The Minami Aso Tea House is a store based in Kumamoto with smaller stores around the island of Kyūshū. Their products can also be found at satellite stores for Kumamoto such as the Ginza Kumamotokan in Tōkyō where we picked up this Minami Aso Tea House 24 Tea.
It goes without saying that it was the tins that initially drew me to the tea but the flavour was surprisingly enjoyable for a tea that markets itself as a ‘health tea’. The one at the top is from 2018 and this one above is from 2019.
The tea is a blend of twenty four types of wild grass, grains and fruits —
- barley (麦)
- tear grass (はと麦)
- sugar cane (とうきび)
- black soybean tea (黒豆茶)
- cassia tora (ハブ草)
- heart leaf (どくだみ)
- roasted green tea (ほうじ茶)
- loquat leaves (びわの葉)
- persimmon leaves (柿の葉)
- mulberry leaves (桑の葉)
- hama tea (はま茶)
- gojiberry/ wolfberry (クコの実)
- veitch’s bamboo (くま笹)
- ginkgo leaf (イチョウ葉)
- wolfberry leaves (クコの葉)
- plantain (おおばこ)
- field horsetail (スギナ)
- gynostemma pentaphyllum (あまちゃづる)
- licorice (甘草)
- gymnema (ギムネマ)
- simon (シモン)
- aloe (アロエ)
- glechoma (垣通し)
- bracket fungus (霊芝)
The accompanying pamphlet explains the health benefits of each of these ingredients.
Infusing 3 g of looseleaf in 200 mL of water at 96ºC, the infusion was a clear golden brown colour with a fragrant nutty aroma that recalled both a barley and black soybean tea. Served hot, the nuttiness of the barley came through initially with an earthy quality that developed with the gentle sweetness of black soybean tea before roasted notes of hōjicha finish the sip.
I’m not sufficiently familiar with the numerous other grasses, grains and fruits to distinguish their taste, but the dominating flavour combination of barley, black soybean and hōjicha is immensely enjoyable and not at all what I’d expected of a ‘health’ tea from a culture that — much like China — has a proverb along the lines of ‘good medicine for health tastes bitter to the mouth’. The tea tastes much like other Japanese teas with no bitterness or unwelcome earthiness whatsoever.
This Minami Aso Tea House 24 Tea contained 100 g. It was produced in Japan and purchased in Tōkyō, Japan in 2018.