Mecha tea

[daidokorocha]

Muchakucha is another variation on this, with the kanji being 無茶苦茶, in which they all may have origins. i will say, they are all listed in the dictionary as Ateji, meaning the characters are not chosen for meaning but chosen for phonetic representation. There are a lot of stories about this, including explanations about how it is bad to not have any tea (無茶） or serve bitter tea (苦茶） for your guests, indeed as well as those linking it to the mecha of the title. However, these things very well (probably are) could be post-hoc explanations. Other kanji used to represent these things are 滅茶 which is fairly ominious but then you have the very bland and common reading of 目茶. Either way, mecha of the title, if you never saw the kanji, is simply 芽茶、meaning it is bud tea.

Thanks, daidokorocha! The ateji use of the characters makes sense. As you say, there are few common 'cha' kanji in Japanese. Also, thanks for identifying the real use of 'me' here as 'bud' -- that also makes much more sense.

I take it you still have not tried it! I am not sure if you are in Japan at the moment, but if not, when you get back aracha stuff in general is very cheap and you should give it a try. Mecha is meccha oishii!