If you are a health enthusiast, or simply love your teas, then you have probably had a perfect cup of green tea. There are so many occasions (before or after your meal) when you can drink good tea.
But do you know how to make green tea?
You know-brew a cup of green tea like the masters.
Making green tea isn’t as simple as making a regular cup of tea. Sure, you could dismiss it as a straightforward task. But, for the best cup of green tea, you need to understand certain things which without them you will not get the best out of the drink. You wouldn’t want to end up with a tea that is either too bitter, or that doesn’t have any health benefits, would you?
For starters, you need to decide which type of tea you prefer. You get to choose from teabags, powder form, or loose leaf green tea?
Also, it would be best if you use a specific teapot for brewing green tea to avoid contamination from other flavors.
So here is a guide to how to make green tea.
Making green tea using tea bags
Most people prefer teabags since they are convenient. All you need is a cup of hot water, and you are good to go.
However, to get the best flavor, you must ensure that you are using high-quality teabags. Also, you should, preferably, go for the large sachets teabags. They allow more room for the tea leaves to expand, thereby releasing their entire flavor. The result? A delicious cup of tea that is rich with flavor and nutrients.
When using teabags, avoid bleached tea bags as they may contaminate the natural flavor of the green tea.
What you need:
- Teabag (high quality)
- Hot water
- Brewing teapot
- A cup
- A lid for the cup
Steps to prepare green tea using teabags
First, put water in the brewing teapot and allow it to heat to about 85 degrees. Ensure that the water does not boil.
Next, put your teabag in the cup.
Put the hot water into your cup and then cover it with the lid. Allow it to steep for about 2 minutes, after which you can remove the cover and the teabag.
Next, use a spoon to stir the tea and proceed to enjoy your drink.
If you wish, you can include any additive of your choice to enhance the taste of your tea. Additives such as ginger, honey, and lemon are excellent choices to put in your tea.
Making green tea using tea leaves
If you are going to use this method, you should have a strainer or infuser to sieve the leaves.
You should also use a specific amount of tea leaves so that you can get the best flavor. For example, for an eight-ounce cup, you can use one teaspoonful of tea leaves.
Brewing your green tea leaves with water that is above 90 degrees will leave you with a bitter cup of tea.
What you need:
- Tea leaves
- A strainer
- Cup
- Brewing pot (stainless steel)
- Water (one cup)
Steps for preparing green tea using tea leaves
One teaspoon of tea leaves should be enough to make one cup of tea. If you’re going to prepare several cups, you can use one teaspoon for every cup of tea that you prepare.
Put water in the pot and start heating it. Pay attention so that the water doesn’t boil but heat to around 80-850C. If by any chance it boils, just allow it some time to cool for a while before you add tea leaves.
Next, put your green tea leaves in a sieve or strainer and then place it over the cup.
Take your hot water and pour it into the cup. Allow the tea to steep for about 30 seconds. You should have a spoon to taste the tea after every 30 seconds so that you can get your preferred flavor.
If you wish, you can add ginger, lemon, flower petals, or any other additive that will make your green tea taste better.
After you add the sweetener, stir the mixture and allow it a few seconds to cool.
Your tea is ready, and you can enjoy it with biscuits or any other snack of your choice.
Making green tea using powder
You can also use green tea powder to make your tea. Use one and a half teaspoons of tea powder to make one cup of the beverage.
What you need:
- Water (one cup)
- One and a half teaspoon of green tea powder
- Honey, ginger, or any other ideal additive
Steps of preparing green tea using green tea powder
Take one cup of water and heat it in a bowl, either stainless steel or glass.
Just like for tea bags and loose tea leaves, you should heat the water to about 850C. If the water gets to 1000C and boils, turn off the heat and allow it some time to cool.
Pour your powder in the water and leave it for around three minutes for the tea powder to brew. Have a spoon at hand so that you taste it after a few seconds so that you get the right flavor.
The color will change to brown after around 3 minutes, after which you can pour the tea into a cup and use a strainer.
Add your sweetener of choice to enhance the taste and make it better
Benefits of hot green tea
- There’s no right or wrong way of taking your tea. Depending on your preference, you can choose to either take the tea hot or cold. If you are wondering, here are some of the benefits of hot green tea.
- Hot green tea is faster to brew than cold tea as it only takes a few minutes
- If you love caffeine, hot tea is for you. hot green tea contains more caffeine than cold green tea.
- The hot water used in brewing hot tea steeps out tannin, which is the compound responsible for the bitterness in hot tea. As such, If you love your green tea a little bitter (or with a tang taste), then you should go for hot green tea.
How to make sure your green tea has the right flavor
Use a strainer
If you use loose tea leaves to make your tea, you will need a strainer. Ensure that the mesh will be effective in sieving and is neither too small nor too large. You do not want to have small pieces of the tea leaves passing through the large holes of the mesh.
