Forum - View topicAnswerman - Do Japanese People Really Only Drink Green Tea?
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ninjamitsuki
Posts: 591 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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I love bottled Ito En teas, they're nice and refreshing and so much better for you than soft drinks. ...Gotta be careful of all that caffeine, though.
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Indeed. I was buying the 2L bottles of dark Oi Ocha before I realized I was glugging down 4 bottles per week! And I really shouldn't be having ANY caffeine for health reasons... In retrospect I probably should've mentioned barley tea, but as others have stated, it's not really tea. And hey, there's no such thing as a dumb question. Learning more about Japan is one of the reasons this column exists. |
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Kyjin
Posts: 126 Location: Los Angeles |
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I usually see Jasmine tea in vending machines here too. Less right now since it's the middle of winter and many of the cold drinks have been replaced with hot varieties, but they'll be back when it gets warmer.
I changed my drink habits a lot when I moved here. I rarely drink soda anymore (except for the occasional CC Lemon) since I love the selection of bottled teas better. Mugicha or hojicha is my go-to. Royal milk tea is another favorite (and the only one of the group that has milk and sugar in it.) You can find a wide selection of black teas in Tokyo as well. There's a great teashop chain called Afternoon Tea that usually does seasonal black teas and desserts. It's a great country to live in if you're a tea drinker. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar Posts: 16935 |
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Just as an FYI while green tea does contain almost as much caffeine as coffee it does not hit your body as quickly as coffee. I forget the exact science behind it (can't find the bookmarked article from years ago) but the caffeine from green tea is more slow to be released into the body where as coffee hits you all at once basically.
I love my tea. I have many different kinds of loose tea. Herbals and Greens being my favorite. I often use Chinese green teas in a mix with herbals or others. Where as I often simply brew Japanese green teas by themselves. Part of that is due to cost. A good loose leaf Japanese green tea is not cheap per ounce compared to other green teas. So if I am spending anywhere from $12-$20 per ounce I want to enjoy that tea by itself for that tea's unique flavor. I admit I do use a tad of honey or agave nectar in my tea but only a little and not all the time. |
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Tenebrae
Posts: 486 |
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During my trips to Japan I sampled green tea on several occasions (no sugar no milk), including a green tea ice cream on the shinkansen. I found out every time that I could only take it in small amounts at a time, so it took a long time to empty the cup. The taste is very off-putting. Then again I'm more of a coffee person.
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DerekL1963
Subscriber
Posts: 1114 Location: Puget Sound |
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It's all just hot leaf juice.. http://img.memecdn.com/hot-leaf-juice_o_6980901.webp[/img] |
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Shaterri
Posts: 173 |
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Reference? A few minutes' searching around finds sites like http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20049372 which suggests that 8oz of green tea has ~35mg of caffeine on average, compared to roughly 150mg on average for 8oz of black coffee; I can't find anything that suggests that the caffeine content is comparable. |
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CandisWhite
Posts: 282 |
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It really isn't a silly question. Put the shoe on the other foot and ask "Do people in English North America really only eat one kind of banana?" and the answer is a resounding "Yes!".
I know a couple originally from Sri Lanka; I was recently talking to the husband, who's been in Canada less than a year, about food over here and one of the things he brought up was how there's only one kind of banana at the regular grocery stores. You have to go to Asian or specialty stores to find any other kinds whereas back home there are many kinds widely available. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Ha..ha...accurate. I tried some at a tea ceremony over there. It was all foamy and freaking disgusting. The elegant little cookies they serve with it are good though. Cold barley tea is definitely a thing; you see it in anime series quite a bit. I've never tried it. I mostly drank things like Pocari Sweat, C.C. Lemon, and my favorite, THE GREEN MELON CREAM SODA. Which is served at every KFC. I really wanted to bring a 2-liter bottle home but they told me the supermarkets don't carry it during February; only in the summer. That stuff's amazing though. They also have a fruit-flavored drink called "Qoo" and that's also good. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
Posts: 2518 |
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Jasmine Green Tea for me all the way. My opinion is that Kombucha is just a marketing ploy to sell rotten tea as "heathy". I'm not into trendy...
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I'm caffeine-sensitive, so I can't have most teas. (And that also depends on if you count the herbal teas as teas at all, but they are caffeine-free.) I don't really like hot drinks much though, so if I'll have tea, it'll always be iced and decaffeinated or caffeine-free.
