“This smells super roasty. Like bordering on burnt? But the burnt aroma doesn’t translate as much to the flavor. Definitely more like a traditional hojicha. Nice and toasty, slightly caramelly.” Read full tasting note
“Sticks! I think it’s very cute that each of the different types of kukicha in this sampler has a different little bird on it. It smells like. roasted sticks! With maybe a hint of sweetness. But...” Read full tasting note
“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...” Read full tasting note
Smooth with a rounded finish, Suzume has a warm sweetness with hints of mocha. Pale pink in color, this roasted Kukicha offers aromas of wood smoke and apricot. Made from the stems of summer harvest Tencha leaves, Suzume is a rustic and mellow tea.
Taste: Astringent
Body: Light
Texture: Rounded
Length: Short
Harvest: July
Tea Cultivar: Yabukita
Origin: Wazuka
Cultivation: Unshaded
Processing: Steamed, Dried, Roasted
It started with a single cup of tea. As the legend goes, our president Akihiro Kita, or Akky-san, visited Wazuka, Kyoto one fateful day. At the time, Akky-san was still a college student in search for life's calling. After trying the region's famous Ujicha (literally meaning tea from the Uji district), he immediately fell in love and his passion for green tea was born. He had finally found what he was looking for in that one simple cup of tea. After fifteen years of learning to master the art of growing tea from tea farmers in Wazuka, Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms was born and as they say, the rest is history. So what's an Obubu? Obubu is the Kyoto slang for tea. Here in the international department we call ourselves Obubu Tea. That's "Tea Tea" for the bilinguals. We love tea so much, we just had to have it twice in our name. Now Obubu means more than just tea to us. It means, family, friends, passion and the place we call home. More than just tea. Though the roots of Obubu stem from tea, it has become more than that over the years. Obubu is an agricultural social venture, operating with three (1) bring quality Japanese tea to the world (2) contribute to the local and global community through tea (3) revitalize interest in tea and agriculture through education.