Additionally, it would be good to get a strainer that you can put in your cup and carry it around.
Steep
If you are a DIY guru, then you know about steeping. Steeping in green tea means putting your tea leaves, powder, or tea bags in water so as to extract its flavor.
Two to three minutes steep time is enough to produce just the right flavor. If you steep your tea for too long, you will end up with a bitter taste which will make your drink unpleasant.
The right ratio
To get the right taste, you need to get the ratio of tea to water right. You should always be sure of the amount of tea leaves that you need to make your green tea. Use the 3:5 ratio, which means for every 3 grams of tea leaves, you should use 5 oz of water.
As such, you should use one teaspoon of tea leaves for one cup of water. If you prefer to use tea bags, one should be enough for every cup.
Water quality
The first step towards getting the best taste of green tea starts with having pure water. Today, most of the water is polluted with chemicals and other compounds.
As such, you may have a challenge getting it right with green tea if you use hard water or tap water that is contaminated with chemicals. Instead, you can use spring water, filtered water, or purified water.
Right tools
Do you know that what you use to make your tea affects its flavor?
For instance, you should have a designated teapot for brewing your green tea so that other compounds will not contaminate the flavor.
Additionally, if you brew your tea with water that is too hot, you will end up with a bitter-tasting drink. It is, therefore, essential that you have a thermometer to check the temperature of the water as it boils.
Alternatively, you can use a tea kettle that has a built-in gauge to measure the temperature.
Benefits of cold green tea
If you prefer having your tea cold, don’t worry. Your cold cup of beverage also comes packed with some health benefits.
- Green tea contains many compounds which include tannin, L-theanine, antioxidants, and others. The compounds help in protecting the liver against damage, it also decreases the risk of heart diseases, and so on.
- It gives you glowing skin
- It has more health benefits than hot green tea since cold-brewing preserves all the compounds.
- It’s sweeter than hot tea. Note, the more temperature you use to brew the tea and the longer you do it, the more tannin is extracted. As such, you end up with a bitter and unpleasant drink.
- Cold green tea is less likely to make you feel nauseated. This is because tannin, the compound responsible for making you feel nauseated, isn’t extracted in cold brewing.
- Although it takes longer than hot green tea to brew, it has a more seamless brewing process.
- Cold tea also saves you a lot of energy as you do not need to boil any water to brew it.
- If you do not like too much caffeine, you should go for cold tea as it contains less caffeine than the hot one.
How to brew cold green tea
The brewing process is much slower but much simpler as there is no chance of over-steeping the tea.
Cold-brewing green tea is also more forgiving as you don’t worry about how long you steep or the quantity of tea leaves that you use.
What you need:
- A jar or pitcher
- Your form of tea of choice (Loose leaves tea offers the best flavor).
- Coldwater
- Your additive of choice such as ginger, honey, lemon, etc (optional)
Steps for brewing cold green tea
Put two spoonfuls of loose leaves in the pitcher and allow the loose tea leaves to settle in the jar for a while so that they can release all the flavors.
Next, pour two cups of cold water into the jar. If you want to brew more tea, you only need to increase the amount of tea leaves and water.
You can then choose to add your desired flavor, which can be fresh herbs, fruits, lemon, or spices. Allow the flavor to steep together with the green tea.
Next, cover the pitcher, put it in the fridge and let it stay overnight. It is worth mentioning that different types of teas may take different times to steep.
Finally, note the change in color to determine whether or not your tea is ready. You can also take a sip to feel if it has your preferred flavor. If you feel the steeping took place for long and the tea is too strong, just add some cold water.
Pour your tea through a mesh strainer to get rid of the loose leaves and proceed to enjoy your cup of green tea.
Cool tips to note for brewing cold green tea
- It’s advisable to use purified water. Tap water may be contaminated with chemicals that may affect the flavor of your tea.
- After you make your cold tea, store it in glass containers. Plastics may leave odors and stains that will distort your tea’s flavor.
- To get the best flavor, you should use loose tea leaves instead of teabags. Loose tea leaves have better quality, which assures you of better flavor.
- Well, there you have it! Making yourself a cup of green tea should now be a breeze. Green tea comes with a lot of benefits, but you need to steep it correctly to enjoy all of these benefits. Otherwise, you will only end up with a drink with a grassy taste that is unpleasant to take.
- To get the best flavor, you should have the correct ratio for your tea and water, and also use the best quality of water. Additionally, you should learn how long you should steep, and the best form of tea leaves to use.
- A sweet flavor will allow you to enjoy your cup of green tea as you also get the health benefits. So, whether you enjoy a hot or cold beverage, use the guidelines provided and brew a cup or two for yourself and your loved ones.
