Tea Review Tuesday - A Review of Teavivre's Black Tartary Buckwheat Tea Whole Embryo Tisane

And now for something completely different - Black Tartary Buckwheat Tea Whole Embryo from Teavivre. To clarify, though, this is actually not tea. According to Teavivre, these are Black Tartary buckwheat kernels, a grain grown for making teas (or, more properly, tisanes). Buckwheat tea is totally new to me, and I am excited for the experience. Time to try it!

I steep two teaspoons of the black buckwheat kernels in twelve ounces of just-boiled water for four minutes. The dry buckwheat...smells like cereal. A lot like Cheerios, in fact. Hmmm, I think, okay, so I am going to be drinking cereal? The smell is comprised of a lot of grain notes, which carry a slight sweetness to them.

When my steeping finishes, I remove the kernels (I almost wrote "leaves") and breathe-in the aroma rising from my cup. I find it hard to get over the fact that it smells a lot like hot Cheerios. And yet, my brain tells might that might not be a bad thing, so I wait for the liquid to cool a bit and then take a sip.

I have never tasted a tisane like this. The warm cereal notes roll over the tongue. Tinges of sweetness add a special note to the flavor. It actually tastes quite good. In some respects, I find it as soothing as the chamomile that I enjoy in the evenings, while providing a good balance of sweetness that more mellow than a rooibos.

While this might not replace my normal tisanes, I think it is a great option for those looking to incorporate more caffeine-free blends into their tea routine! On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this black buckwheat tisane a 4.



Photo credit to Built from Ink and Tea.
Teavivre's Black Tartary Buckwheat Tea Whole Embryo is available from their website, here.
This tea was provided for my unbiased review by Teavivre.
You can read more about my Personal Enjoyment Scale, here.
Text is copyright 2016, Built from Ink and Tea.