Two Rivers Green Tea & a giveaway!

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I can’t live without matcha (Japanese powdered green tea), similar can be said for all green teas in general. I love drinking tea of any nature and any flavour including black teas, but my favourite would always be leafy green tea, especially Japanese sencha.

There’s something about leafy green tea that appeals to me. It’s that sweet refreshing but slight bitter aftertaste and that soothing faint aroma that puts me at ease. I love drinking it after a heavier meal to cleanse my palate, or to accompany a meal when tea compliments the dishes. It’s my drink of choice always at Japanese restaurants.

I recently received an email about a new green tea product that entered the Australian market called Two Rivers Green Tea which is a Japanese green tea brand that is proudly grown, harvested and packaged in regional Victoria. I was very excited to have learnt about this brand as I couldn’t believe my beloved Japanese green tea would be grown so close to home.

What excited me even more is the fact that they have agreed to provide a sample pack of green teas to one lucky Ichigo Shortcake reader!

Two Rivers Green Tea provides 4 different varieties of leafy green teas of which I have listed below.

Shincha

Shincha (新茶) literally means ‘new tea’ in Japanese. This is a well sought after tea in Japan but is a rarer type of tea in Australia as far as I know. It’s made with the first harvested batch of fresh tea leaves in Spring, packing in all the great nutrients and flavours during the winter months. Its flavour is intense with a sweeter finish. As you can see from the photo below, the tea leaves are more lush, green and young.

Sencha

Sencha (煎茶) is the most common and consumed type of green tea that you can get in Asian grocery stores or in Japanese restaurants which is commonly just known as ‘green tea’. It is made using harvested leaves from summer through autumn and provides a more full bodied and sweet flavour, although not as intense as shincha. Sencha means ‘decocted tea’ which refers to the method that the tea leaves are produced. In Japan, sencha refers to the whole class of Japanese green tea which includes shincha.

Houjicha

Houjicha (ほうじ茶) refers to Japanese green tea that has been lightly roasted which gives it a light amber colour compared to the usual green. It also tastes quite different to non-roasted tea in that it gives a lightly roasted or nutty taste. The method of roasting is also believed to reduce the amount of caffeine in the leaves which makes it a better beverage after dinner or for children and the elderly.

Genmaicha

Genmaicha (玄米茶) literally means brown rice tea. It is tea made with sencha leaves, roasted brown rice and matcha (ground green tea powder) mixed together. Genmaicha is also a popular tea that leaves a nutty, fragrant and refreshing taste on the palate.

For those of you who don’t drink green tea all that much, you may not have known that so many different types of Japanese green tea existed, but I love all of these varieties of tea.

I found the Two Rivers green teas have finer and greener leaves and less stalks. I highly dislike the stalks present in other brands available on the market as they often float on the top of the cup and gets in the way of my drinking. Stalks also don’t provide as much taste as the leaves themselves. Two Rivers tea leaves seem more consistent and higher quality than some other brands as well so they have ticked all the criteria in my books.

You can order Two Rivers Green Tea on their website at http://www.tworiversgreentea.com.au or for a list of stockists, visit http://www.tworiversgreentea.com.au/the-tea-shop/stockists.

Now here’s the most exciting part – the competition! If you enjoy drinking Japanese green tea as much as I do then you will love the Two Rivers green teas.

The winner of the competition will receive 4 packets of green teas at 30g each and will consist of all 4 varieties mentioned here.

It is only open to Australian residents (sorry to all my overseas readers!) so make sure you specify that in your comment.

All you need to do is the following:

1. Like my Facebook page
2. Follow me on Twitter
OR
3. Sign up to my email subscriptions

And write a comment below to let me know you have done one of the above.

Each of these will get you a separate entry so make sure you write a comment for each one for it to be counted.

The competition will end on Tuesday 27 November 2012 at 11:59pm EST and the winner will be drawn randomly. Please make sure you provide a valid email address for me to contact you if you were to win.

Good luck everyone! I’m so excited at the moment so I’m going to drink some tea to relax.

Note: This giveaway is sponsored by Two Rivers Green Tea, Australia. Ichigo Shortcake received the same sample pack to try as the one in the giveaway but was not paid in any way to write this post. All of the above are my honest opinions that I wanted to share with my lovely readers.