese tea, this tea has more in common with Chinese green tea both in appearance and flavor. The first thing that I noticed was the whole, unbroken leaves – a departure from the mix of dust and particles that most sencha resembles – and similar to pine needle shaped Chinese tea. Ironically, this is the first Japanese tea aside from Kamairicha that I managed to brew successfully in my shiboridashi without clogging.

The dark green leaves have a mellow seaweed aroma that changes to toasted nori when heated. The first steep produced a pale yellowish-green liquor that smelled like lightly cooked Asian vegetables. The taste of the tea is like a gentle ocean breeze. Soft vegetal tones, smooth body, and silken texture. Obubu mentions chamomile notes which I picked up as well. The second infusion was similar with a whisper of sheng like earthiness. This tea lacks the grassiness and umami that you typically find in sencha. I feel like this one really allows you to taste the terroir the tea was grown on.

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As is tradition, the first sipdown of the year!

I enjoyed this with a beautiful osechi-ryori set that I pre-ordered and picked up from a small local Japanese market. Such a lovely variety of dishes, and a few new ones that I’d never tried before! Of course, not everything was my favorite, but it was so fun to eat and brought me right back to the kaiseki-style meals I had in Japan a few years ago…

Anyway, the tea. It honestly wasn’t my favorite this year for some reason? The tea itself was a bit floral and almost soapy to my palate, I’m not sure why. It also didn’t really taste like a shaded tea, though it’s usually their Sencha of the Wind, which is shaded for two weeks. Maybe it was the way I steeped it somehow? Regardless, a little disappointing for me this time around, but still a perfectly pleasant cup of tea with a lovely meal. :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm46Xl8u5Xq/

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First sipdown of the year with a New Year tea! Happy New Year, tea friends!

This is Obubu’s version of obukucha, or good fortune tea. It’s a tea traditionally drunk around the new year to bring good luck. I’ve had a few different versions before, some having genmaicha or other bases, and usually with some form of gold flake to symbolize prosperity. This one is a sencha base – their Sencha of the Wind to be exact – and then it comes with little packets of dried ume and konbu knots to add into your cup, and then gold leaf to sprinkle on top.

It’s tasty! Sencha of the Wind is a shaded (or kabuse) sencha, so it has a slightly intense deep umami flavor with a good bit of sweetness. Not quite to the gyokuro level of intensity, but halfway there. Very deep and rich spinach notes that make you feel like you’re drinking a healthy smoothie, in a good way. And then the ume adds a nice tart fruity note to it, and the konbu adds salinity and a slightly different umami note. There’s also a nice, almost slippery silkiness that’s probably coming from the konbu as well.

Obubu sends this one out every year in their December box, and I’m actually still a year behind, so I’m drinking the obukucha I received at the end of 2020. I’ll try to remember to sip down my new 2021 packet this year so I’ll be caught up next January, ha ha! :P

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYNFEC8uOng/

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Finishing off my packet of this from 2020 – I still have the packet left that they sent for this last New Year’s. I did two steeps and combined them in one of my usual teapots, then added a few plums and konbu knots.

I think I underestimated the effect of the plums, because wow! This has quite a noticeable umeboshi-like savory fruity flavor to it. There’s also a touch of bitterness, probably because it sat for a while before I got around to drinking it. Those dastardly particles in the bottom always do that, the jerks…

But it’s still yummy! The base is Sencha of the Wind, which is a kabuse sencha, so it has a nicely concentrated and rich umami flavor and notes of steamed spinach. I’m also getting a piney note that’s very pleasant. And then there’s the salty-tart ume and marine konbu. It’s really almost like drinking a broth!

I actually have a powdered ume and konbu “tea” that I picked up at this lovely umeboshi shop in Kyoto, and this is reminding me of a less salty version of that!

Happy New Year!

My mom is currently visiting me, so we shared the pot of this as she was interested in trying Japanese tea. This obukucha is Obubu’s Sencha of the Wind, plus kelp knots, tiny dried umeboshi, and gold flakes. I left my plum and kelp in the cup through all three steeps, and then ate both at the end.

This was fun to try! I’ve had the Sencha of the Wind very recently, so I’m familiar with it. It has a mellow and smooth vegetal flavor with a nice umami note. The kelp here really accentuated that seaweed-like umami flavor, and the plum added a nice salty and tart fruity note. And the gold was pretty, of course!

