Osmanthus Barley

• Ingredients: Roasted barley (certified organic), osmanthus
• Roasted barley's pyrazines have been studied for supporting healthy blood flow
• Tea bags made from Soilon®, a plant-based corn fiber mesh developed in Japan, certified biodegradable
• Naturally caffeine-free
• 12 tea bags

Hot

1 bag to 240 ml of water at 100°C

Steep 5 minutes, or leave the bag in. It won't turn bitter.

Iced

Brew hot, then chill fully before pouring over ice

For sparkling, run the chilled tea through a carbonator

Cold brew

1 bag to 240 ml of cold water, or 4 bags to a liter

Steep 8 hours, or overnight, in the fridge

Barley tea was served at the Heian court over a thousand years ago. By the Edo period, when Tokyo was still called Edo, it had reached the streets, where lantern-lit stalls sold cups of hot barley tea on summer evenings. Today it's the drink Japanese families keep in the fridge all summer, sipped on hot days to rehydrate and replenish minerals. Roasting brings out its nutty, toasty depth, and we add osmanthus for a floral lift.

An old castle town on the Sea of Japan, once the capital of Kaga, the richest domain in all of Japan, its wealth counted in grain: a million koku of rice a year. That wealth went into crafts and gardens. Kanazawa still makes almost all of Japan's gold leaf, and Kenroku-en is one of the country's three great gardens. Just outside the city an old lagoon was drained into wide, flat fields, and that's where our barley grows.