Ito En

I picked up a bottle at whole foods, I was a little skeptical at first because I’ve always been terrible at picking out goods. Much to my surprise, it’s got a great oolong taste that’s full-brewed (Dru-speak for “more tannic than advisable”) but I really enjoyed it cold.

Yay! I love it when coworkers bribe me with tea! \o/ Sure, it reminds me a bit more of a iced Chinese green than iced sencha and, like with most bottled teas, you can taste the ascorbic acid, but all in all, it pretty much works. Am I going to buy a pack and take it home with me so I can have it whenever I want? No. It’s a really good bottled tea but it is still a bottled tea. But if I’m out and about, I’d totally pick up a bottle to sip on while running around.

And speaking of bottles, can I just say I have an absurd but undeniable affinity toward Japanese plastic bottles? Their weight, design, caps, labels, everything – they just make me smile. Unlike Japan’s steel coke cans that always tricked me into thinking I had another swallow or two in the bottom when I did not. Mean coke cans. Nice tea bottles. Pardon me while I pet the empty bottle for a moment, k?

Wow, I’m not sure if I got a bad one but this is pretty awful. It still has about a year left until expiration, so I don’t think that’s the issue.

It doesn’t taste like green tea. It certainly isn’t a #1 green tea. In fact, it tastes closer to a Lapsang Souchong than anything. I’m getting a ton of smoke, lots of bitterness, and it generally tastes kinda dirty. It doesn’t taste like it was sweetened, so that part of the label was correct (that’s about all it has going for it). Really awkward after taste too; tastes slightly of vinegar and brine. Can’t finish the bottle.

I’m assuming I just got a bad bottle because I’ve had other bottled Ito En teas that were good. I’d try this again (hesitantly) just for the sake of seeing if this was a fluke bottle. Maybe this was mislabeled…

You might have as well seen this tea in my baby bottle as a infant, it’s been around that long.

This tea is by far the most delicious pre-bottled tea you can get your hands on. The fragrance is strong and the taste is full, but isn’t drying. It goes down very smooth. The bottle just isn’t big enough!

I’ve found a green tea that I like!!! Actually, I really like it! I picked this up at the Whole Foods in Winston Salem, NC. I’ve been working in NC since Monday morning and just got back today. Yay!

I was upset that Whole Foods didn’t have Ito En’s Golden Oolong (my favorite of theirs) and picked this out purely due to the “roasted” aspect. I’m not a green tea lover. I’ve tried to like it. I want to like it. But I just…don’t. I will say that I enjoy green tea blends. But frankly, the components in the “blend” usually mask most of the green tea flavor. Samovar’s Moorish Mint comes to mind. I love that blend…and it contains green tea. But do I taste it? No, not really. I’ve found that if I think of straight up green tea as a broth or veggie soup of some sort, I can usually finish most of the cup. I’m just not into the vegetal taste.

Anyway, I was brave and picked up this Green Hoji. It doesn’t taste like a typical green tea at all. Very roasted, coffee notes…no vegetal taste at all. It smells like burnt peanuts…and I mean that in the best of ways. It also smells and tasted kind of like that puffed wheat breakfast cereal. There is a bitterness, but it’s not an over-steeped type of bitterness. It works for the tea. It’s rich, dark roasted, peanutty, puffed wheat goodness. As far as bottled teas go, this one is a real winner.

I’ll be sure to seek out roasted green teas in the future.

Picked this up while shopping today.

I absolutely love Ito En. Oi Ocha is clean tasting, no bitterness, no aftertaste, no sweeteners at all, just tastes like tea brewed and poured into a pretty bottle for me.

So so good, and chilled for the drive in the heat today. Ahhh!

Man! I am totally getting to the point where A. I do not remember what teas I have already drunk and B. I am running out of teas to drink, period! I’ve been avoiding buying the generic brand from the convenience stores because they’re unique to each store and therefore impossible to get from vending machines, the normal source of drinks for the average Japanese person. Also, I doubt I’d be able to distinguish between them.

