Ok, before we dive into this I just want say that I use the term sushi here loosely! After watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi, I don’t think I can ever call anything I make sushi. If you haven’t see it before you should check it out. The artistry and passion that goes into his creations is amazing!

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about incorporating tea into your homemade sushi! So what is the inspiration behind this? I like to try to create recipes with whatever I have in my house and I had a lot of stuff left from my onigiri recipe so I decided to make sushi!

*I have the teas I used tagged when they are mentioned and at the bottom of the list I have a shopping list for some of the items I used for the sushi ! I have separated these because the tea links do not earn commission but the shopping list at the bottom does.*

This post is less about how to make the sushi and more about adding tea to your meal in 3 different ways. I like this concept because I think that in addition to drinking tea, there are so many ways to incorporate tea into our lives: Sweets, Savory, DIY and special drinks!

1. TEA INFUSED RICE

First up, let’s talk about this rice! This isn’t normally cooked sushi rice. It’s sushi rice cooked in cold brew baimudan! As you can see the color is a little darker and not as bright white.

I used sushi rice and followed the directions for cooking. The directions said to use 2 cups of water to 1.5 cups of rice. So instead of using water, I used my cold brew baimudan and voila!

Why did I use cold brew and not hot tea? I didn’t want the tea to be bitter but I did want it to be strong. I feel like cold brew can really draw out intense flavors without the bitterness.

The outcome of the rice is really nice, it smells a little like tea and has a little more savory flavor than usual. When this rice was done, I tossed it with eden shake ! Remember to use a wood spatula or spoon with sushi rice.

A note: some recipes call for adding rice vinegar among other things to sushi rice but because I cooked it in baimudan and wanted that flavor to shine through as much as possible, I didn’t add anything else.

2. TEA SOAKED BONITO FLAKES

Bonito flakes were something I saw a lot of people use in their onigiri so I bought a bag and had a lot left. Like many of the recipes I saw, I found that they were a lot better when soaked in something before being added to the recipe.

You might be able to guess where this is going but I used another white tea - Pai Mu Tan for the bonito flakes. This time I used hot tea for the bonito flakes to soften them up quickly. I poured the hot tea over the bonito flakes and mixed them around. I think this softened them nicely for the sushi and evened out the flavor a little bit.

Note: If you do this, make sure to let most of the water drip off the bonito flakes before putting them on your sushi roll!

3. TEA AND SOY SAUCE

This was a last minute idea and turned out to my one of my favorite things that I will probably continue to do! I added hot tea to my soy sauce! I used the same pai mu tan as I did in the bonito flakes. The amount of tea you add depends on the flavor your want. I tried to pour equal parts of both but it ended up being a little more tea than soy sauce.

Why I loved this is because it cut a little bit of the salt of the soy sauce and made it warm and comforting. Cutting the salt was nice, especially because I used umeboshi in my sushi which is a little salty on it’s own. There was also the lovely aroma of tea every time I dipped a piece of sushi into it!

You can use whatever ingredients you have on hand for your sushi but I think my favorite addition was the umeboshi. I love tart and salty things so this was such a delicious addition to my homemade sushi!

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