Sunday, April 27, 2008

Brewing Chinese Green Teas

Brewing Chinese Green Tea is really quite easy. Here are some instructions for brewing a perfect cup of green tea.

To brew green tea, you need a Chinese teapot. Basically put green tea leaves in the pot and pour some hot water. Then, cover the lid and wait for a while before serving green tea into individual tea cups. When serving green tea, make sure not to leave any tea in the tea pot. You may brew green tea a few times from the same tea leaves.

To brew tasty green tea, water temperature is important. Change the temperature depending on the kind of green tea you are drinking. Cool boiling water in a tea pot or tea cups before pouring over tea leaves.

When brewing sencha green tea, use 160F degree hot water and brew about one minute in a tea pot. To brew gyokuro green tea, use 110F degree hot water and brew about two minutes. To brew hojicha, genmaicha, and bancha, use boiling water and brew just 15-20 seconds.

To drink macha green tea, shift 1 tsp of maccha green tea powder in a large tea cup and add 1/4 cup of 160F degree hot water in it, then stir quickly with a bamboo tea whisk.

Pouring hot sencha green tea over some ice in a cup makes iced green tea. Enjoy green tea!