How To Make Green Tea | Green Tea Benefits
Proper Green Tea BENEFITS
When you learn how to make green tea properly, you reap all of the green tea benefits. Make it incorrectly and you risk an unbalanced beverage with more caffeine than healthy catechins.
What exactly is green tea anyway? Camellia Sinensis is the word you want to know. It is the ONLY plant that can be called tea. Rosehips or Red Zinger are infusions, not tea, and don't have the powerful green tea benefits.
If you are interesting in learning how to make Green Tea Latte drinks or other Green tea recipes, click here.
The THREE Basics of How to Make Green Tea
On this page, we will be focusing on steeping Japanese green tea such as Sencha, but not the Japanese tea ceremony tea, called Matcha, or its sister tea, Gyokuro.
To make a balanced cup of Sencha, there are three key points of focus:
tea leaf to water ratio
water temperature
steeping time.
Once you master these points, you can confidently make cup after cup of great Japanese green tea with all the green tea benefits!
Leaf to Water Ratio
The leaf to water ratio depends on how many cups you want to serve. For a single pot that yields one large or two small cups, we recommend using 200ml of water to 8g of tea. That’s about one heaping teaspoon of leaves.
A scale will become your best friend because not all tea leaves weigh the same!
Water Temperature
Because Japanese loose leaf tea is so delicate, it can’t take boiling water. The water needs to boil but then cool. While not all teas perform the same, as a general rule, use between 70-80°C (160-180°F). If you don’t have a thermometer, wait about 5 - 7 minutes to cool it to the right temperature.
Steeping Time
Steeping time is also very important so you don’t get bitter green tea. Generally steep just ONE minute and pour for about 15 seconds until every last drop is out. The second steep is very short - just 15 to 20 seconds and swiftly pour every drop out.
Here are some other resources for making great tasting green tea: