Green tea is very well-known for its health benefits. It’s widely studied in Western medicine. Tea’s health benefit is a great and very interesting topic. After all, we all want to be happy and healthy…But before getting into that, I want to tell you a bit about this kind of tea.
Photo courtesy of ts stevenson
What does it look like?
* Green tea products are light green with a touch of yellow
* The leaves possess nice fragrance when smelling up close
* The fragrance is similar to wet grass
* It tastes a bit like vegetable, somewhat grassy
What are different kinds?
This kind of tea has many varieties. But some of the popular varieties are:
1. Dragon Well (Long Jing)
2. Pine needle tea (Ho Chin)
3. Polee tea
4. Young Hyson
How was it processed?
* Tea leaves are not oxidized (oxidation causes changes in color)
* Tea leaves maintain all the chemicals as fresh leave do
* No withering
* Only 3 main events in processing: steaming, rolling, and drying
Large quantity of this kind of tea is produced in China, Taiwan, and Japan. Some are produced in Vietnam and India as well. This kind of tea are not withered during processing, thus this is unfermented tea.
The tricky part in the processing of this tea is to induce physical change in the leaves while keeping the chemical structure of the tea intact. This is one of the teas that are close to fresh tea leaves.
This tea is often graded to the age and the way the leaves are rolled.
The important thing about the green tea grades is that the grades are backed up by quality, while black tea grades don’t reflect the quality of tea. However, each country has a different grading system. For instance, Japan has a more elaborate tea grading system than China. Several popular types tea include Gun Powder, Hyson, Twankay…The most popular green tea from China is Lung Chin. This tea can only be picked during the rainy season. When brewed, the boiling water should be about 170-180 F. To get the best flavor out of the leaves, the steeping time for this tea should be 2-3 minutes.
This popular tea is an extensively studied tea. Both Eastern and Western agree that drinking this tea regularly can prevent certain illnesses.
What are the health benefits?
This tea contains so many helpful chemicals that can help maintaining healthy and radiant skin. Green tea now is added to cream and lotion to enhance its effects on skin cells. This tea is known to help easing digestion. It provides a favorable environment for the colonies of bacteria in the large intestine to grow. In turn, these bacteria can help moving the waste along better and smoother. The polyphenols in tea can help thinning the bloods, thus decreasing the blood pressure. Decreasing blood pressure can reduce the risk of damaging the blood arteries and vessels.
This popular tea is now added to toothpastes. Since this tea contains high level of natural fluoride, it’s an effective protector against tooth decay and gum infections. Some people may have allergies toward caffeine in tea. But they still have another option: Decaf green tea. If you don’t have time to brew tea, you can take tea extract in capsules. It contains all of the components of tea, just without the caffeine.
Tips to help you get the best green tea for your money
These tips can be very helpful if you buy green tea in tea specialty stores because you can pick and choose your products there. If you buy tea online, these tips can also help you evaluate your products.
What is the simple way to evaluate tea?
From these preliminary evaluations of your order, you can then evaluate your online vendors. Find the answer to an ancient question — to buy or not to buy…from this vendor anymore…!
If you are a beginner tea drinker, here are several tea choices to help your palate get used to the tea flavor: Gunpowder, Jasmine, and Bancha… This kind of green tea has milder flavor and less bitter taste. They are a little bit easier to drink (if you are drinking for the first time, of course). When you are in the store or receive your products online, take a look at the color of the dried tea products.
Dark green color indicates the teas are newly shelved and are of higher quality. Dark brown spots or dark color may indicate that the teas have been stored for a long time in poor conditions. Don’t buy these brown-colored teas at the store. If you receive from an online store, you should send a complaint to the sellers. Ask them why the tea leaves are brown?
What is another way to evaluate tea?
Another way to evaluate the tea is to smell the fragrance of the tea. Fresh and high-quality green tea have a pleasant fragrance. It’s similar to the smell of fresh grass. Examining the tea fragrance is the MORE difficult method to evaluate the tea because fragrance is quite subjective. Beginners sometimes find the green tea fragrance isn’t that pleasant.
So evaluating the COLOR seems to be the best method to examine the quality of your tea. However, whether green tea shopping or receiving your orders, you should try to avoid mixing products. This means that some people would put high-quality tea on the top layer and lower-quality tea at the bottom. Most people in the tea business want to have a long-term relationship with you so they probably wouldn’t do that. But it’s YOUR money; make sure you are happy with the products.