Sokenbicha

It’s summer in Japan and that means drinking LOTS of bottled iced tea (available at a vending machine near you! I mean really near, like, 10 feet away. Also, there’s another one twenty feet further. Thanks Japan!)

The last time I was here, I never really went about choosing them in any sort of systematic fashion, usually just going with whatever caught my eye at the time. But this time! This time will be DIFFERENT. I am going to systematically try and then log as many of these bottled iced teas as I can so I can actually figure out which ones I like best. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. Then, other people going to Japan can reap the benefits! provided their taste in tea is at all similar to mine, of course :P

I remember having this stuff a lot when I was here, mostly because the whole “blend of twelve different teas” amused me (and continues to do so). Just from what I recognize: looks like several different kinds of barley tea, some green tea, some pu erh, senna tea, chicory (which I didn’t know you could make tea out of!), dandelion root, corn, beans, and a partridge in a pear tree.

It has a pleasant enough flavor and isn’t bad as a go-to tea since, being a coca-cola product it is guaranteed to be pretty much everywhere. I’d classify the taste as “barley tea lite” with the barley teaness being smoothed out a lot by the rest of the stuff in there and a more earthy direction achieved with the pu erh. It probably is totally healthy too since it is so full of STUFF. The name translates to refreshing, healthy, beautiful tea, although I’m not sure if the TEA is beautiful or if it will make YOU beautiful. Both, probably.

I tried this from Whole Foods today. I had “Defend”. This had milk oolong, black tea, guava leaves, and ginseng. It is delicious and unsweetened! So light and not bitter at all. Yummy! I would definitely get this again.

Amazingly, this stuff isn’t bad. I drink a lot of tea and a good bit of it on the go. This is a decent tea available in most marts and vending machines here in Japan. While I won’t rave about it being great, I will say that, as far as prepackaged teas go, this is not a bad choice. It has a decently earthy flavour, and is not sweetened. If you need some tea on the run, this is a good choice. It is typically available cold, and honestly tastes a bit nicer that way.