With Help From An MVP, Ito En Gets Green Tea Liftoff

CulinaryWoman talks to a long-time executive about its association with Shohei Ohtani, and its American sales growth

Feb 09, 2025

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It’s Super Bowl Sunday, but more important for us baseball fans, pitchers and catchers report to major league baseball spring training this week. Of course, avid fans know that superstars are already arriving in Florida and Arizona. One of them is Shohei Ohtani, the global icon for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who was the 2024 Most Valuable Player in the National League.

Shohei has some high profile endorsements, including New Balance, Porsche and Hugo Boss. But as listeners to Dodgers games know from the commercial, Ito En’s Oi Ocha is the green tea that Shohei drinks and likes. His association with the Japanese tea brand is already paying dividends.

Some impressive data

Ito En was established in Japan in 1966, while its Oi Ocha line was launched in 1989. (The name is pronounced “oy OH-cha.) While it is the number one selling bottled green tea in Japan, you couldn’t call Oi Ocha an overnight success here. But its recent growth has been impressive. Annual U.S. sales in 2024 were approximately 2.5 million cases of bottled tea, which is a 150% increase from 2021, and a 300% increase from 2014.

Long a familiar product in Asian markets and places that specialize in Asian food, Oi Ocha is now widely available in about 10,000 stores nationwide. That includes Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Target and Albertson, as well as Daiso, H-Mart, 99 Ranch and Mitsuwa. Oi Ocha also is available via Amazon.

The brand believes there is still big potential for Oi Ocha in the U.S., and its association with Shohei is a key part of that.

Rona Tison, a long-time marketing executive with Ito En, told CulinaryWoman that the association with Shohei began brewing (no pun intended) a year ago, before he played his first game with the Dodgers, and long before he became the first major league player to steal 50 bases and hit 50 home runs.

People inside the company knew that he was about to become a brand ambassador, but had to sit on the news until it was announced in May. “Who ever would have imagined that he would become the perfect global ambassador for us?” Rona said.

Now, thanks to the attention generated by his record-breaking performance, his focus on physical strength, his adorable dog Decoy, and his playful personality off the field, Shohei has become a celebrity beyond baseball. “He just epitomizes what we think Oi Ocha represents,” she says.

Billboards with Shohei and his tea can be seen everywhere from Instagram to Dodger Stadium to Narita Airport in Tokyo, and some 85 locations worldwide. Rona says that when his photo appreared in Times Square, she went over to see it for herself. “I thought, wow, we have arrived,” she says.

A market for healthy beverages

Rona says it has taken a while for Americans to adjust to unsweetened beverages, versus the sugary sodas and other drinks to which they became accustomed. When she first began marketing Oi Ocha, she’d ask people if they were familiar with iced green tea. Yes, the response often was, “I drink Arizona Iced Tea.”

When she introduced Oi Ocha, “A lot of times, people would say, ‘what, no sugar?’” she remembers. “Now, they say, ‘thank God, there’s no sugar.’” With the brand readily available in big grocery stores, “It’s become much more approachable. (Customers) want things that are cleaner, with less-scary ingredients.”

But the Oi Ocha story isn’t just what’s in the bottle. On its website, Ito En offers an entire course in the growing and brewing of tea. It explains that the traditional Japanese tea ceremony stresses harmony, respect, purity and tranquility, which it tries to convey in its product lineup.

Ito En’s lineup includes six different types of green tea: hojicha, the lowest in caffeine; sincha, the first crop of spring tea; genmaicha, a blend of green tea and roasted rice; sencha, the go-to green tea; matcha, which is dried and made into powder; and gyokuro, which brews up as a bright jade green. (I alternate between regular Oi Ocha and genmaicha, which has a more robust flavor.)

“We have a whole portfolio of beverages and we’re always excited to ask people, what is your favorite?” Rona says.

Plenty of room for growth

American consumers’ interest in Oi Ocha coincides with the popularity of boba tea and other Asian beverages, says Caroline Wu, director of research at Placer.ai, a retail market analysis firm. Young consumers, in particular, are receptive to Ito En’s lineup. Although America has long been a land of coffee drinkers, “Tea is becoming very, very popular,” she tells CulinaryWoman.

Caroline says Ito En has an edge over domestic brands because of its Asian heritage. “It’s a Japanese brand with ready-to-eat ability,” she says.

The products fit into a category that the analysis firm calls “better for you.” Says Caroline, “There definitely is a desire in the American diet to become healthier, and tea is perfect.”

Beyond that, “Americans are interested in experimenting” and tea is a perfect platform to play with flavors and textures. She thinks that barley tea is about to grow in popularity; some tea shops are offering barley tea smoothies, similar to matcha smoothies but with a less-sweet profile.

