New Delhi: A tasting event for Japanese tea such as green tea and matcha was held in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Saturday.

As a Japanese tea ceremony was also performed by Japanese residents in India, some 50 participants in the event enjoyed an authentic taste of Japanese tea.

The event, organized by the Japan External Trade Organization, was aimed at letting local residents know about the appeal of Japanese tea and expanding consumption in the Indian market.

Tea products used in the event were sent from companies in major tea-producing areas in Japan, including the western prefecture of Kyoto and the central prefecture of Shizuoka, which seek to launch sales in India while officials from those companies found it difficult to travel in person to the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In India, the largest tea producer in the world, the presence of Japanese tea has so far been limited, a JETRO official in charge said, indicating that it is just the beginning.

Still, many people in India are coming to know about Japanese tea through information from the United States, where tea from the East Asian country is becoming popular amid growing health consciousness in recent years.

The tea ceremony was “very peaceful,” corporate worker Ankita Mishra, 26, one of the event participants, said.

Japanese tea is “not sweet” and is “very healthy,” she said, adding that it “goes well with sweets.”

JIJI Press