Ito En Sencha Shot

Ito En Sencha Shot

Over the years, I have found that many good things come in small packages, like chewing gum, marshmallows, my iPod, eggs, and Danny DeVito.

Unfortunately, I recently came across something that came in a small package, but wasn’t very good.

No, it wasn’t the movie Daddy Day Care for the Playstation Portable. It was the Ito En Sencha Shot.

In Japanese, “cha” means tea. As for “sen,” I don’t know what it means in Japanese off the top of my head, but to my friends with the munchies and glassy eyes, it means they’ll be twenty dollars poorer and maybe a little late to work.

Although, Sencha Shot does sound like something a little less messy than a bukkake. (Yes! Finally! I have used the word “bukkake” in a review!)

(Warning: The link above may contain stuff that is NSFW.)

Anyway, the Sencha Shot is basically Japanese green tea in a can.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with green tea, it’s a wonderful source of antioxidants, which are used to get rid of harmful free radicals in our body.

According to the can, it contains 152 milligrams of catechin tea antioxidants.

That amount may look impressive, but it’s not as impressive as the names of the individual antioxidants — epicatechin, epicatechingallate, epigallocatechin, and epigallocatechingallate — which are not only long, but also words that may make National Spelling Bee Championship competitors either faint, cry, or pee in their pants.

Instead of a lot of long words I can’t spell or pronounce, I wish the Sencha Shot contained a lot of short words that I could pronounce and a decent flavor. It was cold and slightly bitter, just like the Japanese green tea that sat in my cup for hours because my blind date didn’t show up at the Japanese restaurant we were supposed meet at.

Fortunately, there wasn’t much Sencha Shot to drink, because the small can held only 6.4 ounces.

Surprisingly, the hardest thing about the Sencha Shot was not spelling bee championship-type names of the antioxidants, it was the can itself. I found out the hard way that the can was impossible to crush on my forehead, because it’s made out of steel.

Actually, I found out the hard way a few times, because I didn’t realize slamming a steel can on my forehead would mess with my short-term memory. After slamming my forehead with the steel can the first time, I quickly forgot about it and attempted to crush the steel can on my forehead again…and again…and again.

The next day, I woke up with a red ring on my forehead and could no longer recall the lyrics of Gerardo’s “Rico Suave.”


Item: Ito En Sencha Shot
Purchase Price: $1.49 (6.4 ounces)
Rating: 2 out of 5
Pros: High in catechin tea antioxidants. High in Vitamin C. No calories or fat. Finally got to use the word “bukkake” in a review. I no longer know the lyrics to “Rico Suave.”
Cons: Tastes like the cold green tea that I can get from waiting around for a blind date at a Japanese restaurant. Wee little can. Can is impossible to crush on forehead because it is made out of steel. Antioxidant names are hard to spell and pronounce.

Lipton Green Tea with Honey Ice Tea

Lipton Green Tea

Today we celebrate a milestone here at The Impulsive Buy.

It’s our 50th review!!!

Holy crap! Fifty reviews!

We’re just as surprised as you are. None of us thought we would even reach five reviews. We thought we would get bored like we always do, like we did with the illegal iPod pyramid scheme and the O-Town Fan Club.

So to celebrate the fact that we didn’t get bored, we…

What? The review?

Awww, come on. Do I have to do one?

Can I do a review where I devote very little time about the product and spend a lot of time talking about something else?

We do that already?

Okay, here goes the mandatory review.

Lipton Green Tea with Honey Ice Tea. 99 cents. On sale. Weak taste. Needs more sugar. Low calorie. Comes in glass bottle. Do not drop bottle, it might shatter. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

So where was I?

Oh yeah. To celebrate the fact that we didn’t get bored, we will be having our first ever drawing.

What are we giving away?

We’re giving away Oral-B Brush-Ups, which we reviewed a while back. We’ve got six of them left, so six “lucky” winners will each receive one (1) Oral-B Brush-Up.

Yeah, we know…We’re cheap bastards.

We were thinking about giving away Gmail invitations, like other blogs do, but we don’t have any. Actually, none of us here have even received an invitation. We think we’re going to be the last people in the blogging world to get one, which we don’t mind because we’re used to being the last for everything, like being picked for dodge ball and seeing the movie Titanic, which some of us still haven’t seen.

Added at 11:00 am – Okay enough with the rubbing it in. We know. Everyone has Gmail invitations, except us. By the way, thanks to those who sent some our way.

To enter the drawing, just leave a comment for THIS review. Leave a comment that praises. Leave a comment that says how much we suck. Leave a comment about how much you love the McDonald’s Chicken Selects buffalo sauce. Just don’t forget to fill out the email field, because if you win, we will be emailing you to get your mailing address. Don’t worry about the shipping, we will take care of that, no matter where you are.

We will start accepting entries for the drawing on October 19, 2004. We will stop accepting entries on October 21, 2004 at 11:59 pm (Hawaii Standard Time). If you need help determining what time 11:59 pm in Honolulu is in your neck of the woods go here.

Only one entry allowed per person.

Entries will be stuffed into a box that will be waaay too big for the five entries we expect to get for this drawing and then the winning entries will be drawn from this box.

So enter today!!!

Fine Print: Each Oral-B Brush-Up is individually wrapped. We promise your email address will not be used to send you spam about Viagra or breast implants. We also promise your mailing address will not be used to send you credit card or magazine applications. Bribes will not be accepted. We will not be responsible for lost mail.


Item: Lipton Green Tea with Honey Ice Tea
Purchase Price: $0.99
Rating: 2 out of 5
Pros: Cheap, but not even close to how cheap the prizes in this drawing are. Low calories.
Cons: Very light taste. Not as sweet as other green tea drinks.