Shizuoka green tea as a topic starter

Earlier this year, I had an interesting experience. I bought a new bag of Shizuoka green tea for the new year. First of all, please feel free to check out my review of the tea here, and I liked it a lot.
<Review here>

So the Shizuoka green tea wasn’t just for me. In fact, I brought it to a Japanese family over new years to share. They were preparing the osechi ryouri and told me not to bring anything, so I thought I could at least contribute something nice to tea during our nice chat during the day. I did not expect that the tea itself became a huge talking point.

Maybe it wasn’t the tea itself, but the fact that I chose and brought a bag of Shizuoka green tea with knowledge about it. From a visible foreigner, this was something they did not expect. The moment I brought the tea out, they were happy, and when I said, “I brought some Shizuoka green tea to share”, they all went, “Oh what, you know about Shizuoka green tea? Sugoi!!!!!!”

I was happy to get compliments for my knowledge. The family started asking me whether I had Shizuoka green tea back in America. I explained that when I was in America, green tea was just green tea, and I had absolutely no idea where Shizuoka was. They asked me what I think about Shizuoka green tea, and I explained the difference in taste and color that I have noticed since doing this project, plus that I find myself enjoying Shizuoka green tea more than other green tea. They were all impressed, but just as much, they were happy that I cared enough to taste the difference enough to have an opinion. They were not from Shizuoka, but I think they were proud of green tea in general as a Japanese drink.

Since I brought the tea, I thought I could also brew the tea for them, borrowing their pot and scoop. I told them that I prefer to make the tea stronger, and at that point, I could see the eyes of approval from them on anything I say about green tea, and I felt like a tea master for a moment (who was talking about tea in front of people who have been drinking it throughout their life haha).

That was an interesting experience and the one rare time that I was able to present and talk about a Japanese cultural drink. Of course, I knew that they had other drinks at home too, but they were nice enough to drink what I brought to share, and we had a really nice discussion. I would highly recommend anyone here to bring a bag of Shizuoka tea to other Japanese families, both to share delicious tea and to have a lovely topic starter that you have probably built up some knowledge for!

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.