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Sam Butarbutar

@biencuitpapi

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🇮🇩🏳️‍🌈 - baker, tea nerd, weightlifter
Culinary Director - @thirdculturebakery

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Day 3: Rare Hojicha Factory🍂
🍂 Roasting hojicha is a very power consuming process, the giant ovens needed to roast the tea leaves to make hojicha is bigger than a large bedroom and two stories tall! So not a lot of facilities exist because it’s too much to build and maintain.

Our partners have a roasting facility on their property and generously showed us the process! The entire place was covered in fine brown tea dust.

You can smell the chocolatey, malty, roastedness of the hojicha and it was all such a sensory explosion from the moment you stepped in with all your protective gear. We are soooo grateful for our tea partners and their friendship! How lucky are we!

These facilities are closed to the public so this was such a special treat to be able to take folks behind the scenes to see. And only available on Third Culture Travel tours!🍂✨

#matcha #teatours #japantravel

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Day 3: Private Matcha Stone Mills!
We got to see over 70+ stone mills in action! Did you know that EACH stone mill only makes 40 grams of matcha per hour. Nonstop.

Like.. that only makes like 8 drinks at our cafe! Insane 🤯

Then after milling, the fine matcha powder gets sifted through 16 mesh layers in a machine that rolls and bumps the matcha around. Then the ultra fine powder is ready to be packaged and sent to us in Berkeley, CA or wherever it needs to go!

It’s such a craft and skill that’s been honed and perfected for generations - that lets us drink this beautiful green drink 🥺 How truly special this is. That we get to enjoy hundreds of years of tradition, craft, and mastery in every cup 🍃💚

#matcha #teatour #fyp #fypシ❤️💞❤️

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Day 3: Invitation Only Tea Factory Tour🍃
we were invited and welcomed to buy our wonderful tea partners in Uji to Tour, the insides of a large Commercial tea factory in active production! This is a side of Japan and tea that not even many locals get to see in their lifetime.

Through the relationships that we have cultivated and cherished over many years, this is all possible because of the partners we have in Japan that we get to call our friends. They welcomed us into their busy day and showed us the inner workings of processing a fresh harvest batch of tea. First the sorting, washing and steaming, and drying process.

We are so grateful to have our on-the-ground team member Narumi-san translate and tell the story of the tea producers! And really bring the process to life for our retreat guests. This is such a special part of tea that’s close to the public, and we’re so excited to share with our Third Culture fam!

Xoxo
Sam & Wenter

#matcha
#japantravels
#fyp #fypシ❤️💞❤️

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Day 2: Chasen Museum!
The ONLY Chasen museum in all of Japan in Takayama - this Chasen museum is set against a beautiful bamboo forest, where Chef Sam made us matcha to enjoy!

The Takayama area is famous for making tea whisks (chasen). Local families have been passing down the trade for 500 years. The whisks are made from bamboo which grows across the area. This traditional garden features a bamboo forest, with 50 different species of bamboo!

They generously toured us the very private tea room located on the museum property, which was so special!

This and MORE when you travel with Third culture!💚💚💚💚💚💚

#matcha #teatour #retreat #thirdculturebakery

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Day 2: Chasen Master Class!
A very famous literal master of Chasen (matcha bamboo whisk) from generations of chasen makers, he welcomed us into his private home and studio and shared with us the many steps and precision that it takes to make each Chasen.

Seeing a solid piece of bamboo cut by hand into 80+ pieces and then shaved and carved so precisely and exactly - it left us all speechless and inspired.

And then him and his wife served us matcha and it was just one of the most special moments. Truly incredible.

This is a meeting and class that the general public do not have access to and he accepts. So we are so grateful they welcomed us into their home and were willing to share his private craft with our retreat group, through our meticulously beloved relationships we’ve cultivated over the years.

See Kyoto and other parts of the world like no other, only on Third Culture Travels ✈️✨

#matcha #retreat #teatour #thirdculturebakery

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Day 1: Chawan Making!
Part of immersing into the world of matcha for us is getting to know each of the major components of matcha and its tools - so we took our guests to make their own chawans (matcha bowls)!

