Brewing green tea is a simple matter, but how to do it right? How to properly brew green tea.
A pleasant drink that many people prefer to other types of tea. It is useful, it can be used to quench thirst on a hot afternoon. This type of tea is part of Chinese and Japanese culture and philosophy. In China and Japan, the process of making green tea is given special attention. It has also become quite popular in Russia, but do we know how to brew green tea while retaining all its beneficial properties?
There are a great many varieties of green tea, each variety has its own aroma and delicate taste, which are determined by the location of the plantation, the secrets of collecting and processing raw materials, and the peculiarities of brewing. The rules say that some varieties can be brewed up to 5-7 times, and each time the drink will reveal new notes.
Green tea is produced and sold in the form of large-leaf, small-leaf, powder, slab and packaged products. Powdered tea is intended for Japanese, slab tea is widely used in Nepal, Tibet, as well as for the preparation of exotic tea drinks. The packaged one does not differ in quality, since the smallest particles of leaves (tea dust) are used for its preparation. Such tea cannot be used to enjoy a drink, but it can be whipped up into a simple green tea again.
China and Japan remain the best producers of green tea. You should pay attention to the color of the leaves, they should retain their greenish tint. Elite Chinese varieties have a pistachio color. If the leaves have darkened, they are overdried, and this will affect the taste of the tea.
You need to know when the tea leaf was harvested. Fresh tea is within a year after collection. It is worth noting the following features of tea: tea picked in spring has a sweet taste, and summer tea has a slightly bitter taste. Tea should not turn into dust if you rub the tea leaves between your fingers. It should not contain more than 5% debris of broken branches and cuttings.
The marking on the tea pack indicates the quality of the tea, you just need to be able to read it correctly. The highest quality is indicated by the word "extra", followed by numbers from 1 to 7.
To make the drink right, fragrant, with a beautiful shade, you should know how green tea is in a teapot.
- Tea must be of high quality, fresh.
- Fresh tea leaves should not be kept in hot water for more than 30 seconds. Otherwise, you will get a bitter drink.
- Steep boiling water should be avoided, green tea does not like the element of fire, as the Chinese believe.
- It is not recommended to drink green tea very cold, although it is a wonderful refreshing drink. In this form, all the nutrients and essential oils from tea disappear, it does not carry benefits, except for quenching thirst.
- If you need to take a tea drink with you, you need to pour freshly brewed and strained green tea into a thermos.
- Experts do not advise putting sugar in green tea. It destroys valuable substances that are in tea.
- Bowls or cups, before pouring tea into them, are rinsed with boiling water and wiped. Tea in a heated bowl will cool more slowly.
Classic brewing method
For ordinary tea drinking, classic brewing techniques are suitable. They do not require the use of special dishes and special accessories. For 150 grams of water, one teaspoon of raw materials is enough. It is important to know that high quality green tea requires a low temperature (up to 70°C). The lower the quality of the tea, the higher the water temperature should be, but not higher than 85°C.
You should not brew tea for too long, a long stay of the tea leaf in hot water gives the drink astringency and bitterness. Aromatic and taste characteristics are lost. How long to brew green tea? The minimum brewing time is thirty seconds, the time must be increased with each repeated brewing.
The container in which tea will be brewed is heated, the water must be brought to a certain temperature for this. A certain amount of dry tea leaves is poured into the kettle, it is poured with hot water. After a few minutes, the drink can be poured into a bowl or cup and drunk.
Regular consumption of green tea increases mental and physical activity, prevents the development of cardiovascular diseases, improves immunity.
Other Brewing Methods
- You can use the phased brewing of green tea. At the same time, 0.5 teaspoon of dry green tea leaves is taken per glass of water. Water should be no higher than 70°C. First, the leaves are filled with water for 1/3 of the teapot, you need to hold for one minute, then add water to half the teapot, again hold for a couple of minutes and add water to 3/4 of the volume. After two minutes, half of the water will need to be poured out of the kettle, and hot water will be added to the rest.