For its part, Ito En has become friends another big baseball name: Dodgers superstar second baseman Mookie Betts. During a recent trip to Japan, where the Dodgers play the Cubs next month, Betts made an appearance on behalf of the brand and posed with a cutout of his teammate.

Asked if other ballplayers could join the ranks of Ito En ambassadors, Rona laughs. “Never say no,” she says, “but I think we have our hands full, and happily so.”

Zero Alcohol Beverages Score Big In Britain

Speaking of clean beverages, there was some surprising news from Britain last week. Non-alcoholic beverages outsold alcoholic drinks in December for the first time at Tesco Supermarkets, one of the biggest British grocery players.

It’s normal for alcohol-free beverages to do well in January, since Dry January has become a popular way to detox after the holidays. But according to the Times of London, Tesco found that sales of all zero alcohol beverages — beers, wines and mixed drinks — rose 15 percent in the four weeks before Christmas, 2024. And, sales of zero-alcohol beer in particular were 20 percent higher.

Actor Tom Holland, best known for Spider-Man, recently scored a big hit with his zero alcohol beer line, Bero. Based on his British heritage, it is also available in the U.S.

David Albon, a beer and cider buyer at Tesco, told the paper: “It’s almost become trendy, especially in young people, to moderate at these key occasions of the year — something that is very much reflected in the rising demand we are seeing for no and low drinks at Christmas.”

He went on, “It’s a very different picture to what we were seeing, even just five years ago, when the main demand for no and low drinks came in Dry January.”

Interestingly, the Times said a new trend has appeared among young drinkers: zebra striping. This refers to people alternating between alcoholic and zero-alcohol drinks, to stave off getting intoxicated. (When I was a young drinker, we downed a glass of water with every alcoholic beverage in order to accomplish the same purpose. It did not always work.)

A Duo Of Influential Dining Instagrammers

In the past few years, restaurant criticism has been turned on its head. No longer do newspaper critics rule the roost, as they did for decades. Increasingly, power has moved online, to the Web as well as video sites.

The two members of Topjaw, who post to Instagram and other platforms, are growing in popularity. They are Jesse Burgess, 33, a former property developer, and Will Warr, 35, a London-based videographer.

According to the Times, they film features on chefs and ask them for recommendations for things like bakeries, pubs, restaurants and coffee bars. The interviews are packaged into 30 to 90-second videos shared on social media, and longer films on YouTube.

“After Topjaw released a short film about the must-order dishes at Darjeeling Express, the chefs kept running out of them mid-service,” the Times wrote. “They had guests travelling from as far as Hong Kong, citing Topjaw as the reason they were there, and were fully booked all the way to Christmas.”

Topjaw has 1.2 million followers across all its social media. In the past six months, celebrity guests have included Idris Elba and Jamie Oliver.

I’d love to know if Topjaw has sent you to a restaurant and what you think of the video approach, versus old-school recommendations from writers and guidebooks.

Edinburgh’s Food Project Takes A Different Hunger Approach

The Times recently ran a story about Edinburgh becoming a foodie destination. But in reading deeper on the Web, I discovered the Edinburgh Food Project, which is approaching food insecurity in a unique way.

Rather than act as a traditional food pantry, or offer meals to those in need, the food project distributes emergency food parcels to people who qualify for assistance.

Each package contains enough food for three days of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some of the items include breakfast cereals, UHT milk, fruit juice, soup, pasta, sauce, tinned fish and meat, tea or coffee, sugar, cookies and snacks.

It can offer parcels tailored to vegetarian, vegan and gluten free diets. Participants also can obtain household cleaning supplies, and free financial advice. If people need further help, the food project can direct them to other agencies.

The food project operates seven locations around Edinburgh, plus a warehouse and office. Thus far in 2025, it has distributed 1,172 parcels, and it gave out 19,734 last year.

Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman

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Tomorrow, I’ll be back with Red Beans & Advice, a weekly feature for paid subscribers. I’m going to look at the explosion in celebrations of Galentine’s Day, the women-focused alternative to Valentine’s Day. Restaurants and brands are jumping into it headfirst this year.

This month marks the third anniversary of my book Satisfaction Guaranteed! I am always so happy to meet my readers. You can order a copy from Bookshop.org or your local bookstore, and I can send you a signed bookplate for a hardcover. (It’s also avaiable as an ebook.)

I’ll see our paid subscribers tomorrow and everyone else next week. Go Eagles! Go Chiefs! Enjoy the snacks, the music, the Taylor sightings, and the commercials.

CulinaryWoman