Doctor Strangebrew or: How I Learned To Stop Complaining and Love Tea [part 1]

This morning it just dawned upon me that I could take my Ito En fandom to new heights by spending about two hours looking at their website via the Internet Archive (www.archive.org). They only have archives from 2005-2009, but I went ahead and looked through most of them and jotted down some notes pertaining to how their product lineup has changed over the years.

Technically the first time I became aware of Ito En was in 2006 when I went to Japan for the first time. It was during cherry blossom season and I remember walking around Ueno Park doing some hanami. Up until then I was taking the gaijin approach to eating and was mostly going for stuff I was familiar with, but kept on seeing people drinking this stuff out of green bottles. I was getting thirsty from walking around in the sun all day and when I went to get some lunch I ran into one of the million vending machines selling the stuff. I figured if everyone else in the country was drinking it, I should probably give it a try. I don't even think I knew what it was before then either; I probably assumed it was tea but had no idea what kind. It wasn't until much later that I realized it would be my first bottle of Ito En's flagship beverage: Oi Ocha.

Example of "real" Oi Ocha bottle from Japan

That first taste I took... was completely awful. I'm sure a lot of other Americans have the same reaction too, mainly due to our country's preference to sugary/flavored beverages. Oi Ocha is pure Japanese green tea, no flavor or sugar added, but to me it just tasted like they brewed fresh grass clippings and bottled it. I really had a hard time finishing the entire bottle too, in fact I think I did end up throwing away the last 1/4 of it; it had gotten especially gross after it started to get get warm in the sun, too. It would a long time before I would ever cross paths with Ito En again, or even figure out what it was that I had drank that day in Japan.




Fast forward 2-3 years later, my favorite internet personality, Kevin Rose, began talking about tea all the time on Diggnation.

Alex and Kevin @ Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco

He was also started talking about stuff like cleansing diets, "organic" this and that, farmer's markets, rock climbing, etc... so basically it seemed like he was just becoming an all out hipster-hippie. However, all his talk about tea, combined with my own desire to start drinking/eating healthier, made me interested in pursuing it myself.

At the end of 2008, my company moved our office up the road a bit and was now very close to the semi-new Wegman's grocery store; at the time the only one in Maryland. I was over-joyed to start going there for lunch because I knew how diverse and amazing their grocery/cafe was. I was also blown away to discover that they had an entire sub-section of the store dedicated to tea, which I was eager to peruse.

Imagine this wall times five..

Anyway, one day for lunch I grabbed something from their Wokery Bar and then went to get a drink; mind you, Wegman's has about 5-8 drink coolers/fridges, all boasting a great variety of specialty beverages from Odwalla smoothies, Kombucha, "Mexican" coke, etc. The one that I happened to fixate on was full of these little 6 oz cans of tea, but not just any tea... very cool, sleek looking cans that gave off a very distinct air of "this is awesome and you will become awesome if you drink it".

Ito En's "Dr. Andrew Weil for Tea" series

They were pretty expensive though, $1.50-2.00 for 6 oz of tea. However, it just seemed like the right thing to drink, especially since it boasted 130% of the daily recommended amount of Vitamin C; something I'm always drawn to since I get sick a lot. I ended up going with the Green White.

Unlike my previous experience in Japan, the first taste of this was really great. Maybe it was because of the way it was presented, the can talking about how great it was for you and how this doctor says it's "the shit", but I think right then I immediately jumped over the "astringency hurdle" associated with pure green tea.

Upon returning to Wegman's, I looked closer and saw that there were many other kinds of these little cans, including the Sencha & Oolong shots as well as Wegman's own brand.

Wegman's 5x Sencha Tea

I wouldn't buy these all the time, but when I did it was like a little delicious splurge for myself. Unfortunately though, only a few months after I had discovered and fell in love with it, Ito En discontinued their "Dr. Weil" line of products. It was a real bummer because I only had the Green White flavor and now I wouldn't be able to try the others. At least there were still the Sencha shots... however, I soon became aware of something that was most certainly more "bang for my buck".

Ito En's Tea's Tea

To be continued...