- Pour hot water over leafy green tea and leave for a couple of minutes. Then the leaves are transferred to the teapot. It is poured with hot water up to half, left for two or three minutes, after which water is added to the top and the tea continues to brew for five minutes.
Japanese tea ceremony
In Japan, the art of brewing tea is given great attention. This is a ritual, a special place with a garden and special buildings is used for the tea ceremony. A real artistic ensemble makes tea-drinking utensils. Tea is stored in a special box. Water for making tea is heated in a cast-iron cauldron. The brewing process takes place in complete silence.
The Japanese use powdered green tea, it is poured into a deep ceramic container and poured with a small amount of boiling water. A bamboo mixer turns it into a homogeneous mass. The process continues until the appearance of a matte foam. Gradually, it is necessary to add boiling water, while the drink reaches the desired consistency.
All guests present, according to seniority, are offered a cup with a drink. Then the brewed concentrated composition is used to make light tea for everyone in a personal dish. You can start a conversation and drink aromatic tea, enjoying the process.
Tea ceremony in China
Tea occupies a special position in the daily life of the Chinese people. Not a single friendly meeting, not a single official event can do without tea drinking. The Chinese use different methods of brewing tea. It all depends on the wealth of the family, circumstances, the type of tea and other factors. Dishes are of great importance. Large teapots made of faience, clay or porcelain, as well as portioned cups with lids, are considered traditional.
Large teapots are used for large companies. The teapot has a special cup where tea leaves are poured. The glass is placed in the teapot. The heated water warms the tea leaves, they gradually open up, giving off the aroma and taste of the drink. Varieties of high quality tea can be brewed repeatedly. How long does the ceremony take? The whole action can take from one to two hours. The Chinese are scrupulous about all stages of preparation, warming up dishes, brewing tea, and drinking it.
Green tea, prepared correctly, turns out to be a beautiful, rich color. In its aroma it will be possible to catch fruity, herbal and floral notes. Each variety of green tea will constantly be revealed in a new way, surprising and delighting with its taste. And the beneficial properties of this healing drink will help to cope with many diseases with regular use of tea. Knowing everything about green tea, how to properly brew this elixir of youth, you can daily delight yourself with a small tea ceremony.
Almost everyone loves green tea, but the real, true taste of this tea can only be obtained if you brew it correctly. In fact, many of us do not know how to properly brew green tea. Therefore, in this article, we will tell you with great pleasure how to do it correctly in order to achieve the most delicious tea.
What you need to brew green tea
First of all, in order for you to be able to brew delicious green tea, you need high-quality tea. Today, green tea is produced everywhere. Of course, if you are a green tea lover, then it is best to give preference to expensive tea brought from China. We recommend purchasing green tea in special tea shops or tea houses.
Equally important is the quality of the water with which you will brew tea. In no case do not use tap water for brewing, as well as water that has gone through several degrees of purification and, in fact, is “dead”. The best water for brewing green tea is well water or table water.
How to brew green tea
To make green tea you will need:
- Kettle;
- teapot;
- Green tea cups (small).
How to brew Chinese green tea
When the water for brewing is ready, pour the required amount of tea into the teapot. Then pour water into the kettle, reaching a temperature of 80 degrees. After that, if you mixed boiling water and cold water, then shake the kettle. Fill the tea leaves with a small amount of water and cover this container with a lid. Next, drain the water from the teapot into the teapot, set the tea container aside, and rinse the cups with drained water so that they are warm, then pour out the water. Thus, we made the first brewing of tea: we washed it and also heated the cups.
Then we move on to the next procedure - the second brewing. Pour the required amount of water of the desired temperature into the kettle and pour it into the teapot. Tea is infused for just a few seconds, and after that the water is drained back into the kettle, in fact, this is already tea. Next, the tea is poured into cups and is ready to drink.
It is important to note that the Chinese drink green tea without sugar. If you cannot do without sugar, then it can be added in very small quantities, since the more it is, the more the taste is distorted. Also, there is one very important nuance in the use of tea: it is drunk with the so-called “serbation”.
Video of how green tea is brewed in China
In order to clearly see and understand the procedure for brewing green Chinese tea, we suggest watching a video about this.