Anyway, mugicha! Barley tea! I drank this and I was all like “yep, that’s barley tea!” and then I was all like “yep, that’s all I got.”

But seriously, I don’t have much other mugicha to compare this to, but it tastes kind of lightly sweet, which seems to be the case for a lot of these bottled teas. I wonder if the natural sweetness of the non-black teas is why the black teas tend to be sweetened? Because black tea doesn’t really possess that much natural sweetness? No idea!

Other than that, not too bad, it has a kind of odd undertone to it, but the overall taste isn’t as overwhelming as some of the other graintastic teas I’ve had, which is good.

Since I liked the Iyemon Reicha so much, I decided to try another one, this time from Ito En. Like the Iyemon one, this Reicha is a seasonal tea and thus is only available for the summer (hence the name, which means: Cold Tea for the Summer – the sad thing about learning Japanese is you start to realize that being able to combine pictographs has left them really unimaginative when it comes to names “ok ok ok, so we’re making a special summer tea for cooling of, what should we do?” “let’s combine the symbols for ‘cold’ and ‘tea’” “that’s BRILLIANT!”). Unlike the Iyemon, this is just straight green tea, no added matcha, sadly. (yes I realize that matcha is also green tea, you know what I mean!).

This is all right, but I definitely prefer the Iyemon reicha for it’s matchaliciousness. It’s a little more bitter than the standard bottled green teas and it seems the tea they used is the kind of butter kind, but otherwise it seems pretty unremarkable. Another tea your are just not meant to pay that much attention to as you drink.

I didn’t notice that this was sweetened when I bought this but drinking it? OMG, do I notice. In fact, that’s all I notice. Cane sugar and ascorbic acid. HORRIBLE. This tastes like any typical bottled “tea” that you’d find at a gas station. Truly horrible. Two sips and I threw the rest away.

Hay gaiz! Remember that Teas’ Tea New York thing that I didn’t like so much because it was too sweet and I didn’t want to try anymore because all of the rest of them would probably be too sweet and gross? I tried another one! Because I do not learn from experience.

Well, actually, the real reason is twofold. One: it amused me that adding ginger to tea turns it into chai now. Two: it was ON SALE.

So here I am, drinking another theoretical “New York” tea. I think I’ve said it before, but sweetness in general is a lot easier to take in milk teas than in just straight black teas for me, and this continues that trend. It’s still too sweet but it works a little better both because it is a “chai” and because it is a milk tea. In fact, this isn’t too bad, although I wouldn’t say that it was all that chai-ish. You can definitely taste the ginger though. Well, I think I can. I mean, I do know it’s there, though. Maybe I’m just imagining it. No no, it’s there. In fact, it kind of makes the entire tea taste like a cookie! I have spent all day trying to figure out what kind of cookie but to no avail, maybe a ginger snap? It definitely reminds me of SOME cookie…I don’t even eat that much cookies why is this so hard? Maybe a snickerdoodle? Let’s go with snickerdoodle. Anyway, it wasn’t too bad. Nice dessert type tea.

Incidentally, I totally saw a chocolate milk tea while at the grocery store yesterday. It is probably so sweet it will instantly give me diabetes, but I am SOOOOO going to try it. For Science!

Today was very funny in that I was being an absent minded professor. I went to pick up my mug & found it empty. I had not gone to prepare my tea today. Must have too much on my mind. =) So, I waited until the afternoon to try this Teas’ Tea.
Bottle number four for Teas’ Tea by Ito En. I’ve found heaven. LOL I’m smacking my lips saying ‘oh yeah’. This is a class act of ice teas. You are wanting more after tasting this.
The citrus is not too much and the sweetness is low key that could handle an additional kick. But not too much otherwise you might pucker you lips. Yes, I could call this an Earl Gary type ice tea. I’m thinking about getting a bunch of my friends and ordering a case =).

