Japan tea · Tea in Japan
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Tea in Japan
Tea in Japan
The most popular beverage by far is tea (お茶 o-cha), provided free of charge with almost every meal, hot in winter and cold in summer. There is a huge variety of tea in bottles and cans in convenience-store fridges and vending machines. Western-style black tea is called kōcha (紅茶); if you don't ask for it specifically you're likely to get Japanese brown or green tea. Chinese oolong tea is also very popular.
The major types of Japanese tea are:
sencha (煎茶), the common green tea
matcha (抹茶), soupy powdered ceremonial green tea. The less expensive varieties are bitter and the more expensive varieties are slightly sweet.
hōjicha (ほうじ茶), roasted green tea
genmaicha (玄米茶), tea with roasted rice, tastes popcorn-y
mugicha (麦茶), a drink of roasted barley, served iced in summer
Just like Chinese teas, Japanese teas are always drunk neat, without the use of any milk or sugar. However, Western-style milk tea can also be found in most of the American fast food chains.
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Japan Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
