Obukucha — Sencha

Obukucha is an auspicious tea served on celebratory occasions such as New Year, Setsubun and weddings, in the hope of happiness and good health.

Sencha from Shizuoka is blended with fukuume plum, brown rice and gold leaf, giving a fresh taste in which the sweetness of the tea, the tartness of the plum and the toasted brown rice come together.

In Kyoto and the wider Kansai region there is a custom of drinking obukucha at New Year, to clear away the misfortune of the year and welcome the new one.
Obukucha is said to date from the Heian period, when, during an epidemic, a monk gave tea to the sick and they recovered.
Following this, the emperor of the time began to take tea each New Year's Day.
Drinking tea then spread as a New Year observance, and the tea the emperor took came to be called oubukucha, the tea of the sovereign.
At some point the auspicious tea for celebrating the new year became known as obukucha, and by one account it has been passed down in that form to the present day.

Please consider obukucha for your own celebrations.

Specifications

All sizes other than the 10-tea-bag pack are bulk goods, supplied in aluminium packaging. The 10-tea-bag pack is the retail format for the Japanese market.