Mecha tea

[MacGuffin]

So, did you ever commit to buying me-cha? I've ordered both it and go-cha more than once from Zencha; they're both excellent. I'd point out, though, that if bitterness is one of your criteria, you can pretty much induce it in almost any green tea (except hojicha) if your water's hot enough.

[Chip]

I have never had mecha ... I have read product descriptions for mecha often enough and it seems somewhat intriguing. But I have never pulled the trigger.

[MacGuffin]

It's nice, either brewed conventionally or in the fridge. (To be fair, I have a dear friend who loathes me-cha but he doesn't enjoy much beyond genmai-cha.) I think it's good value, too. Check out Zencha. Shipping is included and if memory serves, I gave you a gentle nudge towards Hibiki-an's sencha karigane some years back which you ended up enjoying. I wouldn't steer you wrong--hit that button!

I've reached a point in "tea-ing" where, although still a sucker for very high-end product, I've learned to appreciate and seek out stuff that's very interesting and a bit off the beaten trail (me-cha, guri-cha, kona-cha, e.g., in Japanese tea). "Interesting" is often a lot more enjoyable for everyday consumption than the somewhat lower grades of conventional tea in the same price range.

[MEversbergII]

Ha! Old thread

Well, to anyone who's reading through it, don't be put off by the idea of "byproduct tea". Right this very moment I am drinking konacha, which is about as byproduct as you can possibly get. I like it

M.

[Chip]

It's nice, either brewed conventionally or in the fridge. (To be fair, I have a dear friend who loathes me-cha but he doesn't enjoy much beyond genmai-cha.) I think it's good value, too. Check out Zencha. Shipping is included and if memory serves, I gave you a gentle nudge towards Hibiki-an's sencha karigane some years back which you ended up enjoying. I wouldn't steer you wrong--hit that button!

Sorry, I am drawing a blank. This must have been on the O-Cha forum since you only joined TeaChat in 2012. We would have had to have discussed this back around 2007-8ish?

Mecha may have to wait for 2014 harvest.

[MacGuffin]

Yes, we met on the O-Cha forum (a sad day when it disappeared) back then and e-mailed back and forth for awhile.

[Chip]

Yes, we met on the O-Cha forum (a sad day when it disappeared) back then and e-mailed back and forth for awhile.

Humble TEApologies!

Yes, I remembered as I was driving around today. Back in the day, that was THE place to discuss Japanese greens!

... and now it is here.

[Drax]

Sorry, this one just caught my eye, mostly because I hadn't heard of "mecha tea" before, but I was familiar with the "mecha" phrase. "Mecha" means "absurd" or "ridiculous" and there's also "mechamecha" and "mechakucha" which more or less mean similar.

I don't mean to re-fan the flame, but it did make me wonder which came first -- the term, or the tea. Something tells me the tea term came first, and spawned the other usage... (and yes, the "cha" is the same character as tea).

[Chip]

Sorry, this one just caught my eye, mostly because I hadn't heard of "mecha tea" before, but I was familiar with the "mecha" phrase. "Mecha" means "absurd" or "ridiculous" and there's also "mechamecha" and "mechakucha" which more or less mean similar.

I don't mean to re-fan the flame, but it did make me wonder which came first -- the term, or the tea. Something tells me the tea term came first, and spawned the other usage... (and yes, the "cha" is the same character as tea).

Very interesting.

[MacGuffin]

Yes, we met on the O-Cha forum (a sad day when it disappeared) back then and e-mailed back and forth for awhile.

Humble TEApologies!

Yes, I remembered as I was driving around today. Back in the day, that was THE place to discuss Japanese greens!

... and now it is here.

No apologies necessary! And do you have any idea of why O-Cha dropped that forum? Believe it or not, someone there posted an endorsement for Seven Cups (I'd vaguely heard of them), and I've been buying from them ever since. And yes, I'd have to agree that this is the place now.

[MacGuffin]

Well, to anyone who's reading through it, don't be put off by the idea of "byproduct tea". Right this very moment I am drinking konacha, which is about as byproduct as you can possibly get. I like it

Just noticed your comment and second it. I've had Zencha's ko-cha and really liked it. I notice that Ippodo also carries it and since they now have a store near me, I'm going to make it a point to check out theirs as well. I seem to recall they also have kyobancha.

[Chip]

Yes, we met on the O-Cha forum (a sad day when it disappeared) back then and e-mailed back and forth for awhile.

Humble TEApologies!

Yes, I remembered as I was driving around today. Back in the day, that was THE place to discuss Japanese greens!

... and now it is here.

No apologies necessary! And do you have any idea of why O'Cha dropped that forum? Believe it or not, someone there posted an endorsement for Seven Cups (I'd vaguely heard of them), and I've been buying from them ever since. And yes, I'd have to agree that this is the place now.

I think he shut it down because the mod was such a beast!!!

[MacGuffin]

And do you have any idea of why O-Cha dropped that forum?

I think he shut it down because the mod was such a beast!!!

LOL I suppose that was it!

[daidokorocha]

Sorry, this one just caught my eye, mostly because I hadn't heard of "mecha tea" before, but I was familiar with the "mecha" phrase. "Mecha" means "absurd" or "ridiculous" and there's also "mechamecha" and "mechakucha" which more or less mean similar.

I don't mean to re-fan the flame, but it did make me wonder which came first -- the term, or the tea. Something tells me the tea term came first, and spawned the other usage... (and yes, the "cha" is the same character as tea).

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. The cha in mechakucha is probably cha because it is the most familiar way to read cha. In fact, I struggle to think of any other kanji read as cha. There is omocha of course, but that cha isn't typically read as cha and instead people would read it as gu (think 道具、具合). Thus, to my mind, the cha is more coincidental than anything and is there by necessity.

I know this is a bump from a few years ago, but hey... Perhaps we can re-jump a discussion on mecha. It is always sencha, gyokuro, shincha, or matcha around here. Personally, I drink a lot of bancha, kukicha, houjicha, konacha, genmaicha, etc. I am doing my part to raise awareness of what many may call "by-product" teas, depending on how you frame the production. Please drink more of these teas.

[Drax]

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.