When I went to Japan a few years ago I was drinking a lot of bottled green tea, which did not contain any sugar or sweeteners. It tasted a bit bitter, but it was delicious in the summer.
I'm now living in the UK and everytime I go to an Asian supermarket I can only find bottled green tea with added sugar and sweetened in one way or another.
Why is that? Is all bottled Chinese tea sweetened? Are there no brands sold that sell unsweetened tea?
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6 responses so far ↓
1 angieasee64 // Feb, 2008
Probably not. Most tea when it's sold in the bottle comes sweetened for a wider appeal for consumers. Why don't you just check the label and /or buy the raw stuff, brew it yourself and put them in bottles?
2 hq3 // Feb, 2008
I love unsweetened tea as well!
Recently, I have been drinking Tejava brand. It is completely unsweetened.
I live in US so i don't know if you can get in UK but if you are THAT desperate try ordering it on-line:
http://store.drsoda.com/tejava.html
3 Tangle Elfshimmer // Feb, 2008
This is a GREAT question! I have the same problem…I don't want it sweetened! Cool! Thanks!
4 mavenoftea // Feb, 2008
Go to the site below, it is great for tea. All of the tea is unsweetened and they also sell loose leaf teas. If you go to the second site and enter your email into the box on the sidebar you'll get a five dollar certificate as an incentive to buy from them.
5 nicky // Feb, 2008
Me too! Why is unsweetened green tea so hard to find!?
Well, after an extensive search of the Internet I managed to find 0 British shops (high street and online) that sell unsweetened bottled green tea. Some great news though gang
if you follow the link bellow you'll see that we might not have too long to wait for things to change!
6 polskajason // Feb, 2008
I've been to Japan and China and the difference seems to be the country of origin: Japanese bottled green tea is rarely sweetened, while the exact same I had in China and Hong Kong was sweetened. (I was able to find oolong and jasmine tea unsweetened after a lot of effort, but regular green was always sugared).
Ito En, a Japanese maker, is now exporting to the US–we have it in California, although it's a bit pricey. I would check to see if they're distributing in the UK as well.
(I only have started seeing them in health food shops like Whole Foods for about a year)
If that doesn't work, either go to a Japanese shop, or look for "Japanese green tea" in Chinese shops (that's how the unsweetened stuff was labeled in HK).
I've also made batches of it at home and it's very easy–brew double-strength and then dilute with water.
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