Once the tea leaves are chosen, they are dehydrated to make them less wet, but green tea does not undergo this process. When air reacts with the enzymes in the tea leaves, the leaves start to turn brown, like when you leave a cut apple out in the sun for a while.
To prevent the leaves from going rancid, they are baked in the oven, fried in a pan, or steamed. Heat changes the taste. Oxidation can’t happen because the heat turns off the enzymes in the leaf that cause it. Different kinds of heat are used in various industries. For example, the sun-dried leaf can be fired in a pan or over coals.
Nowadays, oven-dried leaves are heated by either rolling them around or steaming them. Gunpowder is one of the oldest green teas made and dried by tumble drying. Most steamed green tea is made in the Japanese way, where the leaf is picked by a machine instead of by hand.
5 Well-known Chinese Green Teas:
Tea was first made in China, and thousands of different kinds were produced there. Tea is usually grown in small towns and sold to local co-ops to be processed. Chinese companies need to follow a set pattern for naming their drinks, which often leads to sweet names and confusing customers.
Long Jing (Dragon Well)
One of the best and most well-known teas in China is Long Jing. Dragonwell is a roasted tea that tastes like sweet walnuts that have been lightly toasted. Look for the sweet, nutty tea. This is one of my favorite kinds of tea that you can drink all day.
It’s easy to tell this tea by its buttery yellow liquor. When Dragonwell (Long Jing) Chinese green tea is made, the flat, spear-shaped leaves show two more. With hints of plants, it tastes a bit like warmed nuts. Dragonwell green tea is excellent if you prefer something other than green tea.
Gunpowder Green Tea
Gunpowder, also known as “pearl tea,” is a red tea from China. It is made from fine tea leaves rolled into small pieces that look like gunpowder. When water is added to the pellets, they spread out. The tea costs more when the pellets are smaller. This is the best type. It’s called “extra fine Pinhead Gunpowder.”
A good Chinese Gunpowder tea makes an excellent, pleasant, yellow-green drink that tastes sour. Formosan Gunpowder green tea from Taiwan is more likely to be sweet. Moroccan mint tea is created with gunpowder green tea.
Jasmine Green Tea
There is no taste in jasmine tea; it just smells good. For a short time, the tea leaves are put next to jasmine flowers so that their fragrant oils can slowly seep into the leaves. If you find a Jasmine green tea that tastes like perfume, it could be better because it was just sweetened. Two well-known kinds of jasmine green tea are:
- Yin Hao Jasmine is the traditional jasmine green tea in China.
- Jasmine Pearls are small tea balls tightly rolled and taste sweet with a jasmine scent.
In China, jasmine green tea is picked in the spring and stored until August. When the jasmine flowers open, they are mixed into the tea and around it. The flower leaves that give the tea its smell are removed from the finished product.
5 Popular Japanese Green Teas:
Japan’s green tea is divided into four main types based on the leaf type, age, and processing method.
Matcha Powder
Tea leaves are ground into a powder called matcha. Tencha is what comes before matcha. It is only made once a year and kept in the fridge until it is ground into matcha powder. Tencha leaf is a type of shade-grown tea that is only used for matcha. It is removed from the pods and ground into a fine powder in stone mills that move slowly.
A bamboo whisk is used to make a foam out of matcha mixed with hot water. Powdered tea leaves were first used to make whipped tea during the Sung Dynasty, and the Japanese later picked up the method. The foaming that comes from beating makes the tea taste better.
Japan makes the best matcha these days. Ceremonial grade matcha is the best matcha used in the Japanese tea ritual. The Japanese word for matcha is “liquid jade.” Good Matcha is smooth, sweet, and not bitter. Matcha is a healthy drink that is full of antioxidants and vitamin C.
Gyokuro
Gyokuro, which means “gem of dewdrop” in Japanese, is the name for this delicate tea. It costs a lot and is only eaten as a treat. The sun stays off the tea bushes for three weeks, just as the spring buds start to open. The shade raises the chlorophyll level, turning the leaf a darker green.
When it’s time to harvest, only the first flush buds and no leaves are taken. After that, they are carefully rolled by hand. Gyokuro that has been processed looks like thin, flat pine leaves. The drink that results from this process is smooth and sweet, a beautiful emerald green color.
Putting the tea in the shade raises its theanine content, which gives it a brothy taste (umami) and makes it less bitter. Tencha is made by letting the unrolled leaves used to make Gyokuro dry in the air without rolling them up. They are then turned into a fine powder called matcha.
Sencha
Sencha is Japan’s most famous tea, and its price and quality can vary greatly. Japan only drinks high-quality sencha at special events; it drinks average quality every day. When the top two leaves and buds are fully grown, they are picked, warmed, and rolled until they look like long needles.
You end up with a light green drink that smells fresh and “green.” Japanese Sencha ranges from being good to being great. Ichiban cha, which means “number one tea,” is the name of a high-quality Sencha. It means that the tea is from the first flush of the growing season.
Ichiban Cha Sencha makes a smoother, sweeter, and not as bitter tea. The worst kind of Sencha is called Bancha. Hojicha is made from roasted Bancha leaves, which give the tea a baked, earthy smell and a light golden color.
Genmaicha
Genmaicha is a Japanese green tea made from fire-roasted rice and Bancha leaves. This light brown beer tastes spicy, grainy, and slightly salty. It quenches your thirst and fills you up. Genmaicha is also known as “popcorn tea” because the rice kernels sometimes pop open while boiling.
Genmaicha is an excellent choice for coffee because it tastes decadent. I often tell people who are trying to switch from coffee to tea that Genmaicha is a straightforward tea, but I love drinking it on rainy afternoons. The smell has a hint of Rice Krispies cereal.
How To Make Delicious Green Tea
It takes some information to make the right cup of coffee. If you follow a few easy steps, you can always make a great cup of tea.
- Water: Tap water or water from a bottle that has been filtered is best.
- Usage: Use one teaspoon, or two to three grams, for every six to eight-ounce cup. A teaspoon won’t always equal two to three grams of tea leaves, so weighing the tea is best.
- Temperature: Green tea tastes best with water that has just begun to boil and has been cool for a few minutes. 160 to 185oF (71 to 85oC) is a good range.
- Steeping Time: Your timing is critical. A cooking timer or the timer on your smartphone will work great for 1.5 to 3 minutes. You can change this to suit your tastes.
- Brewing: Put the tea leaves in the cup or kettle without squeezing them together. Then add the hot water. Pour the water over the leaves, making sure there is enough space for them to spread out and let their taste soak in. Avoid “tea balls” and similar things. You can also use big stainless steel infusers.
It doesn’t matter how good or bad the tea leaves are; boiling them can make or break the tea. Green tea’s water temperature and steeping time are essential. There’s no pressure here!