Identity switcheroo: 'American' tea gets 'Japanese' makeover

"This is a tea deliciousness you have yet to experience," says stewardess/actress Asami Mizukawa in the commercial (Video from YouTube user kurugoma1144)

Yellow cabs! The Statue of Liberty! Private jets in improbable color schemes! If these clues did not give it away already, the new beverage Teas' Tea comes from a little place called New York City. (And yes, when I think of New York City, its long tradition of bottled Japanese-style teas is the first thing that comes to my mind.)

But wait, who is this American tea company barging into the already-saturated Japanese tea market? Guess what: Teas' Tea is actually not American at all.

The brand comes from Japanese tea masters Ito En, who started repackaging their unsweetened green tea offerings a few years ago for tea-skeptical American consumers. Ito En dropped their signature use of archaic kanji, traditional Japanese aesthetics and nostalgic references to rural tea fields to go for a more mod, universal packaging.

Apparently, Ito En loved their new design so much that they are bringing it back to Japan and selling it as a 'New York City tea.'

If this is very confusing, welcome to the world of gyaku-yu'nyu: otherwise known as 'reverse importing.' Companies used to do this all the time when Japanese consumers highly valued anything that was foreign. Even bands like Yellow Magic Orchestra had to go overseas to get big back in Japan.

So this Teas' Tea tease seems a little retro -- and not just because of the '60s flight attendant uniforms in the commercial. Over the last decade, Japanese consumers decided they much prefer Japanese stuff, especially food and drink. So, why did Ito En try to pull this stunt now?

To the tea-maker's credit, maybe a Bergamot and Orange Tea is off-the-wall enough to be blamed on jet-setting Americans.

We are not entirely sold, but do you think this is the kind of thing that works better as an 'import' or marketed as proudly Japanese?