Royal Blue Tea is sold not as tea leaves, but in wine bottles.
This time, I visited a tea salon in Roppongi on my way to take a walk.

What surprised me the most was the premium price. The most expensive tea costs 600,000 yen for a 750 ml bottle!
This is a price range close to that of Domaine Romanée-Conti, which is considered to be the finest wine. High-end teas are usually sold in their leaf form, but are they as good as the tea they are packed in after brewing? I actually tasted the tea at the tea salon “Royal Blue Tea Roppongi Boutique, THE T BAR” and would like to introduce my impressions as well.

Ready-to-drink RTD

The advantage of the revolutionary RTD (= Ready To Drink) is that it can be drunk immediately after opening the cap, and anyone can reproduce the same taste. Conventional tea leaves require a teapot, a tea strainer, and hot water after opening the package, and cannot be drunk easily.
In addition, the temperature of the water, the amount of water poured, the brewing time, and the way it is poured can greatly change the taste. Not only that, but the hardness of the water and the amount of time it takes to brew the tea can also affect the taste, making it very difficult to get the same taste.

In other words, even if you have a very tasty tea leaf, not everyone will be able to make it taste good. RTDs have the advantage that anyone can recreate the same taste by just opening the cap.

Non-alcoholic, high quality drinks

Wine, sake, and other alcoholic beverages are the most common accompaniments to delicious food, but the fact that high-grade tea comes in a wine bottle makes it possible for people who don’t like alcohol to enjoy it with their food. You can pair it with food not only after dinner, but also as an aperitif or even if you don’t drink wine if you choose to match the richness and oil of fish or meat dishes.

We decided to have it at the tea salon right away.

Here, you can choose from the standard lineup as well as limited time bottles from the menu. You can start with a single glass, but there is also a special set for three glasses. This time, we ordered the following lineup.

Royal Darjeeling Rajah deluxe
Royal Darjeeling Rajah deluxe

Fall in Love deluxe (Taiwanese high mountain tea)
Fall in Love deluxe

The Uji
Kyoto Uji Tencha

I started with the Darjeeling tea, which I am used to.
The tea is from the Makaibari Tea Estate, and it has the characteristics of low temperature brewing with water. When brewed with hot water and then cooled, tannins and catechins tend to come out, resulting in an astringent and cloudy taste, but this Raja Deluxe has a clear color and taste.

However, it is not as tasty as I expected.
If you are a fussy tea drinker, you will give it a harsh evaluation. If you usually buy good quality Darjeeling in riffles and water it down, it is inevitable that the taste will be inferior if it has been many days after extraction.
The Darjeeling is quite authentic in the sense that you can easily open it and drink it right away, just like the “delicious canned goods” that are all the rage these days.
I feel the same way about fall-in love and Uji tea. It accurately expresses the characteristics of each region, but if you ask me if it is exceptionally delicious, it is not.

The interior and service of the tea salon is very good, but there are a few things that bother me. The stamen I received had a strong smell, which is inappropriate when drinking delicately scented cold tea. Also, all bottles are served at the same temperature and all come out in the same glass.
In other words, Bordeaux and Burgundy have such differently shaped glasses, but for tea, they are all the same.
If you are looking for a better taste of tea, it is better to use the appropriate temperature for each tea characteristic and change the shape of the glass.

Royal Blue Tea is a good gift idea.

Although I have written a lot of harsh opinions, Royal Blue Tea is a good product to give as a gift. Since less than one in a thousand people are tea fanatics like myself, the tea is actually made in a way that most people can drink it and find it delicious.
And the fact that there are few preferences makes it a good gift. For example, even if you say you are a “wine lover,” some people only drink red wine, some only drink white wine, some only drink Bordeaux, some only drink Burgundy, some only drink Italy, etc. The preferences are so strong that it is difficult to choose a gift.
But when it comes to tea, it’s a bit more ambiguous. Whether you get a bottle of black tea, green tea, or Chinese tea, you’ll be happy. And it’s a perfect gift because you can easily open it at tea time or with lunch.
So, please try this new experiment, Royal Blue Tea.

Royal Blue Tea Roppongi Boutique and THE T BAR
1F, 7-18-15 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Opening hours: 11:00-20:00 LO 19:00 Closed: Sunday Year-end and New Year
Number of seats: 10 Reservations are recommended.
http://royalbluetea.com/boutique/roppongi/