Hapada Brand Shizuoka Green Tea Powder -- Stronger when Hot

    I found this lovely little packet of Shizuoka green tea powder online for a very reasonable price. It claims to be full of catechin, the natural antioxidant part of green tea that helps give the tea its healthy reputation. Forty grams of this green powder cost less than 250 yen courtesy of Amazon's pantry section which offers a flat shipping rate per box of "pantry" goods, usually limited to certain items you might find in a drug store or supermarket.



    When it arrived in the mail, I was surprised by the back label, where it suggested using less than 1 gram of the tea powder to make green tea in both hot or cold beverage forms. Since the packaging gave instructions on how to make the beverage with both temperature variants, I chose to try it both ways. I tried my best to estimate the amount of green tea powder .5 grams looks like but may have added more than recommended to each cup.

    While the hot beverage was cooling down to a drinkable temperature, I started on the cold one instead. I found it clean and crisp, not significantly different from the filtered water I kept in my refrigerator and made the tea from, but I couldn't really taste much green tea flavor in it. The powder also didn't dissolve fully and left little particles, even after I stirred it up several times. Perhaps a greater quantity of powder would be more useful for flavor. It is also possible that using room temperature water might lead to less clumping and a more smooth overall appearance. Still, there was no bitterness or discomfort in the drink. It mostly just tasted like very nice water.

    When I moved on to the hot beverage, I found it much deeper in flavor, with immediate notes of umami coupled with a gripping green tea flavor. It was strong, but not bitter. I still had to let it cool a little longer but when I came back to it again, I still found it really enjoyable.

    The deep color of the tea began to fade as the drifting powder clumped together and came to the bottom, but the tea itself remained easy to drink, even as I edged closer to the dregs at the bottom of the cup. The deep umami richness also became more subtle though it maintained a more full and rich flavor than its cool counterpart.
    I don't know if I like this better than other powdered Shizuoka green teas but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

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.