In the video below, a girl - a resident of China, conducts a master class on brewing green tea, according to all the rules.
Of course, how you feel about this procedure is also very important. The Chinese say that it is necessary to brew green tea with pure thoughts and a good soul. Also be sure to purchase a special set for brewing green tea.
Let's not repeat ourselves and talk about the benefits of green tea. What is there! How much has been said about this: and excess weight is driven away with its help, and youth is prolonged, and various diseases are treated. Yes it is. Only now everyone knows about the benefits, but not many people know how to brew green tea correctly.
But in order for tea to actually bring benefits, this benefit must be skillfully extracted from it. And if you think that daily tea drinking with boiling water from the tap and a bag of green (even the most expensive) tea will curb your free radicals and bring your metabolism back to normal, then you are deeply mistaken.
Green tea needs a special approach, and brewing it is a whole science. Of course, we will not comprehend the art of the traditional tea ceremony (as in Japan or China). This needs to be learned long and hard. But let's talk about the rules for brewing green tea. Moreover, these rules are easy to learn. So, let's begin.
What is green tea?
First, let's look at the features of green tea. Many people think that green tea is a special variety of the tea bush. However, this is not the case at all. Both black and green (and even white and yellow) can grow (wow!) on the same tea bush. And the whole point is only in the stages of growth of this bush and the methods of processing tea leaves.
Like all plants without exception, the tea bush grows, and in the process of growth it throws out more and more new buds. Young buds with three or four leaves are called flushes and it is from them that the most expensive and elite tea is prepared. Larger (middle-aged) tea bushes are harvested to produce cheaper, but not the lowest grade, tea. But the old leaves of the tea bush serve as raw materials for the cheapest and most common tea, which is proudly called large-leaf.
And then it all depends on the processing technology. If the tea leaf or tea buds are dried quickly, the result will be green or white tea. And if the leaves are fermented, they get black, yellow, red and blue tea. In the process of fermentation, biologically active substances are oxidized, which lose their useful properties (biological activity). But the concentration of tannins, which are worldwide recognized as carcinogens, increases.
Now you understand why green tea has anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and antioxidant activity? It simply retains biologically active substances as much as possible (for example, green tea contains ten times more vitamin C than black tea). But from black tea it is easier to extract all the useful substances that have been preserved in it - pour boiling water over it, and you're done! Green tea gives them away with difficulty, which means you need to brew it in a cunning way. This is what we are trying to learn.
Proper water
Good and "correct" green tea needs soft water. Therefore, tap water (with various impurities) is not suitable for brewing tea. How to solve this problem? First, soft natural water can be bought. It is easy to find bottled spring or artesian water in stores. Secondly, you can also soften the water that flows from the faucet. It can be filtered out using a household filter, but you can do otherwise.
Pour water into a plastic bottle and put it in the freezer. Water will begin to freeze along the walls of the bottle, and as soon as the ice on the walls becomes two centimeters, drain all unfrozen water from the bottle. Let the remaining ice melt and use the melted water to brew tea.
The right kettle
The correct teapot for green tea is a heated teapot. You can warm it up by simply pouring boiling water over it. A cold kettle will take some of the heat from the water for brewing, and this will spoil the first tea leaves: useful trace elements and essential oils simply do not have time to stand out from the tea leaf.
The ideal teapot for green tea should be clay. Clay will allow the brewed leaf to “breathe”, and besides, it is chemically neutral and retains heat well. In addition to the clay teapot, porcelain, faience and glassware are suitable for green tea, though the tea leaves will no longer be able to breathe in it. And in no case do not take metal or plastic teapots for brewing green tea.
Correct boiling water
Actually, there is no talk of boiling water. If you want to make a truly healing drink, then water should not be allowed to boil (boiling occurs at one hundred degrees Celsius). So how much water should be heated? It is enough to heat it up to ninety-five degrees. It is clear that you will not stand with a thermometer over the teapot, so learn how to determine the optimal temperature by external signs.
