Forum - View topicAnswerman - Do Japanese People Really Only Drink Green Tea?
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5838 Location: Virginia, United States |
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The question is not worded offensively, after all it is a question wanting an answer. And there is that little thing called context. If that question is offensive, then we all might as well stop talking, for fear of being denounced as racists. |
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albanian
 Posts: 133 Location: UK |
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In my defence, if such is really necessary, my question was simply, and very specifically, about the apparent portrayal in anime of the domestic Japanese consumption of loose-leaf green tea, infused in a teapot, and drunk in a home environment. Of course, I am well aware of the vast number of vending machines which show that the Japanese consume as wide a variety of other teas, canned coffee, sodas, and other beverages - not to mention beer! - as any nation on earth. But if that was the question I had wanted to ask, then that is the question I would have asked.
Incidentally, mention of Twinings, whose flagship premises are only two or three hundred yards along The Strand in central London from the college I attended in the late 1960s, reminds me that, though it is synonymous today with the production and sale of tea, began life as Tom's (ie Thomas Twining's) Coffee House, one of the very earliest (founded 1701) of the famous/infamous 18th century coffee houses which provided a clearing house for news dissemination and political discussion amongst the intellectual and social elite of London society... and was also the inventor of Earl Grey, the world's best-selling tea blend. |
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cloud8100
Posts: 550 |
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Not too keen on green tea myself. I'll occasionally have different flavoured tea and quite enjoy iced tea too.
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lys
 Posts: 1010 Location: mitten-state |
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Anecdotally then, when I visited Japan with my aunt and stayed with her friend's family for a couple weeks, they had an electric kettle and teapot full of loose-leaf green tea going constantly, and we drank it pretty much the entire time we were home, at meals or just sitting around talking (our host also often brought a thermos along when we went out, and at one point when we were driving a ways we stopped at a rest area and they had (free) hot tea dispensers there). And yes, it ruined me for most of the green tea available here :) They sent us home with some really good sencha, and while I don't drink it all-day-every-day like I did there, I'm able to refill my mug 2-3 times with 1tsp of leaves before it loses its flavour. I like genmaicha a lot too, with the roasted rice-y flavour (I order mine from Harney & Sons, which sells a variety of loose and bagged, plain and flavoured and herbal teas). |
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Cptn_Taylor
Posts: 925 |
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Trump is right, PC BS is killing society. Chill out man, if you're offended by the tinnest of things (and this one about tea is about as irrelevant as you can get) you'll go through life damning every second of it. 
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Yeah, it gets really confusing because all three regions just call it "iced tea" with no further elaboration, and the people of all three regions will consider it the default iced tea with the other versions given descriptors. I call these things "unsweetened," "sweet," and "sweet sweet/extra sweet" to differentiate them, and that's what they're often labeled around here by local producers of iced tea, except for "unsweetened"--unless you're in a nationwide restaurant chain like Subway, it's just called "iced tea." (If the "sweet sweet tea" phrase doesn't exist, I might be remembering it wrong--I only recently learned that there is a version of tea even sweeter than the sweet tea I commonly would see. That's the rarest kind of tea sold in these parts.) |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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My alma mater too! Never did I venture to Twinings' deceptively narrow retail outlet though. Everything about its decorative façade suggested it was for patrons of notable discernment, undeterred by the prices of central London ware. (Plus, I also dislike tea.) |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Wow, it's like watching myself type. 
I'm REALLY caffeine-sensitive; I don't do coffee, and I normally drink cf-free sodas too. I also can't really drink hot drinks. I will do that when I have a sore throat. But my tea HAS to be iced if I casually down it.
We do! We've got Tokyo Food store which is a bit of a drive but it's got everything a Japanese snacker could want and we've got another tiny store about 20 minutes away that regularly stocks the U.C.C. Gettin' Cool melon soda. The soda is not EXACTLY the same as what they have at Kentucky Fried Chicken, but it's close enough. ♥ I was practically jumping up and down.
I'm not really sure why this U.C.C. soda is different from the one IN Japan but I've noted that the green color is much richer over there and they will serve it with ice cream on top (I always preferred mine without). LOVE Ramune. Had a collection of bottles til my mum threw them out. Getting those things open was all kinds of fun times. lmao
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I'm actually not a good person to ask, since I'm not really a tea drinker, nor any drink that isn't water. I usually just drink water, anything else is only due to situational reasons. That said, the small amount of "cool" Barley tea that I've had wasn't bad. And my friend from Yokohama seems to always have a bottle with him in the summer. To me, it tasted like "shredded wheat" flavored water. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Heh, so that probably means you've been in some situations where the people you're hanging out with have never heard of someone who doesn't take in caffeine, and reactions range from admiration ("You've never become a slave to caffeine? That's incredible!") to confusion ("How can you not take in anything caffeinated?") It definitely does create problems for me when I'm in some traditional Asian situation and everybody receives tea though. I know I wouldn't want to be caught in one of those Japanese tea ceremonies.
Heh, I want to consume my soda immediately, so the marble's too much trouble, and the bottles are too small, so I get Gettin' Cool!, as it's more convenient for me and better approximates my thirst. But I'm not going to turn them down if I obtain any bottles. I've never been to Japan except for staying at airports though, so I've never had any of the sodas they offer there at KFC or any other restaurants. I can't imagine why the exported versions would be inferior though. Maybe they're not as fresh? |
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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After seeing it being consumed in anime, I have grown most intrigued by the concept of melon-flavoured ice cream soda. Fruit and vanilla are so seldom combined in beverage form, you see.
That is actually a more appetising description than it fairly deserves to be! |
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