Many companies produce bottled or canned green tea in Japan, which has the highest number of vending machines selling tea in the world.
Here is a list and brief explanations of major Japanese Green Tea Manufacturers in 2024.
I have also included their popular products and links to buy from Amazon.
How many have you tried?
Ito En, the Originator
Ito En is Japan's #1 canned and bottled green tea product manufacturer. In 1985, it debuted its canned sencha green tea, the first green tea drink sold in Japanese vending machines.
Today, Ito En’s signature bottled green tea product is Ooi Ocha-Ryokucha, which translates into English as, “Hey, Tea!” Sold in a clear, plastic bottle with a leaf-green wrapper, Ooi Ocha-Ryokucha is Japan’s best-selling vending machine green tea.
Japan’s best-selling vending machine green tea, and
the holder of The Guinness World Records in the best selling green tea beverage, both in Japan and the World!!
The tea is made from tea leaves grown in Japan, using only water and vitamin C as its other ingredients for a natural, fresh taste. Light-tasting beverages without sugar are a popular tea trend in Japan, and these drinks are becoming increasingly consumed worldwide. Ito En's tea products come in two plastic bottles: one designed to be served cold and the other designed to be held at a specific, warm temperature range inside a vending machine.
Ito En's other bottled green teas include:
- Ooi Ocha-Koicha: This variety has a stronger taste than the Ryokucha variety.
- Ooi Ocha-Hojicha: While other varieties of bottled tea are light yellowish-green in color, this tea is brown due to light roasting of the tea leaves.
- Ooi Ocha-Genmaicha: Genmaicha is a mild green tea that pairs well with tempura and other fried foods. Its ingredients include green tea and lightly roasted brown rice, which gives this bottled tea a distinctive yellow color.
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Jasmine Green Tea: This blend combines green tea with jasmine flowers for a very fragrant yet delicate-tasting brew.
- Golden Oolong Tea: Oolong tea has less caffeine than Ito En's other green tea offerings so that this iced tea variety can be drunk closer to bedtime.
Ito-en's oolong tea was the first oolong tea sold in Japan in 1979. In 1981, it also introduced a canned version, which surprised the industry as all the canned drinks at that time were only for soda or sweet drinks. They were the first to introduce non-sweet canned drinks to Japan and the world.
Vending machines in Japan continue to offer Ito En’s canned sencha and other canned versions of matcha and oolong tea. Over 2.5 billion green tea cans are sold in Japan annually, with Sapporo having an 80% share of the entire market. Ito En began importing Chinese tea leaves in 1979, thus becoming Japan's first importer of Chinese oolong tea.
Some prefer canned oolong tea because they want a light, one-time, ready-to-drink oolong tea. This canned version still has no added flavors or colors.
This matcha milk tea is exceptionally delicious - it has Matcha, the robust flavor of black and green tea, and a sweet creamy milk taste. It is definitely a sweetened milk tea drink for a sweet tooth.
Get the health benefits of antioxidants with this organic Sencha in a can. It is brewed from premium Sencha tea leaves and can be brought anywhere. It contains Vitamin C and 40mg of caffeine (way less than coffee). With 5x more tea antioxidants than a regular ready-to-drink green tea, this shot can boost your energy!
Drinking green tea is invigorating yet calming. Matcha powder has many uses in making drinks and cooking food. With Matcha Love, drinking cold brew Matcha is possible when on the go. Let Matcha give you a gentle energy boost and mental clarity.
With a natural sweetness and a pleasant bitter tea taste, Hojicha is very refreshing. It has a low caffeine content, and is safe to drink after dinner. Authentically brewed from roasted green tea leaves with no sweeteners, this zero calorie beverage will fill you without craving for another snack.
Suntory: A Functional Favorite
Japanese food and beverage maker Suntory offers bottled green tea beverages in vending machines all over Japan. Its products include:
- Iyemon: The #2 selling bottled green tea in Japan. Suntory partnered with a traditional Fukujuen tea grower in Kyoto to make this blend a rich flavor.
I think Iyemon is a renewed version, and I personally really like the bottle design!
- Iyemon Tokucha: This functional green tea drink is specifically for losing weight. It contains a type of polyphenol that is said to help break down stored body fat. This drink is part of the FOSHU drink trend (i.e., Food for Specified Health Uses).
- Suntory Oolong Tea is known for its less bitter taste than other types of Oolong tea, and many Japanese people love it.
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Suntory Black Oolong Tea: Combining oolong green tea with black tea, Suntory produces this bottled cold tea for consumers looking to avoid the bitter aftertaste that green teas can sometimes have.
Ayataka, the American Upstart
Ayataka is a Japanese arm of the U.S. based Coca-Cola company. This Kyoto-based company's bottled green tea products are known for their cloudiness – unlike the clear beverages made by Ito En and Suntory – which comes from using specially milled powdered tea leaves of very high quality.
- Ayataka Heaven and Earth Green Tea: Available in vending machines as cans and bottles, this unsweetened green tea blend is noted for its cloudiness and tastes very similar to tea poured from a teapot.
- Sokenbicha: Available in five flavors. Some of Sokenbicha’s brews are green or oolong teas, and others are barley teas, which contain no actual tea leaves. Each flavor represents one of Japan's traditional five elements.
UCC (Ueshima Coffee Company): Not Just Coffee Anymore
Ueshima Coffee Company, or UCC, originated the canned coffee beverages available in Japan's vending machines. Although coffee remains the company's most important product, it has recently branched out into tea. UCC makes traditional canned green tea without sugar or calories, as well as canned oolong tea.
