On Friday Morning, I Chose Dashi Instead of Coffee

For the past few weeks, my mornings started with coffee.

Today is Friday. For the cup that closes the week, I chose Drinkable Dashi, for the first time in a while.

Dashi is Japanese soup stock. The ingredients are simple — kombu kelp, dried shiitake mushrooms, katsuobushi (dried bonito), and so on.

We care about the ingredients, and we put them into drip packs, one cup at a time. The same shape as a paper filter for coffee.

After one sip, I thought: coffee has its own goodness. That first sharp smell. The feeling of the day switching on. I really love that feeling.

But dashi reaches a completely different place.

It simply calms me. And the aftertaste that stays afterward is comfortable.

Maybe because I had so many coffee mornings in a row, it went deeper than usual that day.

I want to say this myself, before you find out on your own. When you drink dashi made only from natural ingredients for the first time, you may think, “There is no taste. Is this just hot water?” No sweetness. No salt. Nothing to hold on to.

That reaction is not wrong. I think it is the correct one.

Because the food we eat today is mostly seasoned in a strong, easy-to-understand way. Sweet. Salty. Spicy.

When you are used to that, natural taste always feels like something is missing.

For me, natural taste is very gentle. It feels like it is speaking to my cells. It is a feeling beyond “delicious.” I am not even sure I should call it a taste.

On Friday morning, I finished one cup of dashi slowly. It became a time to feel, once again, how deep nature is.

I hope today is a good day for you.