Black Soybean Tea (黒豆茶, Kuromame-cha)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Hōroku (earthen roasting pan), or a heavy dry skillet
• •Dobin (ceramic teapot) or kyūsu (side-handled teapot), or any heatproof teapot
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Small tray for cooling the roasted beans

Instructions

1. 1

   Sort and Dry

   Sort the soybeans and discard any stones, dusty broken pieces, or beans with a sour smell. Rinse quickly under cool water, then rub them very dry in a towel and leave them spread out for five minutes. Dry skins roast evenly; wet skins spot, scorch, and keep the roasted fragrance from coming cleanly.

   If the beans smell flat or dusty after rinsing, change the dish. Tea has no sauce to hide tired beans.
2. 2

   Roast the Beans

   Set a hōroku (earthen roasting pan) or a heavy dry skillet over medium-low heat. Add the beans in a single layer and roast, shaking the pan and stirring often, 12 to 15 minutes. Watch for the black skins to dull and split in fine lines, showing tan cracks underneath; the smell should turn nutty and a little like roasted chestnut. Break one bean open if you're unsure. The center should be tan and sweet-smelling, not pale and grassy.

   The first secret is the roast. High heat burns the skin before the center is ready, and the tea turns bitter instead of faintly sweet.
3. 3

   Rest the Roast

   Tip the beans onto a small tray and let them cool for five minutes. This short rest finishes the roast without darkening it further, and it keeps the first pour from tasting sharp. Pick out any bean that smells acrid or looks scorched. One burned bean can speak too loudly in a quiet cup.

4. 4

   Steep the Tea

   Put the roasted beans into a warmed dobin (ceramic teapot), kyūsu (side-handled teapot), or heatproof teapot. Pour over the freshly boiled water, cover, and steep 10 to 12 minutes, until the liquid is clear amber and the beans have settled heavier in the pot. Don't crush or grind them. Whole beans give you clarity, while broken beans cloud the cup and pull out a harsher soybean taste.

   Color is a better guide than the clock. Pale gold means wait; deep brown usually means the roast was too hard or the beans were crushed.
5. 5

   Serve and Eat

   Pour the tea through a strainer into small warmed cups. Serve it plain, no sugar; the roast should give enough sweetness if the beans were good. Spoon a few softened beans into a small dish for each person, or leave them in the pot for a second steep with the additional hot water. Eat the beans while they are tender-chewy. Taste them plain first; if you use salt, put only a few grains on the beans, not in the tea.

Chef Tips

• •Buy beans with even size and a dark purple-black skin, not a gray dusty cast. Tamba kuromame are worth seeking because their large size gives a rounder cup and better beans to eat after, but good whole black soybeans still make an honest tea.
• •Dried beans have shun too. The freshest harvest, usually from late autumn, carries a cleaner smell and roasts more evenly than beans that have sat too long in a warm shop.
• •If you buy roasted kuromame-cha beans from a Japanese grocer, begin at the steeping step. That's a sensible stand-in for home roasting, not a lesser tea, as long as the beans smell fresh and nutty.
• •Keep the heat medium-low and the pan moving. The pan should sound like dry seeds clicking, not snapping angrily; that steady movement roasts the centers before the skins scorch.
• •Don't sweeten the cup first. Taste it plain. Kuromame-cha is gentle, not weak, and sugar covers the roasted bean flavor you took the trouble to make.

Advance Preparation

• •Roast the beans up to 2 weeks ahead. Cool them completely, then keep them in an airtight jar away from light; the aroma is best in the first week.
• •Portion roasted beans into the teapot the night before New Year's morning. In the morning you only need freshly boiled water, which is exactly the sort of calm a holiday breakfast deserves.
• •Steeped tea keeps 1 day refrigerated. Rewarm gently and stop before it rolls; a hard boil dulls the roasted sweetness.
• •For softer beans, steep the roasted beans in a thermos for 20 minutes instead of a teapot. It isn't ceremonial, but it does the same patient work and keeps the bean edible after the cup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 240g)