There are at least three major types of iced tea in the United States, and their popularity varies by which part of the country you're in. Granted, the main difference is the sugar content in the iced tea. Where you are in Texas, I believe your iced tea is most commonly sweet tea, whereas here on the west coast, something simply called "iced tea" with no other description is completely unsweetened (even if it's fruit-flavored), and it seems to appliy to our immediate neighbors to the east. And when you go to the southeast, it becomes "sweet sweet tea" or "extra-sweet tea," which some people say is akin to drinking syrup, but it has its dedicated supporters. As for the type of tea leaf and how it's prepared, yeah, there's pretty much just "black tea" and "green tea." Most supermarkets stock more specific naming, like Earl Grey, Oolong, English Breakfast, and such, though if you go to a restaurant, they typically have only one option available.
I thought kombucha is Korean in origin.
As a fellow southern Californian, I will tell you that Wegmans does not exist around here. Our major local supermarket chains are Albertsons, Vons/Pavilions, Ralphs, Trader Joe's, Stater Bros., Bristol Farms, Gelson's, Seafood City, Vallarta, Superior Grocers, 99 Ranch, AA Foods, Whole Foods, and El Super, with Aldi having recently entered. Except for Aldi, all of them originated locally--southern California is a notoriously difficult region for supermarket companies to enter. Food Lion tried to get here but failed to appeal west of Texas, Haggen did get here from Washington and Oregon but almost destroyed itself, and Fresh & Easy also got here and DID destroy itself. From what I'm reading, Wegmans is a mostly northeastern US chain. Twinings is a brand that isn't commonly sold here, but they should not be that hard to find if you know where to look. From my experiences, the most commonly sold specialty tea brand here is Tazo, but there seems to be more interest here in premade teas (that is, brands like Arizona, Honest Tea, Snapple, and Sweet Leaf) than teas you have to prepare yourself.
Reminds me of how Lucky Charms would be quite popular in the UK because of a lack of cold cereal with marshmallows sold domestically. How mind-blowing must it be to learn that here in the US, our supermarkets regularly stock dozens of cold cereals with marshmallows? By the way, Hispanic markets will have multiple kinds of bananas too...though whether a plaintain is a banana or not is up to you to decide.
If you're talking about Gettin' Cool! as far as the melon cream soda goes, they're sold at Asian supermarkets here. I don't know if you have any Asian supermarkets nearby, but every single one around here, without exception, sells Gettin' Cool! in the four main flavors: melon, strawberry, grape, and "soda" (better known to westerners as Ramune). A few also sell the rarer orange flavor, which is my personal favorite. It's made by the same people as Ramune, so I always get Gettin' Cool! over the glass bottles with the marble. You know, living in an arid climate and all means I'm always thirsty. Qoo is definitely pretty good, though the apple flavor is pretty generic. The brand was created and is run by a major western soft drink company (though I forget if it's Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or Nestlé), so its availability is pretty high here too if you know where to look. |
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luffypirate
Posts: 3186 |
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I love chilled barley tea! Mugicha! A decade ago I worked at a restaurant that served it and I swear I was the only person that would drink it. I'd down at least a pitcher per day (and then two large bottles of Asahi at night!) Good times!
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DerekL1963
Subscriber
Posts: 1114 Location: Puget Sound |
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When I was growing up in the South it was known simply as "iced tea" (or sometimes just "tea"), and presumed by default to be sweet. (Though you did occasionally hear "sweet tea" around Atlanta... but back then the country was not so homogenous as it is now.) The term "sweet tea" has only grown in prominence and become widespread (though still not ubiquitous) in the last decade or so. I've never heard of "sweet sweet tea" and can find no references to the same. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Oh, is it? I'll have to look that up. I actually thought it was Indian. Edit: So, it seems like it could have been somewhere in Manchuria around 200 BC, with the oldest known usage of the name surprisingly(to me), being Japan around 400 AD. But after reading a few articles, it seems as though the actual origin is pretty much lost.. |
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D00dleB0Y
Posts: 120 |
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I assume my posts got deleted so I'll repeat it again (albeit more appropriately). This question is worded offensively. Japanese people do more than just drink green tea. Heck, they even drink more than just tea! Not only that, but just about every anime has vending machines where a variety of drinks can be purchased. Milk tea has been seen in plenty of anime. The way the title of this question is headed makes it appear stereotypical.
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