This tea is in the database twice, interestingly, once as “dark” and once as “koiaji” which is to say the actual japanese word for it. I’m going with this entry because it has more logs in it.

So, like iyemon koime, this is very strongly brewed green tea. I guess because that means more health benefits? That is what the description tells me. Anyway it definitely tastes overbrewed, a lot more so than the iyemon. Someone in another tealog mentioned that Ito En is basically the equivalent of Lipton in America so I guess the quality of the tea is lower (that also explains why I got it for 100 yen instead of 150) (it also makes the whole reverse-importing thing with the Teas’ Tea New York brand even funnier!)

But back to the tea! It’s bitterness is kind of unpleasant really, and it’s got a weird sugary finish at odds with the rest of the teas – honestly I think I don’t like these sugary finishes on green tea, I much prefer consistency of taste. At least it’s not super sweet all the way through though.

I had this tea and was ready for it to taste great but I have to say it was beyond great. I’m beginning to think this might be my tea of choice for summer.
Teas’ Tea Green Jasmine smells like jasmine from the moment you open the bottle. I didn’t feel the need to add sweetener to the drink. If I had I’m sure the flavors would have popped just as it should. I did add it to ice but drank it quickly.
Note: The bottling is different than what is listed in the above picture.
This is what my bottle looked like. http://www.itoen.com/tea/index.cfm?sp=product&catID=1&id=105

It reached triple digits today. Came home and poured this over ice. I feel cooler already. Best of all, there was a sale at H Mart, 2 for $3 for Oi Ocha today! Yeah!

So this is really a fascinating example of Japan being Japan. Basically, Ito En liked the labels it created for Teas’ Tea in the States so much that it is reverse importing them into Japan under the disguise of “Teas’ Tea New York” in three flavors as “Green and Red Apple” and “Bergamot and Orange” and “Manhattan Milk Tea” and are pretending that they are an American company. Because Japan. Although I can’t help but agree that the labels ARE pretty sexy.

For some reason they have decided to halve the normal amount of caffeine in the tea (somehow) and they are also advertising it as being “calorie off.” This is weird to me because it basically tastes like they dumped about a billion pounds of sugar in there. Too sweet, as usual, Japan! While we are on this subject, Japan, it is hilarious to me that the it is the Teas’ Tea in the States that is unsweetened while the ones in Japan are sweetened. Up is down and left is right! Cats and dogs are lying down together!

Beyond being too sweet, this tea is EXTREMELY orange flavored. I’m not getting anything that would stand out as being uniquely “bergamot” at all and, quite honestly, I am barely getting any tea! This is ok juice, but it is not very good tea. And dammit, I LIKE my black tea to have caffeine >.<

Got this from the asian food market a while back. My bottle actually looks a little different (it doesn’t have the Tea’s Tea branding on it) but it appears to be the same thing. I liked this a lot, especially since I like the in-your-face flavors like this.

I think this is a great option for “real” tea drinkers. Personally, I enjoy Arizona iced tea, but I know lots of loose leaf drinkers would cringe at that. However, this one gives the convenience of a bottled iced tea with actual, real, oolong flavor.

I’m not sure how accessible these are since I got it from an asian specialty market, but it’s worth a shot if you’re looking for a “truer” bottled iced tea.

I was not entirely sure what to expect with this, but I needed a pick-me-up around lunch time, and with the heat wave, this seemed easiest to enjoy. The can does not really have any directions, instructions, suggestions, or really anything about the product you are about to consume. I knew it was Sencha tea, I knew it was cold, I knew it was unsweetened, and that’s about it.

I shook the tea, hoping that I was combining it, and insodoing, it frothed and foamed up so that the can felt dense and undesirable. This terrified me. I cracked the can open to find that it was not thick, though it was rather thin, amber yellow in color and smelled not-so-great. With the help of my co-workers, we bravely dared to drink the little shots we poured out of it.

