Last summer’s trendy drink was tea. There were at least a dozen new brands of cold tea in the convenience stores. Boutique teas–Chinese specialties, green teas, oolong tea–all unsweetened and refreshing on a summer day. This one, Rin, is a Chinese green tea scented with jasmine and herbs.
It’s Tod’s very favorite tea, ever. He loves it so much that he drinks two 2-liter bottles a week to keep him going through his long nights at work. The local liquor shop, Kashiwaya, faithfully stocked Rin for him all winter even though it’s a summertime drink.
When they ran out of Rin last week, the clerks at Kashiwaya were very sympathetic, but there’s nothing they can do; they can’t get it anymore.
Asahi has stopped production and seems to be selling off their stock–their Rin webpage shows a dearth of container sizes. Tea is no longer the fashionable (and profitable) thirst quencher.
So my quest, and yours if you should choose, is to find the remaining 2-liter bottles of Rin. There must be some out there, gathering dust in the back corners of mom-and-pop liquor shops. If you see any, would you please let me know where they are?