Although the traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony plays a less important part in Japanese society today, green tea is still the country’s preferred beverage, and teas such as like gyokuro (玉露), sencha (煎茶), genmaicha (玄米茶), houjicha (ほうじ茶), and matcha (抹茶) are consumed in large quantities by people of all ages.
Green tea is enjoyed at breakfast, in restaurants, at the office, during outdoor breaks in a nearby park, and from bottles while on-the-go. Many people drink it for the taste and aroma; many more drink it for its recognized health benefits. The Japanese value its ability to ward off colds and other infections, defy the effects of aging, reduce high blood pressure, and protect a healthy circulatory system.
For busy people who don’t have time to prepare their tea in a pot and sit quietly at home or at their desk enjoying their favorite brew, there is always a vending machine somewhere nearby to dispense any craving. In fact, the Japanese are such masters of the vending machine that there are 5.5 million across the country offering an impressive range of hot and cold beverages.
These machines stand, banked side by side, on main streets, in shopping malls, and train stations, and at the drop of a coin and the push of a button, out comes bottled or canned iced green tea, “royal” tea (black tea with lots of milk), straight tea, lemon tea, jasmine tea, hot or cold black tea with milk, without milk, with sugar, without sugar, matcha with milk, Darjeeling tea, or oolong. The teas are dispensed in cartons, bottles, or cans that can be warmed by the machine before popping out of the appropriate compartment.
There are even machines that assess the customers’ age and other demographic details in order to make recommendations on what they might enjoy. (There are hundreds of videos of these vending machines in action on YouTube, and THIS is one of our favorite.)
Also, with the right app downloaded to your phone, your neighborhood machine will, as well as offering you a can of tea, bid you good morning on your way to work and congratulate you on a good day’s work on the way home
The fashion for British-style black tea in Japan has been growing steadily since the 1980s. For 30 years or so, the shelves of supermarkets and food halls in all the country’s main cities have displayed an impressive range of classic British blends including English Breakfast, Afternoon Tea, and Earl Grey, packed by traditional British companies such as Twinings, Taylors of Harrogate, Williamson and Magor, Lipton, Wedgwood, Ridgways, and Jacksons of Piccadilly.
British-style tea rooms are packed with eager customers, mostly female and young (but not exclusively so), who regularly indulge in “afternoon tea” with little sandwiches and scones with a generous topping of jam and imported English clotted cream. And the annual British Fairs at Mitsukoshi and Hankyu department stores attract hundreds of eager visitors who purchase countless tins of black tea blends, attend presentations about British tea, book signings by British tea personalities, and queue for a seat in the British tearoom organized each year at the Hankyu British Fair by an award-winning English tearoom. And when Japanese tea lovers visit the UK, their schedule inevitably includes several visits to tea lounges in smart hotels, tea stores selling traditional blends, tea-related museums, and other historical tea venues.
The interest in black tea has led a few Japanese tea growers to manufacture black tea instead of green, and this isn’t the first time that Japanese producers have processed their crop as black instead of green.
During the late 19th century, growers were encouraged by the government to make black teas in order to compete with India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) as an important exporter of black teas to Europe and the U.S. They were not very successful, but today, instead of trying to replicate the character of teas from other origins, Japanese tea makers have focused on giving their black teas a distinctly Japanese flavor profile. And so, using young spring-picked shoots from favourite Japanese tea cultivars such as Yabukita (やぶきた) and Benifuuki (べにふうき), today’s Japanese orthodox black teas yield bright coppery liquors that are mild, sweet and elegant with fragrant floral notes, and they are so good that they are now finding their way into international markets.
Interested in learning more about Japanese tea culture and traditions?
Guest contributor Jane Pettigrew is a tea historian, writer, consultant, specialist working in the UK and around the world explaining and offering insight into the world of tea. She’s written 15 books and hosts regular master classes and tea tastings. You can find her at www.janepettigrew.com.
Originally published at teforia.com.
