And no, that’s not Kyoto.

With green tea being the most culturally significant drink in Japan, and Kyoto being considered the heart of the country’s traditional culture, it’s easy to make the assumption that Kyoto must be where most of Japan’s green tea is grown. However, while Kyoto Prefecture does produce Japan’s most famous high-end matcha, the honor of Japan’s number-one green tea grower, in terms of amount grown, actually goes to Shizuoka Prefecture.

So for its newest batch of special green tea snacks and sweets, 7-Eleven Japan is using Shizuoka-grown tea, called Shizuokacha. Specifically, the convenience store chain is using Shizuoka-grown ichibancha, the first picking of the harvest season, when the tea leaves are said to be their most robustly flavorful.

That ichibancha Shizuokacha will be going into such tempting treats as the Ocha Moko, a green tea cream puff with a very verdant filling of green tea cream and sauce, and the Kuzumochi Dorayaki, which sandwiches green tea mousse, an (sweet red beans), and starchy mochi between a pair of pancake-like cakes.

And since green tea can lend itself to Western-style sweets too, 7-Eleven’s Shizuokacha Fair lineup includes a Shizuoka green tea cream-topped chocolate Danish and cake with so much Shizuokacha that 7-Eleven promises it won’t only have the flavor of green tea, but also the aroma of it.

But maybe the most intriguing of all is 7-Eleven Japan’s new green tea musubi (rice ball).

This eye-catching musubi gets its color from mixing Shizuokacha tea leaves in with the rice. The additional ingredients of nori (dried seaweed) and katsuo (bonito) don’t just add appealing complexity to the flavor profile, they’re meant to give you the flavors of ochazuke, a traditional Japanese dish of rice with green tea poured over it, in a handy format that’s easy to eat when you’re on the go.

These items will be available for a limited time, so ordinarily this is where we’d tell you to rush to the nearest 7-Eleven Japan branch. However, as part of an initiative to support smaller farms and promote consumption of locally grown produce, the Shizuokacha rice ball and above-mentioned Japanese sweets are only available at 7-Eleven branches in Shizuoka Prefecture (the Danish and cake can be found at branches in Shizuoka’s neighbor, Yamanashi Prefecture, as well). So instead, we’ll tell you to hurry to Shizuoka, which, if you’re into green tea, definitely deserves a spot in your Japan travel plans.

Source, images: PR Times
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