Ice Tea

Japanese iced teas are tea-based drinks served cold, generally sweetened and flavoured with fruit. Closer to a fruit drink than to traditional tea, they combine the slight bitterness of tea with distinctive flavours such as peach, lychee, mango, lemon, strawberry, blueberry and passion fruit.

They are best served well chilled and provide a still alternative to Japanese sodas and lemonades. This category is deliberately kept separate from unsweetened Japanese bottled and canned teas, whose vegetal or roasted flavours are very different. For another unsweetened drink, Japanese mugicha, made from roasted barley, is particularly enjoyable when served cold.