From Japanese and Chinese teas to blended varieties, tea beverages are king in Japan's nonalcoholic drinks market.

The Japanese nonalcoholic beverage market has entered a lively phase. Many Japanese green-tea products came onto the market in 2001, but from spring of this year there is a great deal more variety, and a whole range of new green-tea products from China are available. Up to now, the mention of Chinese tea has tended to bring to mind oolong tea, but now the drinks companies are coming out with green teas too.

Tea, King of Nonalcoholic Beverages
Back in the old days, the products lined up inside vending machines were mainly drinks with a distinctive flavor, aroma, or color. But about 20 years ago they were joined by less "flashy" beverages - oolong and other sugar-free teas. Together with canned coffee drinks, these products are now said to be a gold mine for beverage companies. Green tea may be called one of the representative drinks of Japan, and in 2001 Japanese green-tea beverages, also sugar-free, enjoyed a great boom. Riding this wave, three companies are now bringing out Chinese green-tea products, touting aroma as their selling point. The nonalcoholic drinks market as a whole saw no significant growth in 2001, but Asahi Soft Drinks Co. (site is Japanese only) estimates that sales of sugar-free tea grew by about 9% to some ¥715 billion ($5.5 billion at ¥130 to the dollar).

Flavor, of course, is important; but so are a product's appearance and the way it is marketed. A high-school girl might be impressed by the shape or color of the container in which a drink is sold, and her selection might be influenced by this. A male university student, on the other hand, might exclaim: "This is the one in the commercial with that actress Kyoka Suzuki, isn't it? This is the one for me."

The majority of containers are green, but Kirin Beverage Co. brought out its Kikicha-brand tea in March 2001 in a Chinese-style container reminiscent of celadon porcelain. Another product that stands out by its packaging is Suntory's Chugoku Ryokucha. Brought out in February this year, it is conspicuous by its rounded, blue bottle and has been a great hit. The three companies that have entered the fray with competing Chinese green-tea products have all decided to concentrate on image, and all use popular actresses in their TV commercials.

Health and Takeout Lunch Booms Add Further Impetus
Even older people, who up to now have tended to think of tea as something you make yourself and enjoy at home, have been buying blended-tea drinks, on the basis that with all the healthy-sounding ingredients, they must be good for you. Such blended-tea drinks, containing up to 10 or more natural ingredients and targeted at health-conscious consumers, are enjoying popularity. One such product, Asahi's Jurokucha, has been on the market since 1993, but it had its flavor and packaging revamped this spring and is currently the object of a marketing campaign. Suntory, for its part, is bringing Re-Pure (a new blended drink made from 15 ingredients) to market in April.

Quite a few office workers enjoy a tea drink with their box lunches, and many women working outside the home now buy a combination of takeout dishes (nakashoku) on their way home from work, as this saves a lot of preparation time. Very often tea beverages are also to be seen on the dining table on such occasions.

The Profundities of Chinese Tea
As tea beverages have proliferated and people have become accustomed to different kinds of tea, there are said to be an increasing number of people - mainly young women and middle-aged and older men - who have become aficionados of Chinese tea and its etiquette. The traditional Chinese practice of tea drinking (chagei, or "tea art," in Japanese) is not as complex as the Japanese tea ceremony (sado or cha no yu). The Chinese method is to make the tea by infusion using whole leaves of the tea plant. This means that several infusions can be made from the same leaves, something that cannot be done with the powdered tea used for cha no yu. Thus an added attraction of chagei is variety - each infusion of the leaves presents a different flavor and aroma for enjoyment.

Utensils for Chinese tea are not expensive, so it is not uncommon for an aficionado to have several sets. There are now quite a few specialty shops selling Chinese teas, and seminars on how to infuse Chinese tea and on its etiquette are always fully booked - which leads one to think that Japan can expect to see an even greater variety of Chinese-tea beverages on the market in the future.