Ocha — Green Tea at the Local Table

Ocha, the green tea of Japan, reached Hawaiʻi with the Japanese contract workers who came to the sugar plantations from 1885, following the Gannenmono of 1868. It became the everyday drink of the Japanese household and the lunch counter. Kysar in Aloha Kitchen records that the Japanese communities longed for the foods of home and, once settled, sent for seed to grow familiar vegetables such as daikon, gobo and shiso, and tea travelled with the same habits of the kitchen. From the plantation camp it passed into the okazuya, the family restaurant and the plate lunch, where people of every background drink it.

The tea of the local table is sencha or the plainer bancha, with roasted hōjicha and toasted-rice genmaicha in the same family, all made from Camellia sinensis. It is steeped in a pot and poured without sugar or milk, served hot in a small cup or kept cold in a pitcher. In the Japanese-descended kitchen it is the drink set beside rice, pickles and fried food. Powdered matcha is a separate ceremonial preparation, whisked in the bowl, and it reaches the local table chiefly in sweets, shave ice and ice cream rather than as the daily cup.

Ocha is drunk with rice and the salted, fried and simmered dishes of the local table: musubi, tempura, teriyaki, nishime, tsukemono, and the fried chicken and mixed plate of the lunch counter. The structural reason is contrast without sweetness: its gentle astringency and clean, grassy bitterness clear fat and salt from the palate and leave the rice tasting fresh. Hōjicha and genmaicha, with their roasted and toasted notes, sit best with grilled fish and fried food, while the lighter sencha belongs with pickles and delicate dishes. Cold tea suits the heat of the day, hot tea the okazuya counter and the family table.