Shizuoka green tea x Uji green tea Harmony

I was out for looking to score myself a new pack of Shizuoka green tea to try and visited a supermarket inside a shopping mall. While browsing through their rack full of packages in green, I initially passed by a bag that says “green tea with matcha”, saw the word “Uji” and thought that this Kyoto tea was not what I was searching for.

It wasn’t until the second scan on the same package that I realized the package actually displayed “the rich aroma and flavor from Shizuoka”. Confused, I picked up the package and checked out the back.

“Green tea with matcha”

“Ingredients:
Green tea (Shizuoka)
Matcha (Kyoto)”

The description also said: “This blend infuses the northern Yabu tea from Shizuoka with matcha from Uji so that you can enjoy both green tea and matcha simultaneously.”

Until now, I had never seen a blend like this. Typically, blended tea would simply say that the tea is produced in Japan without specifying the exact region. Those blends are usually cheaper, and the area of production doesn’t really matter because the value was all more important. This, however, displaying where the tea is from was the first for me, and it got my attention.

The company selling it is Style ONE, which is one of the generic supermarket brands, so this bag was surprisingly affordable at 300 yen! The factory, however, is Maruko. It seems like most Shizuoka green tea I can find are from them, and they make good tea.

The bag was a stuffed 160g, containing 40 tea bags of 4g of tea each. This was perfect because tea bags are just so much easier to carry, especially if I want to keep some hot tea in my tumbler on a cold day out.

I didn’t wait until a cold day to try it out though. That night I opened it up immediately because I wanted someone to drink alongside the package of supermarket sushi I had purchased along with the tea.

The smell itself would tell you that this is different. Not quite macha, not quite green tea, but still a very pleasant smell coming from each tea bag.

The package advised that one tea bag could make a whole liter of green tea, but I was just making it for myself, so I put the tea in, soaked it for a minute or so before taking it out and putting it to the side for another brew later.

The flavor was surprising! It really was a harmony between the two. The now-familiar and distinct bitterness of the Shizuoka tea was there, but it wasn’t overpowering because I could clearly find the matcha flavor as well that resembles its own bitterness similar to some matcha sweets I enjoy. 

Rather than one being too much, I could find both flavors in one, and it does make me feel as if I was mixing two types of green tea together. Although my next bag will likely be back to a Shizuoka-only tea, considering the price, how tasty this tea is, and how handy tea bags are compared to tea leaves, I would be just as happy to make another purchase of this after I run out.

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.