Green Tea Chuhai

The highball is a cocktail made with a base spirit, carbonated water, and an additional ingredient used for flavoring.

Chūhai (チューハイ), an abbreviation of shōchū highball (焼酎ハイボール) is the Japanese version of the highball.

Chūhai is traditionally made with shōchū, a Japanese distilled beverage similar to vodka.

Canned chūhai is very popular in Japan, one reason being that it’s often cheaper than beer.

This cocktail came to be after the Second World War.

Liquors such as whisky were unavailable so people started making shōchū, which was easy to make.

The quality of that shōchū was very low, however.

To make it easier to drink, carbonated water was added, and that’s how the shōchū highball was born.

There are many flavors of this beverage available in Japan.

But naturally, I like the green tea one.

As far as I know, there are at least three brands that offer green tea chuhai.

While I was in Japan, I tried the one from Takara.

I think that I bought it at a convenience store.

The can says that it doesn’t have added sugars, and that it’s made with first flush leaves from Shizuoka prefecture.

With 4% alcohol, it’s like drinking a beer.

But I like this flavor much better (the truth is that I’m not a fan of beer). It’s easy to drink, actually.

Nevertheless, I’d rather drink a good quality green tea, or if I wanted the alcohol, I prefer to drink sake instead.

That same brand also has an oolong chuhi, but I didn’t taste it.

You can also order the chuhai, some bars and restaurants will prepare it.

It’s a better quality that way.

Another name for this cocktail with green tea is ocha wari, ryokucha wari, or Shizuoka wari.