The health benefits of green tea are well-known. However most people need to add sweeteners and milk to mask the overly bitter taste. I am here to tell you that you do not need to do that if you follow this procedure to make a perfectly tasting cup of green tea.
Green tea
All proper teas are leaves of the plant camellia sinensis. Different oxidization levels produce different kind of teas with different taste qualities. Green tea is not oxidized at all, while e.g. black tea is treated with temperature and humidity to oxidize it.
Green tea is rich in catechins which are the antioxidants that give the drink it’s health benefits, but also what give the bitter and astringent taste. People who say they do not like green tea have probably gotten tea rich in these catechins, tasting bitter and leaving the mouth dry. To get less catechins we must lower the temperature and steeping time.
The caffeine in a cup of green tea can vary between 15 and 60 mg. The average is 30 mg per cup.
There are many different kinds of green tea based mainly on the variety of camellia sinensis, but also on the growing conditions, time of harvest and processing method.
Loose leaf vs teabag
The teabag was invented by accident by tea merchants that gave out samles in small bags. A teabag contains little and poor quality tea, and the leaves are finely ground (even to a powder). As an everyday quick solution the teabag has it’s uses. However to make the perfect cup of tea we need loose leaf tea.
When buying loose leaf consider that whole leaf is best, the more they are chopped up the quicker they loose their quality. The best quality leaf are hand-picked, machine-picked include too many stems and leaves of lesser quality.
Teapot
Mix the tea straight in the water in a teapot or in a cup. The tea needs room to move around to release it’s flavor and aroma. Do not use those metal tea balls and diffusers that restrict the movement of the leaf.
The amount of leaf
Here comes the real trick for flavor, you need to use a good amount of leaf. We control the temperature so the bitterness is less and we can and should increase the amount of tea to get a rich aroma and taste.
You should use between 3 to 6 grams per cup of tea. The western style of brewing uses less than the asian style, but you should at least use 3 grams.
Water and temperature
You should use some kind of filtered water because your water quality will affect the taste of the tea. The purer the water the better.
The temperature of the water should be between 80 and 85°C (176 to 185°F). Going over 85 degrees will bring out too many catechins so we want to avoid that.
I have a cooking thermometer that I use, but not everyday since I now know what to look for to determine the temperature without measuring it. If you want to do the same use a thermometer and watch closely the pearls at the bottom of the kettle and on the surface of the water. Especially watch the pearls at the edge towards the kettle. And listen to the sound the kettle makes. When the temperature is 80 degrees (176°F) memorize how the pearls and sound are so that next time you do not need the thermometer.
If the water becomes too hot splash some cold water into it.
Steeping time
For green tea the steeping time needed is surprisingly low. You should not steep longer than 30 to 60 seconds. Use a stopwatch to time this. After 1 to 1,5 minutes you are basically just brewing the stems and extracting the bitter flavors of the leaves
Then pour the finished tea into another container, or straight into your cup, through a strainer. Do not press the leaf, then you get too much bitter flavors in your tea.
Health benefits vs taste
If you only considered the health effects you would brew green tea with boiling water and for a long time to extract all the catechins into the tea. However, most people would consider taste most important, and you do get all the health benefits with this brewing method, but you get a less consentrated dose of the antioxidants.
A cup of overly bitter and astringent tea would need some sweetener and possibly some milk (from plants of course) to disguise the flavor. In my opinion the flavor of green tea is so good that I do not want to mix anything in it so this brewing method is the way to go. This (or similar methods) is also how tea sommeliers make tea.
Happy brewing!
Pictures by mariuse