Japan Navigator

The first canned (or bottled) green tea was sold in Japan in 1985. Since then, the market has exploded. In recent years, real “tea wars” have been raging, it has become mandatory for beverage companies as Suntory, Asahi and Coca Cola Japan to have a bestseller in the tea field. So you get branded green teas as Suntory’s Iemon, teas made with new leaves and teas suitable for autumn… Here is a new one I spotted recently: Agari tea by Asahi Soft Drinks.

[Also see the blue and red labels in this vending machine: cold and hot drinks together from one system]

Agari is the tea served in sushi shops and is a rather strong, bitter tea that flushes out the taste of fish. The name comes from agaribana, originally language from the pleasure quarters signifying that a guest has finished eating (the first cup of tea was called odebana). In the sushi shop o-agari refers to freshly brewn tea whenever served.

Note that the can is also in sushi style: it mimicks the mugs used to serve the agari in sushi shops. Usually these cups are decked out in the names of fish, written in a particular style of calligraphy: katsuo (bonito), masu (trout), unagi (eel), maguro (tuna) and aji (horse mackerel).

Two things strike me when looking at the Japanese canned tea scene. In the first place, the quality of the products, also as health drinks. There are no additives in these teas, and certainly no sugar (in Holland, I was happy to find a green tea drink in supermarkets, only to be shocked at the taste which was incredibly sweet – sponsored by the local dentist, I guess). Some of the early canned drinks in Japan were too sweet, as well, but that has been quickly remedied, and you at least get a choice.

Secondly, in most other countries, a brand is a brand and there is only one taste (or at most two). That is true for beer, for sodas, for cookies, whatever. A Heineken is a Heineken and a Coke is a Coke. Boring, say the Japanese. Asahi Beer has seven tastes of beer (and in addition five beer-like drinks, Happoshu). Every year (no, rather seasonally, every three months) new tastes are developed. Some stay, others disappear again. It is fun to try out the new types. But think of the enormous difficulties in production and logistics that have to be surmounted by having so many products, not to speak of marketing. Probably only Japanese companies, with their superb organization, are capable of doing this.