United States of America
It hasn’t been too long since green tea became widely accepted in the country where generally coffee is more drank than tea. From the increasing popularity of Japanese food such as sushi and the growing awareness for health, it looks like places offering green tea menu have been increasing.
In Japan’s largest export counterpart for green tea, Koots Green Tea, a specialty green tea café managed by the Japanese branch of major coffee chain Tully’s Coffee opened their first overseas shop this past May in Seattle, one of the leading coffee cities of USA with roughly 600 (coffee) cafés. Starbucks, also a coffee chain originating in Seattle, started green tea menus such as green tea latte and frappuccino a couple of years ago.
Many of the Green tea menus in the States contain sugar often times joined by fruit flavor, and the teabags also tend to have herbal or fruit flavors added.
Green tea menus can be enjoyed outside of soft drinks too. In Japan, green tea mixed with
shochu (Japanese spirit) and/or vodka is one of the staple drinks on the alcohol menus in Japanese-style pubs and bars. Green tea alcoholic drinks can be found in USA these days but in a slightly different form, Martini. This green tea Martini aka Zentini or Zensaketini made with Japanese
sake instead of jin with the base of green tea liquor called “Zen”. Zen is a new kind of liquor made of high quality green tea (Matcha and Gyokuro: see
here) with several herbs like lemon grass and is only available in USA. One reporter who tried Zentini described the drink to be deep, complex and aromatic but fresh as compared to “Sasa”, a green tea liquor sold in Japan which is rather on the natural side.
Perhaps the newest green tea related drink is Enviga by Coca-Cola and Nestle. This canned green tea available in three flavors – green tea, berry, and peach – according to experts, burn 60 to 100 calories per three cans, a benefit brought by green tea-deriving components.
Thailand
Whilst Japanese (food) boom has been around for a little while at different places of the world in a silently hot manner, the craze in Thailand seems to be steaming hot. Besides the wide variation of green tea lining up the shelves of beverages, there are green tea toothpaste and green tea shampoo followed by a long list of “green tea xxx”. Thai beverage makers produce a series of green tea refreshments but most of them are sweetened and flavored with fruit. These super-sweet green tea sounds like a huge hit amongst Thai people, as can be seen in the success of local brand OISHI despite its rather expensive price. The boom is probably due more to the prize-winning bet the brand had, but the name as well as the manner of drinking green tea spread rapidly.
Last year (2006) KIRIN BEVARAGE and its Namacha – the trigger of the Green Tea War – went into the Thai green tea market with the ambition to spread “real” green tea i.e., unsweetened Nihoncha and to show the pride and spirit of Japanese people. Considering the huge difference in the preference in taste, from absolutely no sugar to spoons of sugar, this is viewed as a big challenge. Whether their challenge is going to a success or a failure is yet to be known for it has not been long since its release, but so far it sounds like Namacha’s low-sweet type is struggling as compared to the (super-)sweet version.
Korea
Our nextdoor neighbor Korea is also a country that has a long tradition of drinking a variety of tea. In such country of tea culture, it seems like green tea is picking up popularity in the past few years especially among the younger generation. The way green tea is being enjoyed looks closer to Japan than most of the other countries, drinking it plain without sugar and blending it into all kinds of food and sweets. The selection of menus at cafes specializing in green tea is so much wider than in Japan, increasing. Popular ones include
hatteok (traditional sweets which I am not sure of the spelling), ice cream, cake, yogurt, Naengmyeon / Raengmyeon (noodles), spirit, etc. PET bottled green tea refreshments of Japanese brands seem to be doing well too. Korean food and culture is popular in Japan, so the day when these green tea menus cross the sea and come into Japan may not be too far.
