Good green tea

[OtokoShiro]

what is a good green tea? so far i have a box of limpton green tea with nothing added.

[FunkstaG]

I don't know where you live, but in New Zealand we have lots of cool little boutique tea shops, that sell really high grade tea. I never buy the generic crap at the supermarkets, it tastes awful usually. 

[OtokoShiro]

i live in louisiana, i don't know of any shops .

[fluffymace]

i like Earl Green, i buy from a local tea & coffee shop, i think it's a french import.

I guess the brand doesn't really matter unless you wanna be a snob about it, however i would stay away from big corporations like lipton, they usually use these teabags that are made from some sort of paper that ruins the taste.

go for loose leafs in bag. Use a Tea pot and put in

1 teaspoon for 2 cups  (1 spoon/ big Mug) for regular strength

1 teaspoon for 1 cup  (2 spoons/ big Mug) for extra strength

put ~ 80°C / 176 °F Water over it and let it soak for 3-5 minutes

keep the lid on the pot & use a fine strainer to prevent tea leafs from getting into the cup while pouring

[OtokoShiro]

Is it okay to use this machine to make tea?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005RRBI9I/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=241IR2YUSR3NC&coliid=I1Q16QAND2WLO6

[fluffymace]

yeah those are excellent, but also pricy.

The programmable features & controled temp are neet.

You can get the same quality tea with a plain old tea pot & a few household items, for a fraction of the price. I'd say this mashine is a worthy upgrade path if you find yourself becoming an enthusiast looking for perfection and/or more convenience.

[Mndless]

get an electric kettle for $15 and a french press for about the same price. You don't need to spend anywhere near $70 to make tea. You can use an infuser filter cup if you want, but I prefer the ease of use of the french press.

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Onward to tea: any half-way decent tea brand is going to have a sencha tea, and I recommend finding it. Two Leaves and a Bud are a commercially available brand that I purchase at my local The Fresh Market which has a fantastic sencha green tea, for the price. It features a nice sweetness, wonderful vegetal aromas reminiscent of white asparagus, a thick liquor and a clean finish. Adagio Tea is another brand who has a few flavors which are commercially available and still more that you can order online and have delivered. Their Citrus Green, which is available at some stores, such as The Fresh Market, is a very good showing and provides a very mild green tea that still features the usual variety of 'green' flavors, but also features a light citrus quality and an appealing smoothness.

[Mndless]

The traditional measurements for tea are 1 teaspoon per 8 ounces of water with another for the pot, if you're making more than 16 ounces worth. This varies a lot depending on the size and shape of the leaf and also the apparatus by which you make your tea. If you use a french press, as I frequently do, then there is very little need for the extra tea for the pot.

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The reason why teabags from large, commonly known companies taste very poor is because what is in them is of poor quality. It isn't necessarily the paper that makes the tea taste badly, the tea does that all on its own. Larger leaves always result in a better flavor, although there are some preparations which call for damaging the leaf, such as in CTC (Curl Tear Cut) Assam, but on the whole, the smaller the tea pieces, the worse the flavor will be for it. The reason why larger companies put such small pieces of tea into their teabags is because it is primarily cheaper and also because it overcomes the deficiency inherent to teabags: low water flow. Small pieces of tea have a larger surface area compared to their volume and, as such, extract far quicker than larger pieces.

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On a side note, the second major factor to tea flavor, aside from steeping time, is the water temperature. Here's a short list of times and temperatures which you should use (note that you should always use freshly drawn filtered water, as the amount of dissolved oxygen is important to the flavor of the tea.)

• White tea: 165-175 degrees Fahrenheit for 2.5-3.5 minutes.
• Green Tea: 175-180 degrees Fahrenheit for 2.5-3.5 minutes.
• Darjeeling: 185 degrees Fahrenheit for 3.5-4 minutes.
• Oolong: 185 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 seconds each steep (up to 5 steeps), if preparing the Chinese method, 185 degrees Fahrenheit for 2.5-3 minutes if preparing normally.
• Black tea: 185-195 degrees Fahrenheit for 2.5-4.5 minutes.
• Pu'erh: 200-210 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 seconds to indefinitely. Filter for clarity, if desired.

Larger leaves or rolled leaf preparations typically take longer to steep and rolled leaf preparations should have unrolled by the end of their steeping time. If you want a stronger flavor, add more tea, not more time.

[Razor512]

I find the yogi brand to be pretty good, though it is generally way overpriced for what you get, so it is best to stick with free samples, then stock up on coupons, and then wait until a store gets them on sale, and combine it with a coupon.

http://www.yogiproducts.com/ecard/retrieve

 

[superboyy]

Hey! For starters dont buy tea that comes in bags. Its usually the worst quality. There are some good teas that come in bags but its rare (usually come in better material bags, with big chunks of tea leaves, not that ground up stuff).

I buy my black, red, green and white teas at a few shops that specialize in this field. One is a local little chain the other is pretty global and its called Palais De Thes. Really the only thing that matters is that you buy loose leaves and prepare it correctly. Start with some basic teas that should cost around 3-4 euros per 100g (enough for about 30 larger cups), then try some more expensive ones (personally wouldnt go above 20 euro per 100g since i got some really good ones for under 10).

As far as preparation goes, its very simple. Heat up the water to a desired temperature - helps if you get one of those heaters that can regulate temperature. Then you put spoon of tea in a strainer, put it in a cup, pour over your properly heated water and wait for the proper time (for green teas its usually around 2-3 minutes).

If you mess this up by using boiling water, or keeping the tea in for too long it will become bitter. If you do it right even the cheapest loose leave teas will taste great compared to bags.

[iroikos]

if u can find a local Japanese green tea shop go there. i know at my local one the guy is more than happy to make you all different green teas for free so u can find what you like. but when you get to that level u need to consider water quality, temperature, and time. but it is worth it because "real" green tea shits on store bought 

and you dont need some special machine to make tea, its all about the technique, sure there are things like a tetsubin that can improve flavour, but u dont need to go all out

i use a cheap thermometer, electric kettle, a coffee mug, and a small tea pot with a large ss strainer  

[vitabro]

http://www.amazon.com/Matcha-Green-Tea-Powder-Antioxidant/dp/B00DDT116M

 

powdered green tea is best green tea

[prizes2011]

Not a big fan of green tea, but may I suggest Hibiscus tea? It's a red tea that's packed full of antioxidants. 

[atteberymaurice]

There is a lot of talk about good green tea nowadays, and with good reason. There are many benefits to drinking tea on a regular basis, but what is the one thing that people seem to be after? I can’t tell you that I know of a product that helps out your complexion or fights skin cancer, but I can tell you that drinking the recommended amounts of tea will give you some pretty impressive health benefits. If you’re anything like me, you are constantly on the go and can’t seem to find something good to eat.

Because, well, if we’re going to take green tea products as an advantage, then you just might as well do them right. Green tea has proven to have many ills to its credit, such as heart disease, weight gain, skin cancer, stroke, and even bad breath (not you re smelling things). While there are a lot of wonderful natural ingredients that I could speak of, you can bet that there are plenty of nasty ingredients as well, such as caffeine, that can be hard to avoid when taking an herbal supplement. Luckily, there are good green tea products out there that have some ingredients that are all natural, such as green tea extracts, which are known to kill cancer cells without having any side effects.