What a fun and festive tea for the new year! And my mom loved it, too! ❤

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJhs8R9Am_7/

DIY Kyoto Obubu Advent Calendar – Day 2

Ahhh…

So glad I saved this for last, since those last two weren’t super successful. It’s nice to have a sure thing to enjoy at the end of the day! This is a wonderful kuki-hojicha, toasty and cozy and all the good things. And today I’m actually getting a distinct black sugar note! Along with lovely autumn leaves and toasted grains.

Just… yes. :)

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Trying to get back into the habit of having a cup of Obubu tea every day, in an effort to get through the crazy amount of backlogged subscription teas I have from them. And we won’t even discuss the many full-size packages that I’m conveniently ignoring… ^^’

I really need to drink more hojicha, it’s perfect for fall! This has a lovely smooth toasty flavor with notes of fallen leaves and damp wood. There’s a grassiness to it as well that’s a bit… sharp? I don’t know how to describe what I mean, ha ha. It’s adding some astringency as well. There are some mild vegetal notes as well, something hearty and earthy like kale. Definitely tasting roasted nuts, I don’t know if I would specifically pick out pecan (which is what the description lists) but it’s in that general area. Maybe pecan or walnut skin? It lacks the richness of the actual nut and there’s a slight bitterness to it. And underneath is a deep caramelized flavor that adds dimension but not sweetness, and a touch of charcoal.

Anyway, it’s good, definitely quite savory for a hojicha. I just refilled the Obubu section of my countertop sipdown area, and there are some other roasted teas in there, hooray! :)

Sipdown! It was a 5g packet, but still counts! After this, the only single packets I have left are all gyokuro, which I’m a bit hesitant to try until I’ve had a few more sencha. The dry leaf here had a lovely warm chestnut brown color. The pieces looked quite a bit smaller than the Tsubame hoji-kukicha, like they were made from slimmer stems.

I wasn’t feeling the kyusu tonight, so I did a sort of hybrid method. Still the same amount of leaf to water, but in a baby teacup with a wire basket instead of a traditional pot. My three steeps were 30s, 15s, and 45s. The steeped tea had a beautiful amber-chestnut color to it.

This actually has a mellower flavor than I expected given the color. Lovely soft wood and autumn leaf notes as usual, but it also has a mineral char that reminds me of a roasted oolong. I also taste more umami notes than I generally get in hojicha, and they’re similar to toasted seaweed. There’s an underlying richness that reminds me of dark caramel, but without the sweetness.

I feel like I’m describing all of these roasted tea the same way, hah… It would be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison to see how they really differ. Hopefully the notes aren’t terribly repetitive! >.<

DIY Kyoto Obubu Advent Calendar – Day 24

Happy Christmas Eve, tea friends!

Currently lounging on the couch with puglets in my lap, watching Polar Express with a big mug of this tea alongside a mug of hot chocolate from my Whittard advent calendar. Pure bliss, ha ha…

This is perhaps my favorite from Obubu, such a soft and mellow hojicha with sweet honey/maple syrup notes, hints of dried fruit, and that toasty autumn leaf base that just warms the soul. I certainly knew what I was doing when I saved this tea for Day 24, he he…

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Finishing off my oldest batch of this lovely tea. Happily I still have a truly massive 300g bag that I haven’t opened yet.

This is such a comforting tea for me. It has the cozy roastiness of standard hojicha, but in a softer, lighter form. The gentler flavor makes it perfect for a bedtime brew, though I also enjoy it any time of day. There’s a subtly sweet dried fruitiness as well, that reminds me of golden raisins, dried apricots, and perhaps figs.

Yummy. And insanely inexpensive! Win-win.

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Yum, this is one of my favorites from Obubu, and possibly my favorite hojicha full-stop.

It has such a light and mellow roasted flavor that’s not overpowering, and a lovely clear sweetness that lingers on the tongue. Notes of roasted nuts and grains, and crispy autumn leaves. And perhaps a hint of fruitiness, like sweet golden raisins.

And bonus, because of the maturity of the leaves and the roasting, it’s virtually caffeine-free! Oh-so-comforting and cozy for the evening.

This is the end of my bigger pouch of this, luckily Obubu just sent this out in the March subscription box, so I have a fresh 25 grams!

