I looked into the origin of ‘Ocha no Ko Saisai.

‘Ocha no Ko Saisai’ is such a familiar term that it might be the first one that comes to mind when thinking of tea-related words. However, since the meanings of ‘ocha no ko’ and ‘saisai’ are not immediately clear, I decided to look into it a bit.

First, I looked up “ocha no ko” in a dictionary and found that it doesn’t refer to the child of tea or young tea buds, but rather to a snack or light meal served with tea.

So what about “saisai”?
Since there wasn’t a clear explanation in the dictionary, I checked the etymology dictionary for “ocha no ko saisai” and found that “saisai” comes from the chant “saisai” in the folk song “Nonno-ko-bushi” from Nagasaki and Isahaya. By the way, “nonno-ko” is a dialect term from Isahaya meaning “cute child.” As “saisai” is a chant word, it seems there is no corresponding kanji for it. As a side note, there’s also a shochu named “Nonno-ko” from Saga that I’d like to try.

So “ocha no ko saisai” originates from the idea of casually enjoying tea snacks and being able to joke around lightly.

Another interesting tidbit about tea has been added to my collection.

That’s the origin of “ocha no ko saisai.”

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著者情報/ teploについて

teploは「美味しいお茶を世界中に届ける」というミッションを掲げるお茶のブランドです。

お茶メディアの運営、茶葉の買付・販売、お茶の抽出機の開発・販売、飲食店にむけたお茶のメニュー開発・レシピ開発等を総合的にサポートしています。