Considering their popular canned coffee drinks, it is worth trying their canned green tea. It has a strong tea flavor with no additives. If you need a little kick of energy and become alert, this pure green tea will help you to do your work.
UCC Barista is a canned beverage that is available in many coffee flavors. However, there is also one Uzi Matcha variety. Matcha lattes contain sugar and whole milk powder and are said to be lightly sweet.
The company also makes Paradise Tea, which has a black tea base and incorporates herbal flavors like marigold, rose, and cornflower.
Beer Companies That Also Brew Tea
Another trend in the Japanese beverage market is that the companies that sell beer and other alcoholic beverages also produce lines of tea products and other soft drinks found in vending machines across the nation. Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo are three of the most prominent.
Asahi
Asahi's soft drinks include bottled 16 Blended tea, a barley-based herbal tea product that–ironically—doesn't actually contain any tea leaves. The Asahi company also makes the extremely popular lactic acid beverage Calpis (a sports drink). Additionally, under the Calpis name, Asahi makes a FOSHU green tea called Calpis Kenchao.
You will surely enjoy this low-calorie and caffeine-free beverage if you are a tea drinker. Juroku Cha is blended with 16 roasted botanical and grain tea ingredients that taste good and are uplifting. It creates a feeling of health and balance in the body. Day or night, hot or iced, this tea is fantastic.
Kirin
Kirin`s green tea product is Nama-cha. Due to the popularity of Ayataka`s cloudy products, Nama-cha recently underwent a makeover to make the tea cloudier. Japanese consumers approve of the change, even though (by Japanese standards) Nama-cha is one of the sweetest bottled green tea beverages.
One of the best-selling teas in Japan, this green tea is rich in umami—vegetable grassy with a natural sweet taste. The sophisticated-looking label attracts buyers to drink the tea. It tastes best when served cold or chilled.
Do you want to drink green tea after dinner? Here is the decaf version of Kirin Namacha’s Rich Green Tea. Anyone can still enjoy this rich green tea flavor with a bit of sweetness. Relax and drink this tea brewed from natural tea leaves, without the caffeine.
Like Asahi, the Kirin company is primarily known in Japan as a manufacturer of alcoholic drinks. However, Kirin also makes soft drinks, including Japan's most popular line of black tea beverages, Gogo-no-Kocha. Kirin introduced this ready-to-drink black tea blend in 1986. Kirin makes an unsweetened black tea called This Afternoon, which is also available in a milk tea version that has whole milk and sugar added. Kirin also sells a peach-flavored tea made with Dimbula tea leaves imported from Sri Lanka. Interestingly, Dimbula is a kind of black tea, but Kirin's peach tea is light yellow, similar to an oolong tea.
Gogo-no-kocha - This Afternoon Tea - Plain
Gogo-no-kocha - This Afternoon Tea - Milk tea version
This popular tea drink in Japan is made from tea leaves with a sweet taste. The rich flavor of the tea leaves and the creaminess of the milk make an excellent combination for authentic iced tea milk.
Gogo-no-kocha - This Afternoon Tea - Peach flavored version
Pokka Sapporo
Pokka is Singapore’s top food and beverage company and the #1 seller of green tea in Singapore. In partnering with the Sapporo Brewery, the oldest beer brewery in Japan, Pokka sells Japanese consumers bottled green, white, and oolong tea beverages along with iced fruit teas and Afternoon Tea (black tea) in unsweetened and sweetened/milk varieties. One of its specialties is roasted green tea.(Hojicha)
- Pokka Green Tea - This one has gyokuro in a can!
- Pokka Oolong Tea
Grab a can of oolong tea and start your day with a lively and alert mind. Oolong tea tastes like green tea, but it is thicker and has a bit of fruity and flowery flavor. Pokka's oolong tea is 100% natural with Vitamin C.
- Pokka Roasted Green Tea (Kaga Hojicha)
This article is part of Kei Nishida's published book Green Tea Cha – How Japan and the World Enjoy Green Tea in the 21st Century
This article was also published on T-Ching where my article is featured.
Please Click Below Image to Get My Book Green Tea Cha : How Japan and the World Enjoy Green Tea in the 21st Century from Amazon (Both Printable Format and Kindle Version Available)
Green Tea Cha - How Japan and the World Enjoy Green Tea in the 21st Century
Paperback: 152 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1546704418
ISBN-13: 978-1546704416
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 9 ounces
Book Description:
Kei Nishida is back with his latest book on Green Tea, Green Tea Cha, and How Japan and the World Enjoy Green Tea in the 21st Century. In this 143-page book, Tokyo native Nishida covers the changing use and appreciation for tea in the 21st Century. He brings together a collection of facts and observations that allows the reader to peer into the cultural mindset of those who enjoy green Tea. He begins by explaining how tea is enjoyed in Japan today and the merger of traditional Japanese culture with that of the jihanki (vending machines). He ends with a discussion of Green Tea Beverages that "you've never heard of before but are drop-dead delicious." Each chapter brings together a plethora of information about the uses of Green Tea in his pleasant, informative style, encouraging the reader to seek out these drinks and dishes for themselves. By the end of the book, readers will not only have a list of "must-try" drinks and dishes but also an appreciation for this powerful, tasty antioxidant.
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• Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are my
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About the author
Kei Nishida
Author, CEO Dream of Japan
Certification: PMP, BS in Computer Science
Education: Western Washington University
Kei Nishida is a Japanese green tea enthusiast, a writer, and the founder and CEO of Japanese Green Tea Co., a Dream of Japan Company. His passion for introducing America to the tea of his homeland was the catalyst for creating the only company that brings high-quality tea from Arahataen Green Tea Farms to the rest of the world. Learn more about Kei
