Turn a packet over and, in small type, there is "green tea (domestic)" and a weight. They describe the same tea but answer different questions. The first is about the ingredient, the second about how much the whole packet holds. Read on to the brewing instructions and the amount used each time appears too.

What follows separates the origin of the leaf, the packet's total contents and the amount used each time, using real product labels as examples.

What domestic tells you

The ingredients panel says only "green tea (domestic)". It shows the green tea was grown in Japan, but not where in Japan.

A long-established tea house's hojicha is labelled in exactly this form. The wording alone does not reveal the balance of leaf and stem either. Knowing a shop's name or address does not let it stand in for where the tea was grown.

The label shows what its words show, and no more. Separate where the shop is from where the leaf grew, and it becomes clear where to look for the origin. Next, the weight.

The packet's weight, the sachet's weight

The same stem tea comes as loose leaf in a bag and as tea bags in a pack. The weight is written differently for each.

On the loose-leaf bag, the figure is the amount of tea in one bag. The tea-bag label gives both the amount in each bag and the number of bags. Multiplied together, they give the total tea in the pack.

Converting to how many grams of tea come in what units reveals more than the outer pack or the bag count. Total weight alone, though, does not decide convenience or taste. After quantity, the brewing instructions.

The brewing panel shows how a packet is used

Move to the brewing instructions and the amount used each time is there. Read that far and the way a packet will be used comes into view.

In the shop's hot-brewing method, the loose leaf is measured by weight and the tea bags are used two at a time. Divide through and the loose-leaf bag makes more batches than the pack of tea bags. These count preparations made by each method.

Turning those batches straight into cups would change their meaning. Until the amount each batch makes is checked, the figures count preparations and nothing more. Keeping apart the total contents, the amount used each time and the tea each batch makes helps when thinking about cup size or how many will share. The figures and where they come from are gathered at the end.

The numbers in detail

Origin label
"Green tea (domestic)" is the ingredient label on Ippodo Tea's Gokujo Hojicha.
Weight example
The example is Maruhachi Seichajo's Kenjō Kaga Bōcha.
Loose leaf
The loose-leaf label reads "60 g bag".
Tea bags
The tea-bag label reads "3 g × 12", 36 g of tea in all.
Per brew
The official hot-brewing method uses 6 g of loose leaf, or 2 tea bags, each time.
Batches
60 g in 6 g portions gives 10 batches; 12 bags in pairs gives 6.