Yamane-en: Hokkaido Dattan Sobacha

This sample came from Christina. Thanks Christina!

This tea is full of a nutty, grainy goodness. There’s a bit of roasty flavour to it too but it seems to me that this is a bit less roasted flavour than other buckwheat teas I’ve had. I’m really not sure about that and would have to try them side by side to determine.

Anyway, greatly enjoyed this cup. It comes at a great time when the weather is cooling down. I haven’t had any desire to have buckwheat tea during the hot summer days. Somehow it just loses it’s charm when I have it during a warm or hot day. Just like hot chocolate, this tea is best on cold days. The colder the better. It really warms you up inside and makes you feel cozy.

OH MY STARS. Thank you, Christina!!! Thank you SO MUCH.

SO GOOD. It’s toasted cereal breadness delicious tastiness. I added a little maple sugar, because why not.

I like this so much. So, so much. :D

Thanks for sharing!

This is the second sobacha that I got a free sample of last month. This is the same type of buckwheat, but it’s grown in the Hokkaido prefecture, which is the entire northern island of Japan. I can actually see a big difference in the grains – they’re larger and much more variable in size, and they’re almost all whole. According to the product page, this sobacha has a stronger buckwheat flavor than the Aomori version. Dry scent is very similar, roasty peanuts.

The steeped tea smells very similar as well – it’s very nutty, specifically peanutty with a lot of roasted notes. Whoa, I can see what they meant by stronger buckwheat flavor. This one definitely packs more of a roasted punch than the other, but the actual flavors are very similar. I get the same taste of roasted peanut butter (though the roast is stronger here) and it’s quite creamy as well. Yum, such intense flavor and so delicious!

Edit: OMG, I just realized what this reminds me of! It tastes exactly like Corn Nuts! I don’t know if any of you have had those, but they’re basically roasted/deep fried corn kernels.

The second the boiling water hit this, intense aromas of peanut butter wafted through the air. I literally exclaimed “oh yum!” out loud. I love peanut butter, but try to resist it because I could probably eat a whole jar, and that’s not good, haha. The aroma of the tisane once its been strained is less peanut butter-y but still roasty, toasty, nutty mouthwatering goodness. I tried it first unsweetened, and it tasted like delicious roasted peanuts. Then I thought that maybe sweetening it will make it more peanut butter like. Once I added some stevia and took a sip. Wow, there’s the peanut butter! I would believe you if you said that this was a peanut butter flavored genmaicha or something. This is so good. I can’t get over it. And surely drinking this is better than eating a jar (or two) of peanut butter right?

Oh, and it resteeps well! I’m on my 3rd steep with no loss of flavor. I’m so glad Yunomius sent this in my press samples, it something I never would have thought about trying myself, and yet now its something I can see myself drinking regularly.

I finally get to try another of this tisane type, hurray! It smells so good- like toasted brown rice cakes. The flavour has is a bit roast nutty. Went well with my Thai soup.

Sipdown! Well, sorta.

I’ve had this tea for nearly a year and a half, and while it’s good, I also have some buckwheat from Yunnan Sourcing that I need to drink too. So I took the last little bit of this (a few tablespoons worth) and instead of drinking it down, I baked with it!

I blitzed the sobacha in a small food processor until most of the groats had broken down into flour. Then I added some white flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to create a crumble topping, and made an apple crumble with it!

The crumble has a nice, warm, bready, nutty note to it that’s really interesting. A fitting way to let this tea bow out.

Oh, and plus: I saw Civil War last night, and it was awesome. AND I JUST BOUGHT THE NEW RADIOHEAD ALBUM AND I WILL LISTEN TO IT NOW AND EVERYTHING IS AWESOME.