When East Met Alps: How a Swiss Sake Brewer and a Tea Master Created Kaori × Weilu

When East Met Alps: How YamaSake and KTea Created Europe’s First Tea-Infused Sake

By Tea master • Oct 29, 2025, 10:00 pm

A Chance Encounter That Started It All

It all began with a quiet conversation with one of my customers.
They said,

“You know, there’s a Swiss man who makes authentic Japanese sake.”

In Switzerland, where precision is everywhere but ritual is rare, that comment caught my attention immediately. As a certified Tea Sommelier and Tea Master, building a niche path to bring Korean and Japanese tea culture to Europe, I understood how rare such dedication is.

So I reached out — and that small act of curiosity became the start of something extraordinary: Kaori × Weilu, Europe’s first tea-infused sake, and a collaboration born from respect, precision, and shared curiosity.

Meeting Oliver – The Soul Behind YamaSake

When I first messaged Oliver Weibel, the founder of YamaSake, his reply came quickly warm, open, and humble. He invited me to visit his brewery in Knonau, a quiet village near Zürich.

The moment I entered, I felt something different. The air was filled with the scent of steamed rice, saltwater, and something unseen — a living rhythm. Oliver greeted me with a smile, and soon began teaching me how sake is made in Switzerland, step by step.

Inside the Swiss Sake Brewery

He walked me through each stage of the process — from washing and steaming rice to carefully introducing the koji mold, the heart of fermentation. Every step was explained with precision, but also with a kind of calm reverence.

Oliver didn’t just talk about sake; he taught it. He showed me temperature charts, pH tests, and humidity controls, describing how even the smallest shift can change the entire flavor. He spoke of struggles and experiments — years of trial and error, of building his own tools when Japanese equipment was unavailable, of pouring energy into perfecting each batch.

“Fermentation listens,” he said, as soft classical music played in the background.
“Vibration changes flavor.”

It was then I understood: Oliver wasn’t just a brewer.
He was an artist — one who heard the music of microbes and translated it into taste.

The Precision of Passion

Oliver’s journey has been a five-year quest to create authentic sake in the Alps.
He studied the science of koji, explored fermentation temperature profiles, and tested how Swiss water minerals affect taste.
When specialized tools couldn’t be imported, he improvised — a reflection of both Swiss engineering and Japanese discipline.

When I later read about his story in SAKETIMES , Japan’s most respected sake publication, it all made sense.
He wasn’t just copying Japanese brewing; he was translating it into a Swiss language of craft and balance.

From Curiosity to Collaboration

Our meeting wasn’t planned as a business project.
It was a meeting of shared values — two people who believed that ancient traditions could be reborn in modern form.

That shared philosophy led to Kaori × Weilu, the world’s first tea-infused sake crafted in Switzerland.
We wanted to explore what happens when tea and sake meet — when the meditative depth of tea encounters the melodic precision of sake.

After months of experiments, tasting, and refinement, two expressions emerged:

Kaori ( かおり) — Essence of Floral: light, floral, and delicate.
Weilu (味旅) — The Taste Journey: warm, fruity, and rounded.

Together, they express our shared belief that craftsmanship can create harmony between East and West.

A New Chapter for Swiss Craftsmanship

Oliver’s dedication reminded me of my own journey in tea: endless testing, continuous learning, and deep respect for natural rhythm. We both believe that real innovation comes not from speed, but from listening — to the ingredients, to the process, and to the silence in between.

Kaori × Weilu represents this bridge — a new voice in the landscape of Swiss craft.
It is more than a drink; it is a conversation between cultures, a resonance between leaf and rice, between mountain and island, between East and West.