In Seiyu today and was perusing the tea aisle. Back in America, I bought Ito En green tea bags since that was the best that was readily available. Here there are many more options- the bags, of course, but also the sticks with powder/bags with powder(not matcha,but regular green tea made into an instant powder), loose leaf, premade 2L bottles, etc.
Anyways, there is a lot to choose from. I’m curious what medium people think is best. Also which one is most commonly bought? It seemed the single-serve tea bags were not nearly as available on shelves as they were in America. I’d be curious to know whether Japanese people opt for the bags and powder or prefer to go with the premade bottled route.
5 comments
Loose leaf always trump over everything else
The ones from Uji are awesome. Has a bit of berry flavour I think. Try ippodo too
A lot of my Japanese friends seem to prefer the premade bottles you mentioned. They always have the big ones to share at their apartments, or carry a little bottle with them. Not sure if that is just people I know though!
If you just want to make hot tea at home, I think loose leaf tea is more popular than bags. I know it can be overwhelming though so hey, if you prefer something else, go for it!
If you’re looking for really good high quality tea I’d go with Nakamura Tokichi 中村藤吉. I really like their Houjicha, but being from Uji they obviously carry really high quality Matcha. It is, err, on the more expensive side though …
Best bought at their main store in Uji, so you can try out which teas you like, but they do have an online store.
If you’re looking for just decent everyday tea I like the 抹茶入り green tea powder by Itoen, it’s great for if you can’t be bothered to properly brew tea as it can be mixed with any temperature water.
If you want to find something in the middle, try out Lupicia teas, they are fancy department store teas, the company is from Hokkaido so not traditional tea central. They have stores all across the country and a gigantic online store, their Momo Oolong is one of the best flavoured teas I have had in Japan and if you like black teas they are probably the best brand in Japan.
I work for a tea company, so I have a lot to say on this one.
If you want the “best”, loose leaf is where to look. You can get a teapot to make it, or a small filter to make one mug’s worth. This is without a doubt the highest quality, but there is a big range. For a good rule of thumb, anything that’s about 1,000yen for 100 grams at the supermarket will be quite good. You can get deep steamed (深蒸し, my favorite), light steamed(浅蒸し), and from a variety of origins. There isn’t a “best” here, it comes down to preference.
Most tea in this range is mostly first flush, or first harvest. Look for words like 一番茶、一番摘み、初摘み、etc. You can get very decent cheaper teas (~500 for 100g). Perfectly fine for daily drinking, usually includes some (or a lot) of second flush tea. You can also go *way* more expensive, especially at specialty stores. These can be very good, and they are better than the cheaper ones, but whether its worth it is up to you (compare to people buying cheap grocery store brand coffee, or mid-range coffee, or going to a roaster and breaking the bank of fancy stuff).
For teabags, if you’re in a supermarket you mostly get what you pay for. The 10~20 count boxes in the pyramid shape bags are generally better than the 25~50 count packs in the standard rectangle bags. However, any of the common brands are perfectly decent for daily use. There is a very distinct difference between the quality of tea in teabags and leaf tea, but they are good, and definitely better than a lot of what you’d find in the US. If you drank a lot of Ito-en teabags in the US and liked them, buying a 20 or 50 count bag of Green Tea, Houjicha, or Genmaicha at the supermarket and brewing at home could suit you fine.
In supermarkets, convenience stores, and drug stores, don’t sleep on store brands. They generally are all made by a few big tea manufacturers, and are reasonable quality for good prices.
For ready-to-drink bottled tea, all the big brands are good. Ito-En Oi-ocha is the old standard, but Ayataka from Coca-Cola, Iyemon from Suntory, and Nama-cha from Kirin are all very good. The tea used it definitely of a lower grade than loose leaf tea, but these are great for convenience. If you want something to grab and go at the conbini to drink with lunch, they’re great, but if you are going to drink a lot of cold tea at home they’re horrendous value. You can get a 30~50 pack of cold brew (水出し）teabags for a few hundred yen. Buy a 1 liter bottle at Daiso and brew them overnight in your fridge. Mugicha is also a very popular option for this. I drink lots of cold mugicha at home.
Personally I’m not a fan of the instant teas. They are definitely convenient and can be made with both hot or cold water, but the flavor is weaker.
As far as the most common way to drink, traditionally people used a lot of loose leaf tea at home, but thats slowly fading with a lot of the younger generation. Tea bags have been growing. As a whole, coffee is a bigger market than tea, and lots of people no longer have teapots. In general though, loose leaf tea, single serve teabags, and bottled tea are all very common. Which you prefer depends on how much you care about quality, your budget, how much/where/how you drink it.
If you have any specific questions, let me know!