Tea and Zen

Ito En has the best bottled green teas hands down. Before I was a serious tea drinker I would purchase this all the time. My supermarket used to sell all the bottled flavors that Ito En has available, but now they only sell this one.

Bottle and liquor

It makes me sad as I really like their darker bottled sencha. I think it is better than this one, though this one is good as well. I'm considering buying some of the darker Oi Ocha from their website since the price isn't bad and it'll be convenient since I'm going back to my University soon.

I have unfortunately never had the chance to try any of their matcha or loose sencha, but I've heard that it is pretty reasonable. In the event I do buy some of their darker Oi Ocha perhaps I'll buy some of their loose leaf.

I don't know if they used to, but now they have haiku on the bottles: 

Midnight basketball
The clang of the netless rim
Under crescent moon  
-Neil Whitman

I think the fact that they're now including haiku's by drinkers is pretty cool.

Bottle

Since it's been a very long time since I've had this tea I wasn't 100% sure what to expect. It smelt kind of bitter. Think of a generic bancha that you've brewed up and it smelt kind of like that. I was hoping it wouldn't taste like one and whelp... it did.

There wasn't much to it. It was rather bitter. I left it in my mouth for a few moments on a few occasions to try and see if I could pick up on something.

The bitterness intensified the longer it sat in my mouth.

It wasn't overly astringent. There wasn't much aftertaste beyond the lingering bitterness and a tiny hint of the characteristic sweetness that a good Japanese green will have. 

Considering it is a bottled green tea, and dirt cheap at that, one can't ask too much out of it. For what it is I liked it.

Now if only I can find their dark unsweeteend green tea without having to buy it off the internet.