Both the regular and stronger taste Oi Ocha's are very popular in Japan. The bottle sold in Japan looks like this:edgar_k wrote:I spotted a new Oi Ocha varietal last time I was in Whole Foods -- a "dark green" version (matching label) with "bolder taste."
I picked up a bottle but seeing that I've been on such a sakura sencha kick lately it's still in my fridge. Hopefully "bolder taste" will mean "less manufactured-tasting."
https://www.marukaiestore.com/p-808-ito ... fl-oz.aspx
The light green characters on the left say "koi aji" which means "strong taste". The Ito-en website shows the US packaging:
http://www.itoen.com/ocha/
The taste is definitely stronger. Neither come close to fresh brewed tea and neither tastes like sencha (or any other Japanese tea) to me but rather more like a Chinese tea of some type. I do drink them though!