You could not taste the smell, much like pu-erh, it was just an aroma, which was good news. The flavor was crisp and rich, definitely green tea, with the boldness and body recognized as sencha tea. Overall, this was pretty good, I am glad I gave it a try. I cannot say I was truly energized from the Sencha Shot, however, I did feel almost immediately better.

Happy drinking!

I decided to change it up today rather than have hot tea I would have ice tea. The funny thing is it’s not hot outside today either. (This was another find from the World Tea Expo.)
Rose Green tea is a light – unsweetened tea. I likey! I added just a touch of Hawaiian Cane Sugar and the flavors just punch up enough to make me smile more. This tea reminds me of what summers should/could be all about.
I told my friend I would share 1/2 of the 16. oz bottle w/ her but I don’t think I want to now. =) I would buy this drink and am looking forward to trying the other three I have from Teas’ Tea.

Nice and sweet lemony, though the ascorbic acid oddly adds a sour taste to it (instead of blending with the lemongrass flavor like I anticipated). Definitely would like this better fresh (vs. bottled) for that reason but all in all, quite tasty for a bottled tea.

Ito En is, I think, the only company to be brave enough to attempt to expand their tea market to the States. I haven’t tried many of the Teas’ Teas because, as far as bottled drinks go, they are not too cheap, but when I am taken with a feeling of nostalgia, I will often give in and buy one.

In Japan, the Oi Ocha series, which I am going to go ahead and say corresponds to the Teas’ Tea series because I enjoy making claims that I can’t back up and have no basis for, costs a buck fitty, which is to say, exactly as much as any other bottled tea, so it was inevitable that I would get to them eventually. Today, I was in the mood for something different so I grabbed me some hoji-cha, which, I guess is roasted green tea.

I haven’t had hoji-cha in a while, so I have no idea whether this is a problem with this particular tea or with hoji-cha in general, but there is something massively off in the the immediate aftertaste of this tea (although it resolves itself after a bit). Basically, I get resin out of it, which is…not very tasty. Otherwise, it’s definitely got a roasted aroma to it, actually, on greater thought it basically ONLY has the roasted aroma to it, with the resin coming in at the end. All in all, I am not impressed with this stuff.

This was on sale at Mitsuwa this week, so I bought a big ol’ bottle of it. I had not tried it before.
It’s the best pre-bottled jasmine tea I’ve ever had! The floral flavor is really strong, but the tea remains very light and refreshing. Really awesome iced.

((As a comparison, the other prepackaged jasmine tea I usually drink is Adagio’s. It’s pretty good too, but if I compare it side-by-side with Ito En’s I can taste a slight bitterness in Adagio’s tea, which I believe is the preservative they add to their “pure” tea. ))

I have a feeling that this is not, in fact, the exact same tea as the one described, but I am too lazy to make a new entry and this IS a jasmine tea by Ito En so…oh well!

What I’m drinking is actually called “Natural Jasmine Tea” and gives no indication that it has a green tea base, although that seems to be the most common so it probably does. It’s big thing is that it doesn’t us anything except actual jasmine flowers to induce the jasmine aroma and taste (hence the “natural”). I didn’t really pay that much attention to the other jasmine tea that I’ve tried so far, but the implication is that all the other ones use artificial means in order to strengthen the impression of jasmine. I guess.

The jasmine aroma/taste DOES seem to be fairly subtle here. The aroma definitely is lighter than it was in the other jasmine tea, but I think I preferred it that way. The more this tea warms up the more the base green seems to overwhelm the jasmine within it and I quite LIKE the taste of jasmine. That is, in fact, in fact the reason why I BOUGHT jasmine tea and not green tea. The bottle also tells me that there isn’t much caffeine in the tea, which makes me wonder if it isn’t quite lightly brewed (thereby deepening the “naturally scented” image they’re shooting for). Thus, this is not my favorite jasmine tea, although it’s not really bad, either.