Origin: Kukicha Japanese green tea and organic yerba maté blended in the U.S.

Flavor Profile: Notes of fields, earth and minerals converge for a refreshingly bittersweet brew.

Tea Story: Kukicha (a Japanese green tea made from the stems of the tea plant and also known as “twig tea” or “stem tea”) is blended with organic South American yerba maté (a high-caffeine herb reputed to have medicinal qualities) for a robust cross-culture concoction like you’ve never tried. Leaves with the pungent aroma of earth, grasses and passion fruit and the appearance like camouflage, dry fall leaves, green twigs and woodchips brew into a bright green-gold infusion with scents of roasting pine, clover honey and sweet grasses.

The flavor is astringent and grassy, with nutty notes at the front of the palate, wet soil at the back, and toasted millet and crushed gravel all around. The aftertaste is an enduring mix of copper-zinc minerality, clover fields and a gentle, pervasive sweetness.

Samovarian Poetry: Rocks become earth. Earth becomes grass. Grass becomes fields. Shift with the nature of this brew as you sip.

Food Pairings: Kuki Yerba Maté is great hot or iced with honey (or even made into a honey-lemon-tea granita), but it also pairs well with a range of flavorful foods. Cheesy dishes, like cheddar cheese grits, grilled corn-on-the-cob with queso blanco and lime, parmesan-laden baked polenta and cheese empanadas, hold their own. Oatmeal with butter and brown sugar or pancakes drizzled with dulce de leche can accompany Kuki Yerba Maté for breakfast on those “power morning” kind of days. Deserts like alfajores, petit fours, Bing cherries, ripe blueberries or rich dark chocolate pudding, also fare well alongside Kuki Yerba Maté.

Thomas M. Frank Send Message

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