Promises the unusual addition will make your cup “richer and more fragrant.”

If you don’t want to drink your coffee black, it’s not unusual to put a little cream or sugar in your coffee, but recently Japan’s Kadoya Seiyu caused a stir with a different recommendation.

Yep, that’s a bottle of Kadoya Seiyu-brand sesame oil being poured into a glass of iced coffee. “Here’s how to do your morning coffee!” the tweet enthusiastically declares. “Add a little genuine sesame oil to make your milk coffee richer and more fragrant.”

And no, Kadoya Seiyu’s sesame oil isn’t some unique variant that’s specially designed to be used as a beverage additive. It’s just sesame oil, of the exact same kind that you might use when making stir-fry or tempura. Japan doesn’t have a custom of pouring sesame oil into drinks, either, as reflected in online reactions to the tweet.

“Whaaaa?”
“Don’t…don’t even make me imagine this…”
“Is it April Fool’s Day?”
“This is a joke, right?”
“I think we’re being scammed.”
“I see you said ‘richer’ and ‘more delicious,’ but you didn’t say anything about it ‘tasting good.’”
“It’d take some serious courage to try this combination.”
“I refuse to believe this works…but I’m curious so I want someone else to try it and tell me if it’s good.”

Those last two comments really spoke to us, and so our Japanese-language writer Tasuku Egawa agreed to subject himself to this unorthodox concoction.

Kadoya Seiyu didn’t recommend any specific brand of milk coffee, so Tasuku decided on Yukijirushi/Snow Brand, one of Japan’s most popular and long-selling ready-made milk coffees. First he poured himself a cup of coffee, as he usually would…

…and then he poured in some Kadoya Seiyu sesame oil, as usually would absolutely not do.

Starting with Kadoya Seiyu’s claim that adding sesame oil will make your coffee more fragrant, it was immediately clear that they hadn’t been lying. A strong aroma now wafted up from the cup, and it smelled great…or at least it would have smelled great if someone were cooking. The sesame oil doesn’t draw out more of the coffee’s inherent fragrance, it just covers the coffee with its own intense scent instead, so now Tasuku had a drink that smelled almost entirely like sesame oil, which isn’t exactly and enticing quality for something you’re about to drink.

Now it was time to taste the combination…

…and once again, Kadoya Seiyu kept its promise, as the mixture has a very rich flavor. But, and you can probably see where this is going, the extra richness here isn’t from enhanced coffee notes, but from the unmistakable presence of oil. As he sipped, Tasuku could feel the sesame oil coating the inside of his mouth, and I even made his lips shiny.

As weird and unsettling as he personally found the sensation, though, he could sense a hint of potential here. As a result of the oil increasing the viscosity of the coffee, the liquid lingered longer on Tasuku’s tongue and in his throat. That created a longer-lasting flavor, so maybe there was a way to achieve that positive effect without making the taste and smell so greasy?

Since the sesame oil is a must for this taste-test, Tasuku decided to try getting rid of the milk. He switched to a pre-made black coffee, with no milk or sugar, and added some sesame oil to it.

This, however, turned out to be a huge mistake. The flavors clashed and the texture had become even more unpleasant, feeling like water with globules of oil bobbing in it. It turns out that a certain amount of milk is the key to making the coffee and sesame oil play even remotely nice with one another, so now the question was how much milk did Tasuku need?

Next he reached for a Tully’s Coffee-brand caffe latte, which is less milky than “milk coffees” like the Snow Brand brew he’s started with. It also has no sugar, so there’d be one less element to have to try to harmonize with the others.

But again, the combination didn’t work. There was still too little milk, and the coffee and sesame oil remained stubbornly separate, making for an uneven flavor and unpleasant, oily water-like texture.

Next up, a Mt. Rainier-brand caffe latte, which, in Tasuku’s experience, is milkier than Tully’s.

Now he was making some progress. He still wouldn’t call it “tasty,” but finally it felt like the coffee, milk, and sesame oil had blended into a uniform flavor and consistency, while still retaining a noticeable coffee taste. A little more milk, with some extra-strong beans, would probably give it another nudge in the right direction.

In the end, Tasuku wasn’t able to find his personal perfect ratio, and complicating things is that Kadoya Seiyu’s tweet doesn’t mention any specific amount of sesame oil to add either. So while Tasuku is confident that the only way this concept could work is with a combination of coffee, sesame oil, and milk, ultimately, it probably comes down to individual preferences as to how much of each to use. Mixed in with the reactions of shock and doubt to Kadoya Seiyu’s tweet are a few brief “I tried it and it was delicious!” reactions, but if you’re going to go down this path, just be prepared that it might take a few tries before you find your ideal cup of sesame oil tea.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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