Ryokucha-wari with Shizuoka green tea (alcoholic!)

As you may have noticed, I quite enjoy using Shizuoka green tea as a base for my cocktails! Here are some of my previous posts about them. I always did them based on what I had available at home, and it was weird that it took so long for me to learn that ryokucha wari or ryokucha-hi is a thing!

A friend ordered it at an izakaya one day and I thought she ordered tea to pace her drinking, but she told me it was mixed with shochu, meaning it was alcoholic. I was enjoying myself too much that night that I had forgotten what my impression of the drink was, but I (finally) noticed it at the conbini one day and decided to pick one up for myself! Not only day, I realized that the can mentioned “Shizuoka ichiban-cha green tea”, which was even more of a reason for me to try!

The can was surprisingly cheap. For about 150yen a pop, you could have a nice evening without spending too much.

Based on what my friend had, she had it on ice so I chilled mine too. Since Shizuoka green tea was used, I expected it to have a very strong green tea foundation but with a buzz.

A few hours later, the drink was cold enough (it warmed up on my way walking home), and I cracked it open and poured it over ice.

The colour was the greenish brown I was used to for tea from this region. What I was really missing was seeing the residue at the bottom of the cup. Not that the residue was yummy (quite the opposite!), but that part of the visual appeal was missing.

I took a sip of the drink. It tasted just like a normal cup of tea! There was 4% alcohol but I couldn’t taste it at all, even though the company was the famous Takara shochu company! It made it a whole lot easier to drink, except one thing: the tea was not that good... :(

Looking at the can again, Shizuoka green tea was only 10% of the green tea used, despite “using Shizuoka Ichiban-cha green tea” being huge on the label. As strong as Shizuoka green tea is, it can only do so much going against 90% of some other tea that I guarantee is not as good!

The best thing about it is that the beverage itself is very easy to drink. So easy that you forget that this is not suitable for kids. If you want to get buzzed without tasting alcohol, this might be a choice for you~

Overall, the can was a bit disappointing. But it also did inspire me to make my own using 100% next time!!!!!!! Now thaaaaat is going to be awesome!!! ;)

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.