This may come as a shock to some. Virtually all of the tea produced in Japan is green tea. It’s what they’re known for. Even people who know next to nothing about tea will ask about “Japanese green tea” as if that’s a specific kind or Japan is the only place where “green tea” grows.
Well, I just ran across a reference to a website that sells black tea (koucha) manufactured in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. (Shizuoka is famous for its green teas.) I haven’t tried any of it, but I’m tempted to order just to see what it’s like. First, though, I wanted to share the discovery with my readers who might also like to try some. (Apologies for using their image without express written permission–but I think it still falls under fair use since I’m giving credit and linking to them, and I’ve altered it a bit.)
Curiously, the website appears to be of the Assam Tea Company. Their teas all seem to be from India except this one. Even their greens and whites come from Assam (which might be just as shocking as a black tea from Japan to some people).
Very interesting stuff. I can’t vouch for this particular source, but it does seem like more and more experimentation is being done in the tea world, and those experiments are actually reaching the American tea-drinking public. And that’s pretty cool.