Experience the tastes, benefits of green tea

  ED RHEE Students Maryam Zarkesh and
Barmak Naraghi enjoy some of the free samples at
the recently opened Green Tea Terrace coffee shop.

By Esther Pasternak
Daily Bruin Contributor

With the grand opening of Green Tea Terrace in the heart of
Westwood Village, tea lovers don’t have to go far to see
Japanese tradition mixing with modern America.

At this new shop, located at 1037 Westwood Blvd., traditional
Japanese green tea and its 2,000-year-old history meets
21st-century Los Angeles.

Here customers can taste the mixture of Eastern and Western
flavors through hot and cold green tea drinks, ice cream soy
smoothies, homemade ice cream and mochi (a Japanese delicacy made
with premium ice cream surrounded by a sweet rice coating) and a
variety of light meals.

Buddhist monks originally brought green tea from China to Japan
and studied its medicinal properties in the early ninth century,
and now science supports that green tea has healthful benefits.

Green tea contains an antioxidant that prevents cancer while
lowering cholesterol, blood pressure and weight. It also prevents
common bacterial and viral illnesses, and each cup of green tea
contains vitamins, minerals and antioxidants while having less
caffeine than black tea or coffee.

CEO of Green Tea Terrace, Hiroshi Maeda, always dreamed about
opening a coffee shop that could modernize green tea for American
customers.

He moved to the U.S. in 1984 and became a major provider of
green tea products for Japanese restaurants, supermarkets and food
distributors. Since 1989 he has opened three traditional Japanese
tea stores, but this is the first store that realized his dream of
mixing traditional green tea with American culture.

“Twenty years ago I was in a university in Tokyo and I did
a thesis about how to make a new style of green tea to go all over
the world. Now my dream is coming true,” Maeda said among
customers enjoying free samples on the menu to celebrate the grand
opening last Thursday.

Darren Lanning, a second-year chemistry student, was enjoying a
selection of samples.

“The best is the green tea cheesecake. It is out of this
world,” Lanning said. “People are really friendly and I
like the atmosphere. I would definitely come back again.”

Jie Liu, a fourth-year biology major, was enjoying the samples
so much she called her roommates on her cell phone to tell them
about Green Tea Terrace.

“I tasted a wasabi pea and those are really good.
I’ve had them before, but I like the way they do it here.
This one has more flavor to it,” Liu said.

Hiroko Hekanaka, assistant manager of operations, was busy
handing out samples of homemade green tea ice cream and
smoothies.

“People will be excited about the different variety of
green teas. Everyone is used to only classical green tea, but now
there are different ways of enjoying green tea,” Hekanaka
said. “Everyone is crazy about boba right now and I think
next people will be excited about green tea.”

Prices at Green Tea Terrace range from $1.95 to $2.95 for hot
green tea drinks, $1.70 to $3.15 for cold green tea drinks and
$3.95 for smoothies (with flavors including green tea, ginger, red
beans, mango, plum, strawberry and cappuccino).

Sushi starts at $2.65 and customers can choose from California
roll, spicy tuna, futomaki and inari sushi.  Customers can
also purchase packaged green tea to make at home and a variety of
products to make the tea drinking experience even more
rewarding.

To help customers become familiar with the products and decide
what to select, there is a computer in the front of the store they
can use to learn about the various drinks and their health
benefits.

After experiencing Green Tea Terrace, Liu understood what Maeda
means by his slogan “the new spirit of tea.”

As Liu left the store, she spoke to an employee behind the
counter.

“I think you’ve got me addicted; I’ll be here
everyday buying these,” Liu said.