The temperature is ninety-five degrees (almost one hundred and almost boiling water), this is when bubbles begin to rise from the bottom of the kettle, that is, oxygen leaves. At this point, remove the pan from the heat and let the water cool slightly. The ideal water temperature for brewing green tea is sixty to ninety degrees. Too hot water will not only spoil the aroma and taste of tea, but will destroy the beneficial substances.
The Right Process
So, the water and the teapot are ready, now it remains to brew tea according to all the rules:
- Use a clean, dry spoon to pour the green tea into the teapot. Pour the tea leaves with water and immediately drain this water.
- Then pour the desired amount of water into the kettle. How much water to pour? An approximate ratio is a teaspoon of leaves to an incomplete glass of water, but the exact proportions are usually indicated on the tea package.
- Cover the teapot with a lid and let the tea brew for the amount of time needed: how long it takes to brew is also indicated on the package. But if there are no such instructions, then soak the tea for about three minutes. If you brew green tea for too long, it will start to taste bitter, and it will no longer be possible to brew it again.
- Now pour the tea into a cup. If you are preparing several servings of tea at once (for several people), fill the cups gradually, evenly, in a circle. So you will ensure that in all cups the tea will have the same taste and the same concentration. And enjoy a pleasant and healthy tea drinking.
- Know that green tea can be brewed multiple times. Each brew “draws” more and more useful substances from tea. How many times can green tea be brewed? The optimal number of green tea brews is three to four times.
- When brewing, do not focus on the color of the tea. Teas of different varieties can have different colors - from transparent to honey-amber.
- Never drink cold green tea (at least for health reasons). Cooled tea loses its beneficial properties.
- Store dry green tea in opaque sealed containers (cans, wooden boxes). Do not use paper bags and boxes for storage: tea loses its aroma in them.
- To increase the benefits of tea, add some sugar to it - it increases the amount of water-soluble glycosides, which help resist colds and strengthen the immune system.
Now you know the rules for brewing green tea. How to drink green tea? Brew as much tea as you can drink. Drink tea hot or warm. Drink tea with milk or sugar (this is not forbidden). And drink to your heart's content! Enjoy your tea drinking and good health!
Now only the deaf and blind do not know about a healthy lifestyle. Many people seek to support their body with healthy foods. One of them is green tea. Today we will talk about how to brew and drink it correctly.
The benefits of green tea
The benefits of green tea are enormous. It contains many vitamins and minerals - is a natural antioxidant. This means that with regular use, we can improve the complexion, preserve the beauty of the skin.
Green tea is also used in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. It strengthens blood vessels, maintains their elasticity.
It can be used as an antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial agent.
Green tea is believed to reduce the activity of cancer cells.
To obtain a healing effect, you need to drink it without sugar, you can sweeten it with honey.
Are there any contraindications to the use of green tea or is everything so rosy?
Contraindications
In fact, it's all about moderation. In large doses, the drug becomes a poison.
Polyphenols that protect us from cancer and strengthen blood vessels in large quantities depress the liver.
And excess amounts can even lead to "tea intoxication." It manifests itself in the form of headache, nausea, dizziness.
On average, you can safely drink 4-6 cups of medium-strength tea a day without harm to health.
But if you think that by brewing a bag of boiling water drawn from the tap, you will get a healing effect, then you are greatly mistaken. Green tea must be properly brewed.
How to brew green tea correctly?
What is green tea? These are the youngest leaves (top 4-5 leaves of the branch), which dry quickly in the shade. Therefore, they retain as much as possible all the useful properties of the tea bush. And to get them, you need not just pour boiling water over the leaves, but do it right. First, you need the right water.
Water
For healthy, tasty and “correct” green tea, you need soft water. Just from the tap with impurities and additives, water will not work. You can buy soft bottled water in the store or purify at home using special filters.
Another way to soften water is to freeze it. Collect water in a plastic bottle and put it in the freezer. When it freezes around the edges of about 2 cm, take it out - unfrozen water must be drained and the ice melted. This will be soft water.
Kettle
For proper tea, the teapot must be well heated. Warm up its bay with boiling water for a few seconds. A cold teapot takes heat from the tea and prevents the nutrients from escaping in the first brew.
