Tea Talk Time 1: Canned Green Tea In View

Tea Talk Time launches! This is to share the wonders of tea drinking, the joy of tea making and all things tea to the audience. Most importantly, bringing 'tea' to greater heights of appreciation.



Green tea is consumed without sugar in most cases. However, in the case of canned drinks, many brands featuring green tea, will add in a large amounts of sugar. The reason being that the manufacturers use inferior tea leaves to produce their drink and have to add in a lot of sugar, so that the second-rated tea taste can be masked by the sugary sweetness.
Thus, in this episode, non-sugar added canned green tea are choosen, since sweet green tea drinks are less worthy of being explored. The big question. Which green tea is worth buying?

Sangaria
Bought at IMM, Daiso
Price: $2
Place of Origin: Japan

Packaging: 7
This comes with a metallic bottle; unique packaging, with colourful designs as photographed.

Quality: 6
Slightly bitter with a tinge of rice aroma. The aftertaste leave behind a bittersweet frangrace.

Pokka
Major Supermarkets, in this case, NTUC
Price: $0.70
Place of Origin: Singapore

Packaging: 6 A nice bright green to attract customers. A Japanese brand but a made in Singapore product.

Quality: 3.5
Reminds people of sugar cane juice, without the sugar. Although the tea gives the darkest colour, it suprisingly has the mildest taste of all the 3 brands. Besides the feeling of drinking liquid, the taste buds have to work hard in order to feel something. The aftertaste leaves behind nothing at all. It is a wonder when you considered that they indicate 'Premium Tea Leaves', leaving one to wonder whether they have lost their sense of taste.

Itoen
Certain Supermarkets, like Takashimaya
Price: $0.90
Place of Origin: Japan

Packaging: 8
Clear indications on how to open the can is available. It comes to me as a surprise that the can has several Japanese poems written, with the authors name and age indicated. They are arranged according to the respective ages of the authors. One is able to enjoy poetry while sipping tea, that is, if one is able to comprehend Japanese.

Quality: 8
This can drink can weaken the perception that can drinks are second-rated. The taste is wonderfully robust, although with a hint of tea-bitterness, it goes down the throat smoothly, leaving behind sweet-smelling fragrant tea aroma.

Overall:
The Pokka is the most easily available while Sangaria and Itoen are much harder to get your hands on. Considering price, quality and taste, Itoen emerge as the best choice, clearly winning Pokka and beats Sangaria by a margin. (Tea Talk Time had conducted a test and interviewed 5 different parties whose opinions were taken into much considerations in determining the results.)