Eucommia
A Chinese tree with no close living relatives, whose bark and leaves both stretch rubbery threads when torn — the plant produces a natural latex. Bark and leaf are both brewed, and the leaf drink tochu-cha became a mainstream product in Japan.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Eucommia ulmoides
- Family
- Eucommiaceae
- Part used
- Bark, Leaf
- Origin
- Central China
- Drunk in
- Sichuan, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Japan
Character
Woody and lightly bitter with a roasted depth when the bark has been toasted. The leaf version is greener, lighter and closer to a mild roasted tea.
Notes: wood, toast, earth
History
The last surviving species of an otherwise extinct family, native to China and effectively extinct in the wild. It was investigated as a rubber source in the twentieth century, and Japanese companies commercialised the leaf as a bottled drink from the 1980s, which is where most of its modern volume comes from.
How it is drunk
The bark is simmered in Chinese and Korean soups and drinks; the leaf is brewed and sold bottled across Japan. The two are different products from the same tree and are not usually distinguished in English.
Production
Bark is stripped from mature trees in strips — traditionally in a way that allows regrowth rather than killing the tree — dried, and often roasted. Leaves are cut, steamed and dried like a green tea.
Preparation
Decoction · Infusion
Boiling and decoction
1–3 g/100 ml · 98–100 °C · 15 min
What gets confused
Bark and leaf are sold under the same name and are noticeably different drinks. The rubbery threads visible when a piece is snapped are the plant’s signature and a reasonable authenticity check.
Common mistakes
- Steeping the bark briefly. Like every bark in this file it needs a simmer.
Related botanicals
- Chicory root — Woody roasted materials with a bitter edge, both drunk as substitutes for something else.
Comparisons
- Eucommia vs chicory root — Two woody roasted materials with a bitter edge, both drunk as substitutes for something else — one for tea in Japan and one for coffee across Europe and Louisiana.
Evidence for this page
This page is TeaHQ synthesis throughout. No external source stands behind any statement on it, including the botanical name. Twenty of the 150 botanicals have had their names and distribution checked against a taxonomic authority and this is not one of them.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Eucommia is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.