An earthenware teapot is considered ideal for brewing green tea. Clay allows the sheet to "breathe", retains heat well and is chemically neutral.
In the absence of such a teapot, you can use porcelain, faience or glass. But they will no longer allow the sheet to “breathe”.
Do not brew green tea in metal or plastic containers!
Boiling water
It is important to catch the right temperature for brewing green tea. Suitable will be from 60 to 90 degrees.
First you need to bring the water to a boil, but do not boil - it should be 95 ° C. How to determine - we carefully monitor the water, when it makes noise, air bubbles rise up - this is the temperature we need. Remove from heat and let the kettle stand and cool slightly.
Too high a brewing temperature will spoil the taste and destroy the beneficial substances.
We brew
Finally we got to making tea! Proper water, a kettle and boiling water are ready.
- With a clean, dry spoon, pour the tea leaves into the teapot, fill with hot water and immediately drain it. Rinse the leaves.
- Now pour the right amount of water into the kettle - usually an incomplete glass of water is poured onto a teaspoon of dry tea leaves.
- Close the lid and let the tea brew. Typical time is 30 seconds to 3 minutes. It is not recommended to leave green tea longer, as it can become bitter and cannot be brewed a second time. When brewing again, the time increases.
- Now you can pour into cups. if you were preparing a drink for several people, then you need to pour it in a circle. So that everyone gets a uniform-saturation tea.
- Have a nice and healthy tea party!
- Green tea can be brewed many times. At the same time, with each new tea leaves, it is filled with new useful substances. Usually tea leaves are used repeatedly 4-5 times.
- Don't expect the tea to be a certain color. All varieties are different - from very light to golden and amber.
- Do not drink cold green tea. It no longer contains useful substances, essential oils evaporate, vitamins disappear.
- Use an airtight container to store dry tea. Paper bags and cardboard boxes easily let in odors. And tea absorbs them quickly.
- To enhance the benefits and taste of tea, add a little honey. at the same time, the amount of soluble glycosides increases, which help to increase immunity and resist colds.
Video on how to brew green tea
Among the healthy tonic drinks, green tea occupies a special place. Prepared according to all the canons of tea art, it will please even the most fastidious tea gourmet. How to brew green tea in order to get a fragrant and tasty drink?
Utensils for brewing tea
True connoisseurs of tea are sure: not only the dishes are important, but also the container where the water is boiled.
So, a kettle for boiling water can be:
- metal (but not aluminum!);
- glass (the main condition is high-quality heat-resistant glass, cheap materials can easily burst when heated);
- enamelled.
By the way. Followers of the Feng Shui trend are sure that you should not boil water in metal dishes.
You can heat water on a gas stove, but do not use immersion heaters (electric kettle with a spiral, boiler).
As for the brewing process, you can use porcelain or earthenware. Let's say a variant with a glass container (but not a metal one).
Advice. Before the process, the vessel should be thoroughly warmed up. To do this, you can pour a small amount of hot water into the container. Thus, the heat will disperse along the walls.
Whatever dishes are chosen for boiling water or brewing, they must be stored in a special place, inaccessible to foreign odors.
To what temperature should water be heated
It is believed that different temperatures are suitable for each type of tea. In this matter, the rule applies: for fermented samples, higher temperatures apply.
Water for green tea is heated to a temperature of 70-90 degrees. This figure is lower than for black tea varieties.
Approximately the same temperature regime should be used when brewing oolongs. These semi-fermented teas are a cross between green and black teas. Not cool boiling water is used for them, the average temperature is 75-90 degrees (the degree of water heating depends on the fermentation of the product).
By the way. Oolongs, like emerald tea, can be brewed several times (up to 7-8).
How to brew loose leaf green tea
Green leaf tea is brewed strictly in accordance with the recipe:
- The teapot for brewing is doused with boiling water, or heated over a fire.
- Pour the leaves into a vessel, wrap it with a warm cloth and leave for a few minutes.
- Fill the container with boiling water by a third, after 3 minutes to the top.
- After 4 minutes, the tea is considered fully brewed.
