Colleagues Trying Shizuoka Green Tea

Since the beginning of this Shizuoka Green Tea collaboration, I have gradually increased my knowledge and experience in green tea. I went from a non-Japanese tea drinker who considers green tea as "green tea" to someone who can comment on the tea!  And now, I find it my mission to share my knowledge and appreciation with people around me.

Last time, I brought the tea back to Canada to share with my family. This time, I thought I would let my colleagues try it and see what they think about the green tea from Shizuoka, my two colleagues who have both been in Japan for over 10 years, in particular.

Although this was not full-on research I thought that in order to get the relevant feedback and understand them, a little pre-testing interview was in order. The questions included:

- Do you like green tea?
- How often do you drink green tea?
- Where are green tea in Japan produced? (please do not answer “Japan”)
- Which region of Japan have you tasted green tea from?

With my two participants, both of them expressed that they like green tea but they have never been the ones making the purchases. Someone in the family would always prepare the tea and they take part only as drinkers, which also means that they have no clue where the tea is from. With that said, they both drink green tea on a weekly basis at home and almost daily at the cafeteria at work.

One colleague named Kyoto when discussing green tea production and the other named Uji plus Nishio as another green tea production area. When I mentioned Shizuoka as the area having the top production of green tea in Japan, they both reacted with, “Oh, I didn’t know that, but it fits the peaceful image of Shizuoka”.

Then, it was time for the taste-testing. The particular green tea I shared was from Ocha no Maruko, which is a distributor that produces quite a lot of tea in Shizuoka of various price ranges. The tea was also the most expensive tea of the series (I believe) that my girlfriend bought, priced over 1,000 yen for the bag. The good stuff, no doubt! I brewed a cup for each of them, and one of them offered to share some cookies, which was really nice.

First, they tasted the tea. “What do you think?”, I asked.

The first reply was, “Different.” To one colleague the tea was quite different from the tea they usually drink.  When asked again, he mentioned that this tea had a very “deep” flavour to it, and that it lasts in his mouth and throat longer than the normal green tea he was used to.

The other colleague finished half the cup before commenting, and he said, “I really like this. The tea is so rich and I don’t feel like I am drinking tea for the sake to quench my thirst, but it really is a taste for me to savor and appreciate.”

As to how he would describe the tea, he threw a bunch of adjectives including “rich”, “deep”, “bitter” and “delicious”.

Overall, both of them really enjoyed the Shizuoka green tea and said that they would love to drink this regularly.

I have a second part of my experiment with my colleagues, and I will hopefully be able to report back on that in the future!

This post is supported by Shizuoka Green Tea Guide, one of City-Cost's Supporters helping City-Cost bloggers to enjoy life in Japan and engage in new experiences.