These soba teabags were made for the Yukimuroya brand in Niigata, north Japan. Soba, or buckwheat, is a traditional ingredient for noodles in Japan, and the seeds make for satisfying, naturally caffeine free tea.

In the old Echigo province, which was the forerunner of the modern Niigata, food preservation and taste were supported by the use of ‘snow houses’ (yukimuro). These were warehouses naturally refrigerated by large quantities of snow, which in insulated spaces guaranteed a stable temperature over many months.

Yukimuroya is a project in modern day Niigata, that attempts to the harness the wisdom of this age, and blend naturally cooled ingredients into a tasty and sustainable range of food and drink. Using collected snow of course requires much less energy than industrial refrigeration (they calculate 400-700 tons of CO2 emissions could be saved per year for each snow house used). It also allows the project to connect to the gourmet energy that existed in old-Echigo, with the dedication to high quality and fresh ingredients a legacy, that continues to support Niigata as one of Japan’s premier regions for rice growing and agriculture.

The initiative is collaboration between different Niigata based producers, and the soba for this tea was sourced from Ichikara-batake, a farmer in Ojiya, central Niigata. The grains were stored in a Yukimuroya snow house to bring out additional flavour.

Each pack contains 10 tea bags, and the pack itself is 23cm by 13cm.