The Oishi Green Tea with Honey 🍯 and Lemon 🍋 is a particularly sweet ice tea from Thailand that you’ll find in Asia-shops all over the world. On the label it says “Japanese Green Tea with Honey Lemon – Oishi Green Tea Brand”.
I guess with ‘Japanese’ it means the green tea recipe used, because it’s not made in Japan, but by the Oishi Group PCL in Thailand.
It seems that the word “oishii” means “tasty” in Japanese – and I’m sure that’s what they want to make people come to their mind when they see it!
- green tea based
- very sweet
- very honey-y
Color
A very light yellowish, this ice tea’s color is bright and clear. It looks like a camomile tea and does not hint at the extreme sweetness that follows.
Taste
The honey is the first thing I feel on my tongue. It immediately sticks to my lips, but because it is honey, instead of sugar, this is less annoying.
You want to take another sip, but it just keeps sticking…
Because it’s green tea based, it tastes even a bit refreshing and doesn’t have any bitterness at all. It’s what gives it all its unique sweetness, but as it doesn’t contain black tea to balance out the flavor, that sweetness can be a bit too much.
And the added lemon is quite decent, so as not to make it bitter (thankfully). It enhances the flavor nicely, but doesn’t impact the extreme sweetness from the honey.
All said and done, this is one of those ice teas I really like to drink once in a while and it makes for a great little change to my usual black tea based lemon ice teas. But because it’s so very sweet and sticks to the lips, I can’t really drink too much of it at once and also not every day.
Availability
I have seen this ice tea mostly at Asia-shops and Asian restaurants (this particular bottle I bought at a sushi-stall). I assume you can find it in specialty shops in many countries all over the world. Unfortunately it is usually not the cheapest, I’ve seen it mostly priced somewhere around 3.50 CHF or US $ per 0.5L bottle.
+ nice honey-y sweetness
+ refreshing green tea taste
– almost too sweet
– high price per bottle
Overall Rating: 7/10