Kukicha

Japanese green tea day is slowly coming to an end here on the tea drinking homestead…

A bunch of years ago I was very interested in a macrobiotic diet and they recommended drinking twig tea as a coffee substitute so I am quite used to this stuff, but the brand I used a lot was Choice Organics Twig tea.

This is very nice, a smooth mellow cup reminiscent of toasted grains, wood and a touch of molasses. Slightly brisk. It’s a good choice for bedtime due to the low caffeine content. I steeped this for about 2.5 minutes at 180 degrees but might steep it longer to see what happens. A very comforting brew, delicious and rich. A great choice for the evening hours after dinner.

I love this tea. It has a very VERY smooth taste. I really can’t compare it to anything else. It has a slight chocolate/nutty aroma and never becomes bitter or too strong.

In fact, to really release some of the flavour from the twigs, I bring water + the twigs to a boil. I let it all boil for about 2 minutes, remove the kukicha twigs, and then let it cool off.

You can easily infuse these twigs 3-4 times.

So this was a new experience for me. I now understand the whole ‘chocolate notes’ thing. It was a pretty smokey taste with a chocolatey after taste. I am pretty sure I enjoyed it, haha. I think I will have to try it a couple more times, maybe make the water a little hotter.

Why does it taste like wood? Oh wait… I really tried to like this one, but I guess it’s not for my palate.