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Buckwheat Tea in Dubai
Ingredients: black tea, shu pu-erh, buckwheat tea, pine cones, barberry, blackberry, oregano, flavoring.
A roasted seed, not a leaf
Buckwheat tea is a little different from the teas you may know. It isn’t made from tea leaves, but from carefully roasted Tartary buckwheat seeds. Roasting brings out a naturally warm, nutty aroma with subtle caramelised notes, making every cup feel comforting and distinctive. Known as soba-cha in Japan, memil-cha in Korea and kuqiao-cha in China, it has long been enjoyed across East Asia. In the UAE, it remains a lesser-known choice, which makes finding a well-roasted, quality version all the more special. Ours contains whole roasted buckwheat seeds, with nothing else added, starting from AED 28.
What buckwheat tea tastes like
The aroma is the first thing people comment on: buttery biscuits, fresh out of the oven. The cup itself is quieter than the smell suggests, smooth and rounded, pale gold to light amber, with a soft cereal sweetness and a nutty finish. There is no grip on the tongue, no tannic dryness, and nothing that turns sharp if you walk away from the pot. If you have had genmaicha, the toasted note will feel familiar, but here there is no green tea underneath it, so the roast is the whole story rather than a top layer.
- Biscuit, not bitter
Caramelized seed gives a warm baked aroma and a mellow, low-tannin body.
- No caffeine, no theine
There is no tea plant involved, so there is nothing to decaffeinate. It is caffeine-free by nature.
- Hard to over-brew
Leave it ten minutes and it deepens rather than turns astringent. Forgiving in a busy kitchen.
Buckwheat tea next to green, black and rooibos
Most people arrive at buckwheat tea while looking for something to drink after 6 PM. It sits in the same slot as rooibos, the other genuinely caffeine-free staple we carry, but the two taste nothing alike: rooibos is sweet, red and slightly woody, while buckwheat is toasted and cereal-led. Against green tea the difference is sharper still, since green needs cooler water and careful timing to stay pleasant.
| Buckwheat | Green tea | Black tea | Rooibos | |
| What is brewed | Roasted seed | Leaf | Leaf | Needle-like leaf |
| Caffeine | None | Present | Present | None |
| Dominant note | Toasted biscuit | Grassy, marine | Malt, fruit | Sweet, woody |
| Turns bitter if forgotten | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Water temperature | 95°C | 70 to 80°C | 95 to 100°C | 100°C |
| Usual time of day | Any, evening included | Morning, early afternoon | Morning | Any, evening included |
What is inside, and what we do not claim
The plain version has a one-line ingredient list, which is unusual enough in this category to be worth stating plainly.
- Tartary buckwheat seeds (Fagopyrum tataricum), whole and roasted
- No caffeine and no theine
- No artificial additives
- Despite the name, no relation to wheat: buckwheat is a seed, not a cereal grain
- Loose format, so you can see the roast level before you brew
- Packs from 50g, so a first try costs very little
Plenty of listings sell buckwheat tea on claims about blood pressure, memory, sleep or detox. We do not repeat any of them. What we will tell you is what is in the pack, how it was roasted, and how it tastes.
How to brew buckwheat tea properly
Nothing here is delicate. The seeds sink, swell and give up their flavor slowly, so the only real mistake is using too little. Five grams is roughly a heaped teaspoon.
- Measure 5g per cup
Use a heaped teaspoon for a 200ml cup, or 15g for a 600ml pot.
- Water at 95°C
Just off the boil. Filtered water is worth it here, since hard tap water flattens the roast.
- Steep 3 to 5 minutes
Three minutes for a light cup, five for a fuller one. Longer only deepens it.
- Refill twice more
The same seeds carry two or three infusions before the aroma fades.
Cold brew for the summer months
From May to September a hot pot is a hard sell, and this is where buckwheat quietly outperforms. Double the seeds, use one litre of cold water, and leave it in the fridge for four to eight hours. Cold extraction pulls out the sweetness and almost none of the roast's edge, so the result is rounder than a hot cup. Drink it within two days. If iced drinks are your default, it is worth looking at the rest of our cold brew range alongside it.
What to brew it in
A fine mesh basket matters more than the vessel, because roasted seeds shed small fragments that slip through a coarse strainer. Glass is the pleasant choice: the infusion runs from straw to deep amber as it steeps, and a glass teapot or carafe lets you judge strength by eye rather than by timer. Once you have finished, the softened seeds are edible and mild, and they are good stirred into labneh, yogurt or muesli the next morning instead of going in the bin.
Buying buckwheat tea online in the UAE
Below that, delivery is a flat AED 20 anywhere in the country.
Order in the morning and the tea reaches you the same evening.
For orders placed before 1 PM, from Abu Dhabi to Ras Al Khaimah.
Flat rate to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait, free over AED 500, arriving in 3 to 7 days.
Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay are all accepted at checkout, and gift packing can be added to any order on request. If you would rather smell the roast before you buy buckwheat tea, our boutique in Al Barsha 1 is open daily from 08:30 to 21:30, and the team there will open a tin for you. You can also message us on WhatsApp to ask which of the four suits you or to arrange a delivery window that fits your day.