- The resulting drink is poured into cups.
- Pour and drink green tea in equal portions. It is believed that in this way the taste of the drink in each cup will be the same.
- Sugar should not be used to sweeten tea. Instead, honey or dried fruits are perfect.
- A cold teapot, applicable for brewing, will quickly cool the aromatic drink, and it will lose its taste.
- Some people prefer to brew tea in a cup. For this purpose, it is enough to pour 1 tsp. tea leaves. Brewing time - no more than 2 minutes. The film on the surface is considered the norm and indicates the readiness of tea.
Technology of cooking in a teapot
It is permissible to brew green tea in a teapot. Thus, it is convenient to brew the leaves several times.
Ipots (izipots) will be an excellent option for a modern teapot. These are universal teapots equipped with a button. The utensils are specially designed for repeated brewing of tea (using the method of pouring).
The design idea allows the use of teapots in conditions when you want tea, but there is simply no time for a full-fledged tea drinking (travel, office, etc.).
Green tea with ginger
The combination of green tea and ginger has long been used as a prevention and treatment of colds. Ginger gives the drink an original spicy flavor, making it more piquant.
The composition of the classic recipe for green tea with ginger includes the following components:
- green tea;
- ginger - 1 cube (about 2x2 cm);
- lemon - 2 slices;
- honey to taste.
A cube of fresh ginger is sprinkled with lemon juice, pour 200 ml of water, put on low heat and wait 10 minutes. The mixture should boil. In parallel, you should brew your favorite variety of green tea. Remove the ginger drink from the heat and combine it with the brewed tea. Add honey or jam to taste. Fresh ginger can be replaced with dried spice.
with apples
Red fragrant apples and green tea are suitable for the recipe. If the fruits are sweet, no additional sugar is required.
Ingredients:
- apples - 2 pcs.;
- cinnamon - 2 pcs.;
- water - 1 l;
- tea - 1 tbsp. l.
Wash the apples, remove the cores and cut into slices. Water is boiled, chopped apples are put in a teapot, cinnamon is added and tea leaves are poured. All components are poured with boiling water. The drink is infused for 10 minutes, after which it is considered ready for use.
Milk Oolong
Milk oolong has its own brewing characteristics.
1 tsp tea leaves are poured into a teapot and poured with boiled water 95-100 degrees. The drink is infused for only one minute.
By the way. Milk oolong is one of the few types of tea that can be brewed several times, each time feeling new flavor notes.
With milk
Green tea with milk is a healthy drink with a bright taste. It absorbs all the healing milk properties.
The drink is prepared according to the recipe:
- Prepare a teapot (ignite).
- Pour tea leaves into it, cover with a lid, set aside for 4 minutes.
- Pour hot water into the kettle (one third of its volume), leave for a couple of minutes.
- Add a little more water, set aside again.
- Pour the warmed milk, again let it brew for a few minutes.
- Pour the finished drink into cups.
Green hour with lemon and honey
Cooking features:
- 1 tsp pour water at a temperature of 90 degrees, leave for 5 minutes;
- decant the infusion, pour the juice of half a lemon into it;
- cool the drink to 60 degrees;
- add 2 tsp. honey.
Important! Do not forget that honey added to boiling water loses its valuable properties, and is quite capable of causing damage to the body.
A drink brewed according to all the canons of tea mastery turns out to be tasty and extremely healthy. In the case when the tea turned out to be too saturated, henceforth a smaller amount of lemon should be added to it.
Advice. In order to obtain a drink with a bright, rich taste, it is recommended to purchase natural honey and high-quality tea.
Originally Russian tradition dictates adding a few slices of lemon to strong brewed tea. Gradually, honey, known for its benefits, began to be added to the drink. Lemon-honey tea helps fight colds and restore strength, improve sleep and tone the body.
Green tea is a drink that combines wonderful taste and undeniable benefits. To take the maximum of the necessary substances for health from the product, you should know how to brew it correctly. An equally important role is played by the choice of tea - the green leaves of the tea bush should be exclusively of the highest grades and of excellent quality.
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