Oi Ocha

Backlog from yesterday…I happened to see these in the store here in NC (I love Harris Teeter!) so I thought I’d pick up a bottle. I think it’s fantastic! The perfect lunch/afternoon iced tea on a hot Summer day. I found it to be cool, crisp, and only have a slight veggie flavor to it. I’ll be picking up more of this when we head home!

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…

I bought a can of this the other day and finally tried it after lunch! Does it count as a different tea because the vessel is not a bottle? Hmmm.
Anyhow, the tea itself was ho-hum. It would have done much better with my tastebuds if it’d been just slightly sweet. I don’t mean Nestea sweet… maybe a third of that!
This was a little bitter, and roasted which I didn’t mind. The part that really threw me off though, was the eggy flavour!! So odd. I’ve never come across “egg” in a tea. Cooked, sweet egg- the kind one sees in sushi etc (Tamago)
I doubt I’ll purchase this again, but if someone offered it to me no charge… I’d drink up no problem!
It was refreshing and satisfying, if nothing else. I’m still curious to try the other flavours they have, but rarely do I see any of them at our local Asian grocery

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!

backlogging from earlier this week –
wow! this is the most complex bottled tea I’ve ever had! Definitely not your typical american-style green tea. It is a bit sweet, a bit grassy, and bit roasty. It reminds me of both matcha and gemaicha, but obvioulsy much lighter than either. I will def be buying this again, and will try the more intense “dark” variety next time.

I bought this on a whim at my local Japanese store. I was needing some caffeine for my ride home. It says it’s the #1 Japanese green tea. I agree with what another person said, it tastes like a Chinese green tea. I was surprised to see it’s a product of Thailand. It is refreshing, but I don’t think I would buy again.

The calendar may not yet quite agree, but it’s summer. Today it’s ‘only’ 23⁰C, but it has been upwards of 30⁰C for the past week and the last thing in the world I’ve wanted has been hot tea.

There are, however, remarkably few unsweetened drinks in the refrigerator at the health food store. But what’s this? Unsweetened green tea, claiming to be “Japan’s #1 Green Tea”, whatever that means. Suitable not just for drinking but also for logging to Steepster!

I don’t want to insult Japan or anything, but this is not the #1 Green Tea I’ve ever had. But it is reasonably decent and somewhat complex, especially given that I didn’t even have to think about hot or boiling water in order to drink it. If I’m again in the mood to pay $2 for 20¢ worth of tea and the convenience of having it already brewed and already cold, then I’ll pick up another bottle.

I drank so much of this when I was in Cali, I started to get worried that the net waste of all my empties would overcome the net benefit of my years with vegetarianism, bike-riding and yoga. Then I got back to Texas and couldn’t get it any more, which is just as well because I’ve gone back to eating meat, driving my car and not doing yoga. Maybe if I reform my life, Ito En will start selling it here. #cosmicbalance

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!

Yes! There is one bottled tea that I stand by. Oi Ocha has been my favorite for many many moons, and as far as I get into the tea drinking culture, as far as I advance in the tea industry, as dedicated as I am to the fine nuances of a freshly brewed cup— I LOVE my Oi Ocha. Call it a dirty-pleasure. Call it what you will. Just don’t try and pry it away from me.

LOVE this tea! Actually tried it for the first time in Disney World in the Japan Pavilion in Epcot. It is so crisp tasting. Trying to find it in a local store because I find Amazon a bit pricey for it. My favorite iced tea!