2026 Winter Europe Tour Summary

24 & 25 January・Muyō teahouse, Helsinki FINLAND

The wonderful Xinyuan and Peng from Muyō & Teemaa tea house welcomed us for 2 workshops: one on Nagasaki tea in general, and the other focusing on Wakōcha (Japanese black tea) from Nagasaki.

It was our first time visiting Finland, and we must say we instantly fell in love with the Finnish tea community!

30 January・Postcard Teas, London UK

This tour was also the first time we brought Ikedoki Tea to the UK. A true dream come true for Marjolein: to host a workshop in Postcard Teas, which was where she had her very first tea job in winter 2018!

Postcard Teas were one of the first to advocate for sharing the provenance of teas, convinced that customers should know the names, faces, places and all the stories behind the teas they drink. We dare say they’re a

1 February・London Tea Friends community gathering, London UK

An unofficial event, not listed on our tour schedule was a take-over tasting event with London Tea Friends. London Tea Friends have been an inspiring tea community initiative, meeting up every Sunday in an easy accessible public space since 2022.

Usually the gatherings are held in the Barbican Centre in London, and it’s open for anyone to join. Often they have a tea theme and everyone brings hot water, tea pots, cups and teas and spends a few hours sharing tea and chatting with the other tea enthusiasts. Over the years they’ve built a strong tea community, with people of all ages, from many different countries and backgrounds.

Marjolein visited the tea gatherings twice before moving to Japan three years ago, and it was such a joy to be able to join again, and to share many teas and stories from Nagasaki with such a lovely crowd (we were about 20 people!).

3 February・Inside Japan Tours, Bristol UK

Not a public event, but for the Ikedoki Team a very enjoyable event: visiting the Inside Japan Tours head office in Bristol.

Inside Japan Tours are specialists in Japanese travel tours, offering the most fantastic tours through Japan often specialising in taking people off the beaten track. They discovered our tea tour in Higashisonogi late 2023, when we’d just started a few months, and have been incredibly supporting. They include our tea tours into many of their custom built tour programmes, and will also include us in some fantastic Kyushu-focused group tours.

The Inside Japan team has been working with not only us, but also connected with the local tourism association to see how else they can support the local community.

A huge thank you to the Inside Japan team for their enthusiasm for not only our project but also for supporting local tourism initiatives.

13 February・C*Space, Berlin GERMANY

After many visits over the past years, C*Space Creative Hub is now one of our tea homes. We look forward to come back every year to the very warm and supportive team (and to this stunning space)!

C*Space, although it’s not a tea house or shop, but instead a community-focused co-working & event space, host many tea-related workshops. They play a huge role in Berlin’s tea scene.

Thank you to Jan, Lavia & Claudia and the rest of C*Space team for being fabulous support and dear Ikedoki tea friends.

15 February・Unearthed Gallery, Munich GERMANY

This year marked our second time to visit Marcel Karcher’s beautiful tea gallery: Unearthed Gallery in Munich.

We co-hosted a special workshop together with Hiroki & Misako from the family tea farm Yoshida Chaen in Ibaraki, Japan.

Last year we invited Yoshida Chaen to join our Europe tour and we loved travelling with them, and hosting shared workshops comparing two small lesser-known Japanese tea regions: Ibaraki vs Sonogi.

It was fantastic to collaborate with both Yoshida Chaen and Unearthed Gallery!

21&22 February・Prague Tea Fest CZECHIA

The central part and main pivot to build our Winter season Europe tour schedule around is the magical Prague Tea Fest.

Organiser Agha Mithra is an absolute champion, who organises this tea festival almost solo. The festival clearly created by a passionate tea enthusiast, and caters to tea enthusiasts with many small producers and artisans. The atmosphere is vibrant and not just everyone’s cups are overflowing, but also our hearts.

The festival is a diamond in the rough, the ‘unpolished’ edges speak of a passion project run by one woman without any focus on commercial gain, who leaves space for creativity, spontaneity and shaping things your own way. We treasure Prague Tea Fest and all the guests (new faces and old!) and aim to be back every single year!

We need to mention our superstar assistant Donna, from Unravel Tea in Scotland, who joined us for a second time this year behind the festival stand. We could not have done without her enthusiasm and her experience selling & serving tea at market stalls & events. Another superhero was Sofie, who also helped at our stand, travelled with part of our luggage and even took some wonderful photos (please look at her beautiful photography portfolio on the linked instagram)!

Thank you to Sofie, Andre, Zdenek who took time to take photos amongst the festival chaos and were so kind to share them. We had no time ourselves to take any!

23 February・Meetea Tea Studio, Prague CZECHIA

Another of our cherished tea homes, and definitely the one place where we’ve hosted the most number of tea tastings across all our Europe tours: Meetea Tea Studio in Prague. At this point, we would just say that Meetea’s Jakub and Kryštof, who have such an incredible tea knowledge and experience, are family.

In the charming and cosy setting, where everyone is seated around one large table, Meetea Tea Studio is a place that fosters and encourages meeting new people, making new friends and learning from each other. The incredible hospitality of the team always makes it an extra special event.

Our workshop this time was a special format, focusing more on storytelling – weaving between topics like new tea experiments, limited small batches, sourcing from new producers, blends and catering to new market demands.

Marjolein brought many teas that are not in the usual Ikedoki tea selection.

^{(The photo alongside is from our 2025 Winter tour visit to Meetea Studio)}

28 February & 1 March・Galeria Duszy, Warsaw POLAND

Thanks to the efforts of the marvellous Marta Skorupska (who interned with us in 2025 in Higashisonogi), as well as the great support from Agata, we managed to organise two tea workshops at the Galeria Duszy in Warsaw, Poland.

Our very first visit to Poland turned into such a memorable trip due to the abundant hospitality, not just of the two ‘tea fairies’ Marta & Agata who helped with all the logistics and preparation, but all the tea lovers we met were so full of warmth and kindness.

4 March・ITC Academy, The Hague NETHERLANDS

Home turf for Marjolein: the tea academy in The Hague where Marjolein’s own tea education properly began. It’s always a special moment for Marjolein to visit the ITC Academy’s space in The Hague: where she started her deeper tea journey 10 years ago (2016) in the very same space – but now standing in front as a teacher!

Thank you to Martine & Richard for welcoming me back time and time again. And of course thank you to the many familiar faces of the very enthusiastic Dutch tea community!

7&8 March・Brussels Tea Circle, Brussels, BELGIUM

We hosted two days of workshops at the Brussels Tea Circle.

The Tea Circle is at the forefront of tea educational workshops in Europe and seems to be one of the most active in organising in-depth workshops and tea education. As a non-profit organisation, it’s so inspiring to see all the activities they manage to organise.

We’re very happy to count them as cherished friends, and honoured to be welcomed back repeatedly – especially when we see the calibre of other tea experts and tea adventurers sharing their tea, knowledge and stories here.

Huge thank you to Cinzia, Carole & Pierre!