I adore this tea…

It’s a roasted green tea that’s made from the leaves that survive the winter – they’re harvested in March. There’s no rolling in the processing, so it looks somewhat like a bai mudan tea with giant fluffy leaves. There are also large stems included that are very twig-like in appearance.

The flavor is similar to other roasted Japanese teas but super mellow and sweet. It’s a mix of dry autumn leaf with plenty of lightly roasted grain and nuts. There’s a gentle lingering sweetness and subtle notes of honey and sweet dried fruit – fig perhaps?.

Yummy. This definitely needs to be a staple in my cupboard. And apparently because of the nature of the harvest and the roasting, it has virtually no caffeine. Always a bonus!

DIY Kyoto Obubu Advent Calendar – Day 11

Hojichaaaaaa! :D

The second of Obubu’s kuki-hojicha, this one has larger stems than Tsugumi, though they are both from the same harvest. Tsugumi seems more like the veins of the leaves and smaller auxiliary stems, while this one is the hardier ones.

Delicious and nutty, with quite a deep toasty flavor. There’s a touch of smokiness as well, though it’s not quite as strong as a campfire. More of a charcoal, mineral smoke than a savory one. There is a soft sweetness to it, and toasty coffee notes. In fact, it is reminding me quite a bit of coffee.

So cozy and nice for the cooler weather. Loving this DIY advent! :3

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Finishing off my one straggler sample packet.

This is a lovely hoji-kukicha. It’s mellow and soft with a nice nuttiness to it, like toasted pecans and perhaps a touch of hazelnut. There’s also a gentle sweetness and grainy barley notes.

So very cozy and comforting, but not too overwhelmingly roasted. I would definitely consider restocking this, though their Kyobancha is one of my faves…

So after packing up a lovely Obubu sampler pack to send off, I was inspired to sit down with one of the (many) teas. This is a hoji-kukicha, or a roasted stem tea. Since matcha is made only from leaf material, the leftover stems are then processed into kukicha. In this case, the stems are roasted after their usual processing. This seems to be the lighter of their two hoji-kukicha teas.

I was surprised by a darker color and flavor than I was expecting when I steeped this tea. I used boiling water, and the steeps were 30, 15, and 45 seconds. The color was a light-to-medium brownish amber, which is very different from the product photo. I would call this a medium roast, with flavors of roasted pecans, coffee, damp wood, and wood smoke. The flavor was quite assertive overall, and I didn’t find a lot of subtleties in it. The third steep became a bit milder, and I felt I could start to taste some caramel or perhaps dried fruit notes. The smoke note was fairly light, and lent a warm and comforting “sitting ’round a cozy fire” sort of feeling.

I think next time perhaps I will shorten the first steep a bit more. I also wonder if the difference in color and strength could have been due to the fact that I used a sealed 5g packet, so there was likely a higher proportion of broken leaf than there would have been from the top portion of a full packet.

Still delicious, just not what I was expecting!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJClNxMgqGH/

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Definitely making better progress on sipping these Obubu teas since I made it one of my goals for the year (and made a tracker spreadsheet, obviously). I have a lot to go through, and I’m not sure I’ll ever get to the point where I’m keeping up the tea club shipments, but it would be nice to be only a year or two behind LOL!

Anyway, this still tastes delicious despite being from September of 2022. This is one of their hojicha that’s made from sencha rather than bancha, I want to say a summer sencha in this case? So it definitely has a grassier, greener, and sharper flavor to it IMO. Not overly sharp, but moreso than their basic hojicha. A bit more intensity as well, though I did also overleaf this cup so I wouldn’t have the dreaded half-cup’s-worth of tea left over. Anyway, still nicely toasty and woodsy with a little bit of roasted nut in there as well. A cozy tea for the cold weather we’re having here in Austin.

DIY Kyoto Obubu Advent Calendar – Day 19

So toasty! Honestly this might be the more intense-tasting of their hojicha, even though it’s not the darkest roast. It just has quite a strong toasty, woody flavor to it with a hint of bitterness. It’s not necessarily smoky, but it reminds me of being around a campfire and the way wood smells when the moisture is escaping and making steam. That’s weirdly specific, but there you are lol.

Not my favorite of their hojicha, but still so tasty.