Green Tea Feature Part 4: Oi Ocha’s increasing popularity among Silicon Valley workers!
Green tea represents the soul of traditional Japanese culture. It is also enjoyable for the pronounced sweet and bitter tastes that belie its simplicity. And its reported positive effects on both health and beauty make it a very popular souvenir. However, you may well feel somewhat lost when choosing the right green tea product. With that in mind, I have decided to introduce the charms of green tea in all six upcoming issues.
Today I’d like to share an interesting story relating to green tea. Did you know that the popularity of Japanese green tea, in particular Ito En's Oi Ocha, is booming in America’s Silicon Valley, the home of many of the world’s most cutting-edge IT enterprises? Where it was once commonplace to see the brilliant minds of these companies working with an energy drink in hand, these days, apparently, you're more likely to see them sipping on a bottle of Oi Ocha! What changed? I was curious too, so I took the liberty of contacting Ito En directly to find out!
They said, “Up until recently, the only green tea most Americans knew was a drink so pumped full of sugar syrup it tasted nothing like the real thing.” Perhaps it wasn’t thought that the American pallet would be able to appreciate the subtle sweetness and bitterness that green tea is known for. But Ito En held on to their faith in the functionality of green tea when no one else would. Since many of the engineers working at these tech companies were often seen drinking energy drinks for their functionality, Ito En thought, "Surely these are people who would be all for a drink as healthy and catechin and caffeine abundant as green tea." And they were successful in marketing it to them; they've managed to introduce Japanese green tea to many of the Silicon Valley tech companies including Evernote Corporation. According to Ito En, "Every month, Google alone goes through 60,000 bottles!"
Japanese green tea's soothing and refreshing taste and high functionality has finally been recognized and properly appreciated. Why not buy some for your hardworking friends back home to try?