is a blended

Tea blending and additives

Tea blending describes the process of blending different teas together to produce a final product. This occurs chiefly with black tea that is blended to make most tea bags but can also occur with such teas as Pu-erh, where leaves are blended from different regions before being compressed. The aim...

 tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 drink produced and distributed by Asahi Soft Drinks

Asahi Soft Drinks

is a soft drink company founded in 1982 and headquartered in the Azuma-bashi district of Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Asahi Breweries. The company sponsors the Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers, an American football team in the X-League, as well as a futsal team.-History:In 1884, began...

 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The drink was originally created and sold by Chanson Cosmetics as a dry blended green tea. Beginning in March 1993, Chanson and Asahi Soft Drinks released Jūrokucha as a joint venture premade beverage. In February 2007, the packaging and flavor was updated.

Description

Jūrokucha literally means "16 teas," and the drink is a blend of sixteen teas (from leaves, grains, and fruits): Job's Tears

Job's Tears

Job's Tears , Coixseed, Tear Grass, adlay, or adlai, is a tall grain-bearing tropical plant of the family Poaceae native to Southeast Asia but elsewhere cultivated in gardens as an annual. It has been naturalized in the southern United States and the New World tropics...

, Barley

Barley

Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...

, kuromame, Brown rice

Brown rice

Brown rice is unmilled or partly milled rice, a kind of whole, natural grain. It has a mild nutty flavor, is chewier and more nutritious than white rice, but goes rancid more quickly because the germ—which is removed to make white rice—contains fats that can spoil...

, habucha, mulberry leaves

Mulberry

Morus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....

, jiaogulan

Jiaogulan

Gynostemma pentaphyllum, also called jiaogulan is an herbaceous vine of the family Cucurbitaceae indigenous to the southern reaches of China, northern Vietnam, southern Korea, and Japan. Jiaogulan is best known as an herbal medicine reputed to have powerful antioxidant and adaptogenic effects...

, kombu

Kombu

Kombu or konbu , also called dashima or haidai , is edible kelp from the family Laminariaceae widely eaten in East Asia....

, lingzhi

Lingzhi

The lingzhi mushroom or reishi mushroom encompasses several fungal species of the genus Ganoderma, and most commonly refers to the closely related species, Ganoderma lucidum and Ganoderma tsugae. G...

, sasa veitchii

Sasa (genus)

Sasa is a genus of running bamboo. These species have at most one branch per node....

, persimmon

Persimmon

A persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family . The word Diospyros means "the fire of Zeus" in ancient Greek. As a tree, it is a perennial plant...

, sesame

Sesame

Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....

, mikan

Mikan

The satsuma is a seedless and easy-peeling citrus mutant of Japanese origin introduced to the West.In Japan, it is known as mikan or formally unshu mikan . In China, it is known as Wenzhou migan . The Japanese name is a result of the local reading of the same characters used in the Chinese...

 peel, eucommia

Eucommia

Eucommia is a small tree native to China. It is near threatened in the wild, but is widely cultivated in China for its bark, highly valued in herbology such as Traditional Chinese medicine .-Characteristics:...

, black rice

Black rice

Black rice is a kind of sticky rice which is one of several black colored heirloom plants producing rice variants such as Indonesian black rice and Thai Jasmine Black Rice. Black rice is high in nutritional value and contains 18 amino acids, iron , zinc, copper, carotene, anthocyanin and several...

, and shiso leaves

Perilla frutescens

Perilla frutescens is an edible herb and ornamental plant in the Lamiaceae family. Its common name is perilla; it is also called beefsteak plant, Chinese basil, wild basil, purple mint, rattlesnake weed, or summer coleus.Perilla is a perennial herb and can grow to 3-5 feet tall...

. All of these contain dietary fiber

Dietary fiber

Dietary fiber, dietary fibre, or sometimes roughage is the indigestible portion of plant foods having two main components:* soluble fiber that is readily fermented in the colon into gases and physiologically active byproducts, and* insoluble fiber that is metabolically inert, absorbing water as it...

 (mostly indigestible dextrin

Dextrin

Dextrins are a group of low-molecular-weight carbohydrates produced by the hydrolysis of starch or glycogen. Dextrins are mixtures of polymers of D-glucose units linked by α- or α- glycosidic bonds....

), and the drink is considered a designated health food

Healthy diet

A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve general health. It is important for lowering many chronic health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. A healthy diet involves consuming appropriate amounts of all essential nutrients and an adequate amount of...

 in Japan. A decaffeinated version is also available.

Promotion

The drink is sold as "Jūrokucha with your meal" to emphasize its healthfulness. 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. Celebrities who have appeared in commercials for the health drink include Yuki Amami

Yuki Amami

is a Japanese actress.-Career:Amami joined the Takarazuka Revue in 1987 and retired in 1995. Amami was the youngest actress in the company's history to be cast in a top male role...

, Satomi Kobayashi

Satomi Kobayashi

is a Japanese actress from Tokyo. She won the award for best newcomer at the 4th Yokohama Film Festival for Exchange Students. She was previously married to screenwriter Kōki Mitani.-Filmography:# Exchange Students...

, Izumi Inamori

Izumi Inamori

is a Japanese actress signed to Burning Production.-Biography:Izumi Inamori was born and grew up in the city of Kagoshima.　After graduating from the local high school, Inamori went to University of Texas at Arlington to study English abroad...

, Koji Uehara

Koji Uehara

is a Major League Baseball Japanese right-handed relief pitcher. He is currently a relief pitcher for the Texas Rangers.Uehara throws a high-80s four-seam fastball and a solid forkball as his primary pitches...

, Tomoko Tabata

Tomoko Tabata

-TV:*Watashi No Aozora - Nazuna *Shinsengumi! - Kondo Tsune, Kondo Isami's wife-References:...

, Norika Fujiwara

Norika Fujiwara

is a Japanese beauty queen, model and actress. She became Miss Japan in 1992 and was an exclusive model for CanCam magazine. She has appeared in various commercials and TV series and a number of films in Japan.-Career:...

, and Mikako Ichikawa

Mikako Ichikawa

Mikako Ichikawa is a Japanese actress and model from Tokyo, Japan. She was working as a model for the Japanese fashion magazine Olive under an exclusive contract...

.

Impact

Due to the popularity of Jūrokucha, several other companies have released similar products. Kyushu Railway Company

Kyushu Railway Company

The , also referred to as , is one of the constituent companies of Japan Railways Group . It operates intercity rail services in Kyushu, Japan and the JR Kyushu Jet Ferry Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait between Fukuoka and Busan, South Korea.When Japan Railways was divided in...

 released a product called "Nijūyoncha" (literally "twenty-four teas"), Sangaria

Sangaria (soft drink)

is a Japanese brand of primarily tea-based soft drinks manufactured and marketed by , headquartered in Higashisumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, Japan.Most Sangaria soft drinks are infused with vitamins and marketed for their health benefits....

 has a drink called "Nijūitcha" (literally "twenty-one teas"), Coca Cola

The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...

 distributes a drink called "Sōkenbicha

Sokenbicha

, is a Japanese blended tea brand of The Coca-Cola Company Introduced first to the Japanese market in 1993, it became available to the U.S. market in October 2010....

" which has 12 teas combined, and a Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

n company distributes a drink blended from 17 teas.

External links

Asahi Soft Drinks: Jūrokucha Chanson Cosmetics