Okuraen’s Matcha Arare Shizuoka Green Tea

When I was out exploring town and some new shops with my partner we came across a brand of green tea from Shizuoka that we had never seen before. Okuraen is a brand from Kakegawa City of Shizuoka Prefecture. They produce, logically, the type of tea called "Kakegawa tea" which has more than 400 years of history. I have had my fair share of Shizuoka green tea up to this point, but they had one product that particularly piqued my interest.

Out of the three teas the shop carried, on one package it wrote “Kakegawa tea, the aroma of matcha arare, night time tea bag”. If you do not know what arare is, it is a type of fried bit-size rice cracker that is commonly served as a snack. It would make sense if the tea was fitting to go alongside arare, but this one has the arare in there with the tea leaves, and I just had to try it.

For slightly under 600 yen, you get a packet of 20 tea bags. It is not necessarily a steal, so the value was all up to the quality. I waited until night time to open the bag up, because, well, it is a “tea for the night”. When I finally opened the bag up after dinner, however, what I could smell was very intriguing. “I smell… tea… oh wait, rice crackers?” It smelled like something I could just eat out of the bag directly, and I would have tried if they were packaged into these pretty individual tea bags. Overall, it smelled really nice.

In each little tea bag, you would see tens of little rice pops that are thoroughly covered with matcha powder sitting next to a batch of ground green tea leaves. I tried shaking the tea bag, and none of the green leaves fell out, reassuring me that I will not need to be drinking a swamp of green tea residue from the bottom of the cup.

I poured hot water over the tea bag, and it really brought out the aroma when my put my nose closer to the cup. The color of the tea was a beautiful green, thanks to the matcha. The arare added this hidden layer of rice flavour that comes after the initial green tea bitterness that Shizuoka green tea is known for. The mixture of the two blended perfectly, and this was truly a tea I enjoyed.

The tea bag was good for two brews. The arare probably meant that each tea bag had less tea leaves than average, but when the tea is this good, I should not complain and just go make another cup.

All in all, would I recommend this? Definitely, especially if you want your Shizuoka tea to be just slightly different but not away from being traditional.

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.