Japanese Green Tea – How I Managed to Enjoy the Covid-19 Summer

Who imagined that summer in 2020 would be so quiet? The new coronavirus (COVID-19) had a huge impact on our daily lives. People try hard to stay at home. What was fatal for me was that almost all the events and festivals got canceled… This is definitely the most boring summer in my life!

It was so annoying, but complaint cannot resolve my depression. Let’s get positive. Then, the next question is, “How can I make the most boring summer fun?”

Then, I remember that I have a small favorite thing in Japanese summer that is available indoors – it’s summer limited bottled green tea produced by every leading drink maker. Yes, I can drink PLENTY of green tea and it makes this summer better!

When I travel somewhere new, I want to experience a bit of the local life, not only touristy spots and souvenirs. And some of you are interested only in the local life, aren’t you? If you hope to enjoy your stay in Tokyo in locals’ way in summer, this will be a great tip.

Iemon by Suntory

First, “Iemon” green tea series by Suntory is my favorite in general. And this is its summer limited version!

Ah – it’s so good… Summer green tea is made from icy water and it makes green tea flavor clearer than normal green tea. The taste is weaker than all-season products and that’s the taste of Japanese summer.

By the way, how can you tell it’s the summer limited version or all-season product? Even if you don’t read Japanese, summer limited products usually have some cool blue label to appeal to customers. So you can just pick up cool-looking ones at the shelf in the convenience store.

What’s interesting about Iemon green tea these days is its bottle.

Can you see it? A cat, turtles and the logo are CURVED on the bottle… I must say it’s just AMAZING!!

I don’t know how long Suntory will use this bottle, but when you get some Iemon green tea in Japan, don’t forget peeling the label off, and your trip will be a little more interesting!

Itoen

The next is the summer matcha green tea by Itoen.

Talking about the taste, I love Itoen’s summer green tea the best this year. I think its taste was the most summer-green-tea-like.

Bottled green tea is available at every convenience store. When you get one and want other products by different makers, just enter different convenience store chains. For example, if you got Iemon tea at Lawson first, go to Seven Eleven or Family Mart next time.

Itoen’s “Oi Ocha” series is the world’s best selling green tea approved by Guinness. When you travel in Japan, just remember the name! These days, the label kindly reads “Oi Ocha Unsweetened Green Tea” in English.

Ayataka by Coca Cola

The last is “Ayataka” series by Coca Cola.

Mmm… it’s the all-season version, actually. I didn’t see Coca Cola’s summer green tea and when I realized, summer has passed. Maybe Coca Cola failed to produce their summer green tea this year…

I suppose Coca Cola was in trouble. Look at this label.

…So it seems that Coca Cola printed out the labels and prepared the Olympic goods before March… Poor Coca Cola, they were one of those who didn’t 2020 would be like this! They are one of the important sponsors of the Olympic Games, so I think they were too busy to thinking about green tea.

How Green Tea is Helpful for Your Health

Humans are NOT so wise. When we get bored, we often kill time by eating and drinking. Although we know it’s a bad behavior for our health, our mind is not tough enough when we face the temptation of delicious foods…

Then, I have a perfect solution of this problem. Put your Coca Cola, grab green tea instead, and all is resolved!

Green tea is famous for being great for our health. Did you know the power of green tea?

• 0 calorie. Completely zero.
• When you have some green tea with your meal, catechin inside green tea will block fat being assimilated.
• People in major sources of green tea, who drink green tea 5 or more times a day, have much less percentages of stomach cancer.
• Green tea reduce helicobacter pylori, which causes stomach ulcer and bad breath.

You may think that there cannot be such a “dream food” on the earth. No, you are not sleeping. This is a true story!

So when you get bored at home next time, have green tea on the sofa.

And are you visiting Japan for the Olympic Games next year? If so, I strongly advise you to remember the bottled summer green tea. It’s a small local pleasure for me and I’m sure it’ll be so for your memorable trip to Tokyo.

I’ll write some stories about Tokyo after COVID-19 again in the next month. See you next time!