What is Soba Cha?

Soba Cha (also known as Soba-Cha and Sobacha) is Japanese buckwheat tea. It is drunk hot or cold, and is gluten-free and caffeine-free and apparently tastes nutty and slightly sweet.

It appeared three times in Top Chef: Wisconsin ™. The first showing was in Restaurant Wars when Danny's team, under his leadership, served up cold Soba Cha as a welcome drink. It wasn't well received.

In reparation, Danny re-introduced it in week 12 when he infused mushrooms into Soba Cha for his fish dish. This time, the judges regretted that he had buried the flavor of the buckwheat tea in very powerful mushroom flavors and would have preferred the essence of the tea to shine through. 

Danny didn't try again, but Dan used Soba Cha in his Smoked Dashi and this time it went down a storm.