Yuzu-cha is deliciously refreshing. After delighting our taste buds with the one at Chococro St Marc Cafe, we brought home a jar of sugared, peeled, depulped, and thinly sliced yuzu – a yuzu marmalade of sorts – to make it at home. It most often comes in jars but it can also be found in stick form as in Muji Yuzu Tea. We’d make it ourselves – the recipe is simple enough – but for the rarity of fresh yuzu in Australia.
The sugared yuzu is a pale yellow colour with sliced yuzu rind throughout. Dissolving 2-3 tablespoons in 150-180 mL of water yields a pale yellow beverage that looks much like a lemon pub squash and smells sweet and citrusy. In terms of flavour, there’s a floral honey sweetness with an undertone of yuzu from the head through to the finish with little aftertaste. The yuzu flavour was neither bright nor fragrant from the beverage itself and came through only as you bite through the yuzu rind. The pronounced floral honey flavour here overwhelms, preventing the bright fragrance of the yuzu from taking centre stage.
We must look into growing our own yuzu tree so that we can make yuzu-cha ourselves!
This jar of Greenwood Yuzucha contained 600 g. It was bottled in Japan and purchased in Okayama, Japan in 2015.