There are many people who are great fans of green tea and I can sort of see the appeal. Personally, it's one of those things that I can take or leave. I don't get excited about it, but I enjoy eating foods flavored with it on occasion and I'll drink it if it comes free with a Japanese meal or someone serves it to me. It's pleasant enough, but I'm not crazy for it. Green tea itself is fine, but I'm not a fan of the shops. The main reason for this is that many of them roast tea on the premises, and the smell is often unpleasant. I don't know if that is the natural scent of roasting tea or if perhaps the equipment that is used takes on an odor through repeated use, but it always smells like a variation on burning leaves to me. It probably doesn't help that my office sat above a green tea shop for several years and I smelled that smell 5 days a week for years.
I won't miss green tea shops that roast their own and the odor that permeates the area around them.
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