What is Jurokucha tea?

Jurokucha, literally “16 tea” gets its name from having 16 different ingredients which make up its base taste.

What’s inside?

According to the Asahi website, the 16 ingredients that make up Jurokucha are:

  1. Job’s tears, ハトムギ
  2. barley, 大麦
  3. coffee weed, ハブ茶
  4. Germinating barley, 発芽大麦
  5. brown rice, 玄米
  6. Corn, とうもろこし
  7. Loquat leaf, びわの葉
  8. カワラケツメイ
  9. Danilion root, たんぽぽの根
  10. Green foxtail, あわ
  11. Proso millet, きび
  12. Azuki, 小豆
  13. Perilla leaves, エゴマの葉
  14. Burdock, ごぼう
  15. Jujube, ナツメ
  16. Tangerine peel, ミカンの皮 Or basically, a bit of everything.

After first being sold in 1993 16 tea became an instant success and is still a very popular tea to drink in Japan. Recently, Jurokucha has been started to be sold abroad as well and is quite popular in Taiwan.

16 tea has a slight sweetness, slightly roasted taste to it. It feels almost like a blend of oi-ocha with oksusu cha. It is widely available in Japan but not in the US. You might be able to find it in Asian grocery stores.

When I lived in Japan, I would typically drink two bottles of this tea every day since the tea itself was very easy to drink and doesn’t have caffeine.