Wherever you go, wherever you look, shelves are stacked with it, vending machines are loaded with it and people are toting it in their burando bags and natty knapsacks. And that's not to mention all those billboards, magazine ads and TV spots keeping green tea up close and personal to residents of these isles.
After decades of stewing with a fuddy-duddy image in the shadow of refreshment-drink rivals like oolong tea, Coke and Calpis, a bona fide ryokucha boom has brewed. Since 500 ml-PET-bottle marketing began in line with the move to recycling in 1996, the trend had been slowly simmering. But when green tea's PET-bottle sales almost doubled from 2.8 million yen in April 2000 to 5.1 million yen the following April, the marriage of convenience had clearly borne fruit.
Leading the way are brands like Nama-cha, O-i Ocha, Maro-cha, Uma-cha and Appare Shizuoka-cha. Each offers variations on the same sugarless, health-aware theme in a range of PET-bottle sizes from 2 liters to the 350-ml version launched in 2000 that really sent sales curves skyward.