Roasted Buckwheat (Soba) Matcha

This one is from Kawaii433!  Thanks very much!  I hope you are well!  This is a bit of an intriguingly odd tea — the combination of matcha and buckwheat could be either really good or really bad.  It was hard to tell before tasting it.  To these tastebuds — really good!   While sipping this, I had to do further research on buckwheat – it’s not a wheat or grain, it’s actually a pyramid shaped seed harvested from a plant related to RHUBARB.  Very surprising.  It doesn’t taste like rhubarb though!  Two tasty steeps.  I would say the flavors of matcha and buckwheat were evenly balanced in the first steep, with obviously more matcha in that first cup.  The buckwheat tastes like the Honey Smacks cereal, while being a little nutty and toasty flavored.  The matcha is a nice addition for a more interesting flavor profile.  It was fantastic to try this — though to me it makes sense for my personal drinking to have the buckwheat without matcha, so it doesn’t have caffeine as I would rather have that lovely buckwheat flavor profile before sleeping!
Steep #1 // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 24 minutes after boiling // 3-4 min

Wasn’t expecting this tea from Kawaii (thank you!) to fit one of the sipdown prompts but it did.

March 2022 Sipdown Challenge – A tea with spinach/artichoke notes

The two ingredients together gave a smooth, muddled mix of seawater and artichoke tones mixed with the grainy sweetness and fragrant, nutty nature of roasted buckwheat. I like sobacha and matcha better on their own. Fine to have a mug but not something I’d go out of my way for. Matcha and buckwheat, for me, are best kept separate.

Finished off my sample packet by making some matcha rice. The buckwheat and matcha worked really well with the rice. I ate it for breakfast this morning with an egg on top and some cucumber kimchi and it was wonderful.

In search of a convenient and mellow cup for my “low caffeine days”, I ordered this unique blend in sachet form so I could carry it along to work or wherever.

It’s really interesting! It’s nutty, and a bit sweeter than I expected (not a bad thing!), but there’s a vegetal edge that reminds you those pellets of buckwheat are coated with matcha. Great aroma, nice flavor…I like it!