Exploring the Different Types of Green Tea
I asked you last week what was your favourite green tea. There are many types of green tea available. Today I will share an explanation of the different types of green tea. Here are different types of green tea from China and Japan that are well known as the best tasting green tea. It's an excellent place to start your green tea journey. Which have you tried?
Chinese Green Tea
China is the birthplace of tea and produces thousands of tea types. Typically small villages produce tea and sell it to local co-ops for processing. Chinese teas do not follow a standard protocol for naming their teas. This often gives way to romantic-sounding names which but tend to be a little confusing for the consumer.
Gunpowder tea
Gunpowder or "pearl tea" is a Chinese green tea. Gunpower refers to high-quality tea leaves that are rolled into small pellets resembling gunpowder. The pellets unfurl when added to water. The smaller the pellets the costlier the tea. The highest grade is called "extra fine Pinhead Gunpowder"
A high-quality Chinese Gunpowder tea makes a refreshing yellow-green brew with a brisk taste. A Formosan Gunpowder green tea from Taiwan tends to be sweeter. Gunpowder green tea is the green tea used to make Moroccan mint tea.
Dragon Well (Long Jing)
Long Jing is one of Chinas best and well-known teas. Dragon Well is a roasted tea with a sweet and lightly toasted flavor of walnuts. The delicate, nutty tea is well worth seeking out. It is the type of tea you can drink all day long. One of my favorites.
There’s no mistaking the buttery yellow liquor of this tea. Dragon Well (Long Jing) Chinese green tea with its flat spear-like leaves open up to reveal two leaves when brewed. It tastes a little like toasted nuts with some vegetal notes.
If you think you don’t like green tea you haven’t tried Dragon Well!
Jasmine Green Tea
You will find two popular types of jasmine green teas. Yin Hao Jasmine is the classic Chinese jasmine green tea. Jasmine Pearls are tightly rolled little balls of green tea delicately laced with jasmine scent.
Jasmine tea is a scented (not flavored) tea. The tea leaves are placed near jasmine flowers for a short period of time while their aromatic oils gently penetrate the tea leaves. If you come across a Jasmine green tea that tastes very perfumey, it's been flavored not scented, and is most likely poorer quality.
In China, green tea is harvested in the spring and held until August when the jasmine flowers bloom. The flowers are layered in and around the green tea. The flower petals are used for scenting and removed from the final product.
Japanese Green Tea
There are four main kinds of Japanese green tea, classified according to the leaf it's made from, the age of the leaf and the method used for processing.
Sencha
The most popular tea in Japan and the one most likely to be exported to the United States. Sencha can vary significantly in price and quality. The Japanese use high-quality sencha only on special occasions, with average quality used daily. The top two tea leaves and bud are picked as soon as they are mature, then steamed and rolled until they resemble long needles. The resulting brew is light green with a mixture of bittersweetness and a scent that is fresh and "green".
Japanese Sencha green tea varies from average to excellent. High-quality Sencha is labeled Ichiban cha or number one tea, indicating the tea is from the first flush of the growing season. Ichiban Cha Sencha makes a smoother, sweeter, and less astringent brew.
Bancha is the lowest grade of Sencha. Hojicha is made from roasted Bancha leaves, resulting in a toasted, earthy aroma and a light golden colored brew.
Gyokuro
Japanese for gem of dewdrop, this is a high-quality tea. It's costly and only served as a treat. Just when the spring buds are beginning to open the tea bushes are shaded from the sun for three weeks. The shading increases chlorophyll, making the leaf a darker green.
At harvest time only the buds of the first flush are picked - no leaves. Then they are carefully rolled by hand. Processed Gyokuro looks like fine pine needles, sharply pointed and flat. The resulting brew has a smooth sweet taste with a beautiful emerald green color. Shading increases theanine levels giving it a brothy character (umami), making the tea less bitter, and giving it a mellow taste.
The unrolled leaves used to produce Gyokuro are air-dried and left unrolled, producing Tencha. The Tencha is then ground into fine powder to make matcha.
Matcha Green Tea
Matcha is a powdered version of green tea, made from ground Tencha. It is dissolved in hot water and whipped into a froth with a bamboo whisk. The practice of making whipped teas from powdered tea leaves originated during the Sung Dynasty and later adopted by the Japanese. The frothing created by the whipping enhances the taste.
Today the preferred matcha green tea comes from Japan. The Japanese tea ceremony uses high-grade matcha called ceremonial grade matcha green tea. Matcha means liquid jade in Japanese. Good matcha is smooth and sweet without a trace of bitterness. It's also a very nourishing drink high in Vitamin C and antioxidants.
Genmaicha
Genmaicha is a Japanese green tea that mixes Bancha leaves and fire-roasted rice. This light brown brew has a savory, grainy, slightly salty taste and is not only thirst-quenching but filling. The rice kernels sometimes pop open during roasting, giving Genmaicha the nickname popcorn tea.
The hearty flavors of Genmaicha green tea make a suitable alternative to coffee. I often recommend this to someone trying to switch from coffee to tea. Genmaicha is such a simple tea but for some reason, it's one of my favorite rainy afternoon teas.
