Jūrokucha

A bottle of Jūrokucha, with updated packaging

Jūrokucha (十六茶^?) is a blended tea drink produced and distributed by Asahi Soft Drinks in Japan. The drink was originally created and sold by Chanson Cosmetics as a dry blended green tea.^[1] Beginning in March 1993, Chanson and Asahi Soft Drinks released Jūrokucha as a joint venture premade beverage.^[2] In February 2007, the packaging and flavor was updated.^[3]

Description

Jūrokucha literally means "16 teas,"^[4] and the drink is a blend of sixteen teas (from leaves, grains, and fruits): Job's Tears, Barley, kuromame, Brown rice, habucha, mulberry leaves, jiaogulan, kombu, lingzhi, sasa veitchii, persimmon, sesame, mikan peel, eucommia, black rice, and shiso leaves.^[5] All of these contain dietary fiber (mostly indigestible dextrin), and the drink is considered a designated health food in Japan.^[4] A decaffeinated version is also available.

Promotion

The drink is sold as "Jūrokucha with your meal" to emphasize its healthfulness.^[4][6] The drink is promoted as especially helpful to diabetics who wish to control their sugar levels after a meal due to the sugar-suppressing ingredients contained in it.^[4] Celebrities who have appeared in commercials for the health drink include Yuki Amami, Satomi Kobayashi, Izumi Inamori, Koji Uehara, Tomoko Tabata, Norika Fujiwara, and Mikako Ichikawa.

Impact

Due to the popularity of Jūrokucha, several other companies have released similar products. Kyushu Railway Company released a product called "Nijūyoncha" (literally "twenty-four teas"),^[7] Sangaria has a drink called "Nijūitcha" (literally "twenty-one teas"),^[8] Coca Cola distributes a drink called "Sōkenbicha" which has 12 teas combined,^[9] and a Korean company distributes a drink blended from 17 teas.^[10]

References

1. ^ (Japanese) "シャンソン化粧品 十六茶". http://chanson.jp/16.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 
2. ^ (Japanese) "アサヒ「十六茶」". The Archive of Softdrinks. http://softdrinks.org/asd0406a/16cha.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 
3. ^ (English) "The War Comes to a Boil: Chinese Green Tea Arrives on the Scene". Japan Information Network. 2002-05-10. http://web-japan.org/trends01/article/020510bus.html. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} (English) Yamaguchi, Paul (2006-06-16). "Japan's Nutraceuticals Today: Functional Foods Nation (2)". NPI Center. Archived from the original on 2007-02-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20070222164314/http://www.npicenter.com/anm/templates/newsATemp.aspx?articleid=15905&zoneid=45. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 
5. ^ (Japanese) "十六茶". Hatena Diary. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/keyword/十六茶. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 
6. ^ (Japanese) "アサヒ飲料  十六茶  食事と一緒に十六茶". http://www.asahiinryo.co.jp/16cha/tokuho/. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 
7. ^ (Japanese) "二十四茶". http://homepage2.nifty.com/mogiriya/drink/cha/24cha.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 
8. ^ (Japanese) "サンガリア - 商品情報 - おいしい二十一茶". http://www.sangaria.co.jp/pd_cha_21cha.php. Retrieved 2007-01-17. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ (Japanese) "爽健美茶". http://www.sokenbicha.jp/. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 
10. ^ (Korean) "음료제품". http://company.namyangi.com/product/View.asp?chk=03&id=D201&code=D. Retrieved 2007-01-17. 

External links

• (Japanese) Asahi Soft Drinks: Jūrokucha
• (Japanese) Chanson Cosmetics