Tea & drinks ── Nihoncha (Japanese tea)
Konbucha
Konbucha — kelp infusion drunk as a festive tea
A drink made by dissolving finely chopped or powdered kelp in hot water — again, nothing to do with the tea plant. Because kombu (kelp) echoes the word yorokobu (to rejoice), it's often served on festive occasions like New Year's or weddings.
- Other styles
What it's made of
The raw material is kelp, with no tea leaf involved at all. Finely chopped or powdered kelp is dissolved in hot water and drunk, combining kelp's own umami with whatever salt or seasoning a given product adds. Though it's called 'cha' (tea), it's said to be an entirely different drink from green tea in both raw material and method. Dissolved in hot water it turns a pale brown, with kelp's own sea aroma and saltiness up front — a mouthfeel quite unlike green tea, and some households are said to make it strong enough to feel a slight thickness.
How it's made
Dried kelp is finely chopped or ground into powder, then dissolved in hot water to drink. Many products add salt, sugar, or pickled plum, and beyond drinking it alone, it's also said to be used to season dishes. Flavor is said to vary with the kelp's grade and growing region. Dissolving it in water around 70°C as a guide is said to keep the saltiness from hitting too sharply, giving a milder result.
Why it took this shape
Kelp is said to have been a trade good carried by the Kitamae-bune shipping route from Hokkaido along the Sea of Japan coast to Osaka and on to the Ryukyu Kingdom, laying the groundwork for kelp-based food cultures to take root in each region it passed through. Because the sound of 'kombu' echoes the word 'yorokobu' (to rejoice), it's said to have come to be treated as an auspicious drink served on celebratory occasions. Port towns visited by the Kitamae-bune ships are said to have had the easiest access to kelp, and it's said to have settled in as a celebratory drink in each of them.
Before You Go
Dishes in the same style
- MugichaA drink brewed from roasted barley — not made from the tea plant at all. In the Edo period, a roasted cracked-barley infusion called mugiyu was popular among commoners, and from the Showa era on it's said to have spread as a chilled summer staple.
- Awa BanchaA post-fermented tea from Naka and Kamikatsu towns in Tokushima, fermented by lactic acid bacteria. Coarser leaves picked from midsummer on are boiled, packed into wooden barrels, fermented for roughly 10 days to two weeks, then sun-dried — said to give a refreshing sourness.