Before I moved to Japan for the first time in 2015, I didn’t really like green tea at all. I had heard about the health benefits, but to me, it always tasted quite bitter, and I didn’t know how to sweeten green tea without adding sugar, which would defeat the point of having a healthy drink!
However, shortly after I arrived in Japan I was offered green tea everywhere I went, at work, in restaurants, even whilst I was waiting at the mechanic’s for my car to be repaired. It would have been rude to refuse the tea, so with no other choice, I drank it, and to my surprise, it wasn’t bitter! It turns out the secrets of how to make green tea taste good are pretty simple, it’s all in the brewing process!
Recently, I joined an online green tea time session with Arigato Japan, one of my favorite tour companies who organize AMAZING food tours and virtual experiences. During the hour-long session, I learned so much about green tea, the correct way to brew it, and some awesome pro-travel tips that I can use the next time I go traveling in Japan. I highly recommend booking one of Arigato Japan’s online experiences, you can choose from making Japanese cocktails, or learn all about Japanese food.
Read on to discover what I learned during the green tea time session about how to brew the perfect cup of green tea with flavor at home and other pro-tips from the Japanese tea masters!
If you are planning a trip to Japan then check out my 3-day Kyoto itinerary here, or 4-day Tokyo itinerary here.
How to Make Green Tea Taste Better
Did you know that green tea and black tea all come from the same Camellia Sinensis plant? Nope, I didn’t either! Despite being someone who drinks tea on a daily basis, this little fact blew my mind. The difference between the two is that all black tea is fermented, and green tea is not fermented. The green leaves are steamed after they have been harvested to stop fermentation, resulting in a fresh, delicate flavor. Green tea can be drunk either hot or cold, but it should be brewed differently from black tea, which is where many of us go wrong. Read the below tips to learn how to make green tea taste better.
At Home Green Tea Brewing Tips & Tricks
- Make sure your water is not too hot. It should be 70-80°C or 160-170°F. If you have boiled a kettle to make your tea, wait a couple of minutes for the water to cool sufficiently. It should NOT be boiling, this is what creates the bitterness.
- You should only prepare the amount of water that you are going to drink at one time. Measure out your cup of water, and just add your green tea leaves to this amount. Don’t prepare enough water for a second or third cup because when the water sits with the green tea leaves, it will become more bitter.
- You can use the same green tea leaves in your pot several times. Each time the flavor will be slightly different, but it will still be rich and delicious. You can get a lot out of one batch of leaves, you just don’t want to brew a big pot of tea at once.
- Don’t pour the water from your teapot directly onto the tea leaves. Add the tea leaves to your teapot, pour your hot water into your cup first instead. This means you will only pour the amount that you are going to drink. Wait about 30-60 seconds which will reduce the temperature of the boiling water enough so that you’re not brewing the tea at too high a temperature. Take your hot cup of water and then add it to the leaves in the pot and wait another 60 seconds for the tea to brew.
- Green tea only needs a short amount of steeping time, the ideal brewing time is 60 seconds. If you like it really strong you can leave it to brew for 90 seconds, but don’t leave it longer than this.
- Use three short pours instead of one long one when transferring your green tea from the pot into the cup. This helps to mix the tea from the bottom and top of the pot.
- Be sure to shake the pot to get out the last few drops of water- all of the best flavor is in there!
- If you’re making a second cup of tea, the second brew doesn’t need as long because the leaves are already open.
- You can reuse your tea leaves repeatedly as long as your leaves don’t dry out.
Where Does the Best Green Tea in Japan Come From?
The largest tea-growing area in Japan is Shizuoka, although Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu is also a major tea-producing region. Green tea is grown in long bush-like rows all year round, but it is only picked at certain times of the year. In Shizuoka, near Mount Fuji, there are lots of rolling hills and tea farms located on mountainsides, these conditions have good temperatures and irrigation systems perfect for growing tea plants.
What are the Different Types of Green Tea?
The three most important types of green tea are:
- Matcha – matcha is a powdered green tea that has been ground from the leaf, and it is grown in the shade, resulting in a more bitter flavor. As it is more bitter in taste, it is commonly paired with wagashi, Japanese confectionery, to provide a balance of sweet and bitter. The highest quality matcha is what you’ll find in Japanese tea ceremonies, whilst the lesser grade matcha is usually used for baking, or added to flavor desserts or lattes. The most famous matcha comes from Uji in Kyoto.
- Sencha – this is the everyday green tea you can find in most restaurants in Japan. It is not grown under the shade. Sencha is made by adding the whole tea leaf to hot water and represents approximately 80% of all the tea produced in Japan.
- Gyokuro – this is more green in color than sencha, it has a more concentrated flavor because it is grown under the shade for 2 weeks to 30 days, and not in direct sunlight.
You can also make your own hojicha (roasted green tea) using regular green tea leaves. Take a cast iron pan, add the tea leaves, and agitate them until they turn brown to create a tea that has a roasted, nutty flavor. If you ever visit Nishiki Market in Kyoto you’ll notice the smell of hojicha in the air coming from the family-owned tea shops!
What are the Health Benefits of Green Tea?
Green tea consumption involves using the whole plant, presenting a variety of health benefits to include:
- Helps to improve blood flow
- Green tea is full of antioxidants which help to fight cancer
- Reduces cholesterol
- Helps increase brain activity
- Helps to increase metabolism by around 4-5%
- Contains fluorine which prevents bad breath
- Japanese people believe the antioxidants in green tea help fight against summer fatigue
- Green tea contains vitamin E which is good for skin
- Green tea also contains the following vitamins: A, C, B1 & B2
- The caffeine high in green tea is cleaner because it contains theanine, a calming amino acid
Japan Pro-Travel Tip for Green Tea Enthusiasts
One of the most interesting travel tips I learned was that there is a secret relationship between edible seaweed (called nori in Japanese) and green tea that you can see if you visit a traditional Japanese green tea shop.
Traditionally the people who sold green tea and nori used to partner together to share the same equipment because the drying techniques for green tea and seaweed are very similar, but the procuction seasons are opposite. Green tea is picked in the spring and autumn, whilst nori is harvested in the winter.
This tradition of partnering together has carried on into tea shops today even if they don’t produce the tea themselves anymore. So next time you visit a Japanese tea shop, see if you can spot some nori too!
What are your top tips for brewing green tea? Have you ever tried green tea in Japan Let me know in the comments below!
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