It was a beautiful experience getting to work with your hands and feel the earth transform beneath them. Everyone made such unique pieces! And in a few weeks time, once the bowls are finished - they’ll be sent to our guests home so they can take a piece of Kyoto at home with them to remember their trip by.

We meticulously designed this retreat so that each guest will engage with not just the matcha as a beverage, but the beautifully rich and important tools that support matcha making. From chawans, to the chasens (whisks), and more.

We finished the night with a beautiful soba dinner - at one of our personal favorite soba restaurants in Kyoto! Beautiful dashi sauce, perfectly fried tempura, and side dishes to complete the meal.

#matcha #matcharetreat #teatour #thirdculturebakery

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Our first ever matcha retreat; day one!

We’ve been planning this for over a year and now it’s all finally happening! seeing it all come together and the beautiful 10 humans that trusted us to show them our side of Kyoto has been so touching and rewarding and inspiring.

We built this tour to not only show people a deeper look into the world of matcha, but we wanted to shed light on all the intricacies that make matcha so that people know all the work it takes to bring a bowl of matcha to life. We hope to inspire folks to protect Uji cha (and Uji Matcha) and to cherish the craft of Japanese matcha.

Day one we kicked off the tour with an immersive farm experience to learn all things cultivar, harvesting and processing techniques, and feel the tea through each sensory channel!

#matcha #tealovers #thirdculturebakery

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He has his father’s eyes🥹🥹

#humor #coupleshumor #couples #fyp

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Never lonely when thinking about Third Culture Bakery🍩🍵🥹

#donuts #matcha
#fyp #fypシ❤️💞❤️

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Hey Mochi fam, Sam here!

it’s crazy to think that when I first started making mochi muffins in my Home kitchen back in 2014, I was just making a dozen or two at a time while I had a full-time job and doing pop-ups on the weekends. That feels like another life now when I think about it.

I feel so lucky that I get to walk into a kitchen with people who are just as dedicated and passionate about baking as I was all those years ago - like Lucia here who has been with us since 2019.

Lucia is now overseeing and helping me manage the thousands of donuts and muffins that we bake and send out into the world each day. If you see Lucia at our Berkeley showroom and kitchen, please say hello and show her some love!

Because all these donuts and muffins that you enjoy either from our shops or your local coffee shop, were lovingly made possible by Lucia and her team of extraordinary bakers who are also mothers, Sisters, Strong inspiring human beings.

And in addition to our amazing pastries, I’m beyond proud that we get to serve another immigrant justice, supporting organization with amazing espresso - @1951coffee thank you Doug and Team for making our espresso dreams come true to pair with our beautiful mochis.

Love,
Sam

#smallbusiness #bts #bakerylife #thirdculturebakery

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Hello mochi fam! Your bakery dads here.

About a month ago, we quietly introduced our first Koicha matcha (濃茶: meaning thick tea) onto our permanent menu in Berkeley and we really didn’t know how it was going to be received. Were people ready? Would they understand the specialness of this thick matcha? Would people be into it?

Safe to say, after selling over 200 beautiful cups of the thick matcha, people were into it.

And tomorrow we embark on our journey to Kyoto to host our first ever matcha retreat - where we are taking a group of 10 people through a curated learning experience and seeing behind the scenes of where our Matcha comes from. Including seeing the behind-the-scenes making of this specialty thick Koicha matcha.

We are so thankful for all the support, and for so many people loving on our matcha that we painstakingly source and maintain its quality through careful and very thoughtful relationship, relationships with farmers, producers, and many other vendors that make it possible. And to are Japanese team member that’s on the ground making all the logistics possible, Narumi san, we thank you🫶

Follow along in our stories as we show you our side of Kyoto and beyond for the next few weeks.

Always,
Sam & Wenter

#matcha #smallbusiness

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September things in no particular order

#yayarea

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