Buckwheat tea

Ok so I just tasted this lovely tea: http://steepster.com/teas/mariebelle/16711-dattan-soba-cha-buckwheat-tea

And I was wondering if anyone knows if there’s a difference between buckwheat “tea” and the buckwheat that’s apparently available at healthfood stores: http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Buckwheat-16-Ounce/dp/B000EDBPZC/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_clickstream_3_dp

Looks the same to me, but I have no clue.

19 Replies

I had a really good buckwheat tea from Steepster Select. (And I think the tea is roasted.)

Maybe I can get the buckwheat from the store and roast it on the stove :D

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Oooh oooh ooooh maybe they have this at the store! http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Buckwheat-18-Ounce/dp/B000EDI1O0/ref=sr_1_8?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1398417114&sr=1-8&keywords=buckwheat

now I just need to find out if there’s a difference between soba cha and kasha. :)

Most natural food stores have it.

And that may not even be the same part of the plant as is used for tea.

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Ubacat said

Interesting. If you try this out, please post here and let us know. I’ve never found a buckwheat tea in the stores here but there’s lots of buckwheat around and some roasted too.

yyz said

Ubacat, you can get buckwheat tea at http://www.patmart.net/pat/. They have several stores in the GTA and specialise in Korean and Japanese foods.

Ubacat said

Thanks yyz! I’ve been there before (at your suggestion) picking up sencha and genmaicha. I never noticed any buckwheat tea at the time. Will have to take a second look.

yyz said

They have it bagged and in a big jar,http://steepster.com/teas/wang-korea/43182-buckwheat-tea and they have a soba cha from maeda- end normally.

Ubacat said

Thanks for the link. Now I know what the jar looks like.

Thanks for this discussion guys! I actually went to the PAT Mart earlier today, so here’s what I remember:

They had 1 aisle that said “tea” but contained mostly bagged teas. Barley, buckwheat, various types of herbal, green, etc. HOWEVER, they had a second section for loose-leaf tea a few aisles over.

In that second aisle, I saw at least 2 types of sobacha, 4 types of genmaicha, some houjicha and some sencha. Here are the brands I remember:

The Wang Korea sobacha that yyz mentioned above (http://steepster.com/teas/wang-korea/43182-buckwheat-tea). This was very cheap (about 300g for $5.50) but the jar was so large that I went for the other sobacha on display, which was…
Ito-en Dattan Soba Cha: http://steepster.com/teas/ito-en/17240-sobacha (Unfortunately, this was much more expensive, but it was still cheaper than getting a package of the same size from Yunomi.us)

Genmaicha:

Maeda-en Genmaicha: http://steepster.com/teas/maeda-en/2491-genmai-cha-brown-rice-tea-traditional-series
Maeda-en Gold Genmaicha: http://steepster.com/teas/maeda-en/2493-gold-genmai-cha-brown-rice-tea-traditional-series
Tokuyo Genmaicha: http://steepster.com/teas/nishimoto-trading-co-dot-ltd/31253-tokuyo-genmaicha
Macchairi Genmaicha: http://steepster.com/teas/shirakiku/35660-macchairi-genmaicha

I seriously considered getting some of these packages, but they were so large – the smallest was 150g. I didn’t want to buy a huge package like that only to find I didn’t like it.

Also, that shop had some very nice tea supplies. Matcha bowls, whisks for $12, and some ludicrously cheap cast-iron teapots ($30!).

yyz said

Which location did you go to Christina? The Mississauga one usually doesn’t have that much tea ware so I’m curious.

I went to the one on Bloor a bit west of Bathurst. I don’t normally go to that part of town, though. Apparently there’s a location very close to me in Scarborough, but the reviews on Yelp are not very positive.

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I roast my own buckwheat for sobacha, it tastes the same as the fancy store bought stuff :) according to this website they say it is the same as Kasha http://www.healwithfood.org/health-benefits/tartary-buckwheat-tea.php

Yes, I found a few website saying that Kasha and soba-cha tea are the same thing. No one explains the size difference in the grains, but I’m excited!

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Bought 11 ounces of Kasha (roasted buckwheat) in the bulk section of the health food store for $2.50. Soooo cheap!! I would have gotten more, but I wasn’t sure if it would taste the same and in any case I don’t want it to go stale. :P The smell is stronger (probably fresher), the grains are much larger, the color of the liquor is more orange in color, but the TASTE is the same! :) So glad they had it.

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CelebriTEA said

OMG!
I am going to my health food store tomorrow to check.
love it!!!

Have you tried it before? I just found out the Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride is Roasted Barley so it looks like I need to make another trip! :)

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CelebriTEA said

http://steepster.com/teas/steepster/45166-soba-cha-deep-roast
This is the one I tried and LOVED
Hmmm…I wonder if I can find the sugar cookie sleigh ride this late?

Well if you’re gonna be at the health food store tomorrow maybe they’ll have roasted barley anyway :P

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