All You Need to Know About Chinese Green Tea
Green tea is first discovered and used by we Chinese ancestors. It is also the most productive and most widely-consumed, known as the "national drinks". There are numerous famous brands of green tea, such as Longjing, Biluochun, Huangshan Maofeng and so on. Green tea is of the gentle and reserved nature, and the liquid is clean and chilly with quiet fragrant aroma, giving people a serene and quiet enjoyment. It is ideal for sips. What's more, green tea has more significant health effects than other kinds of tea.
Place of Origin
Zhejiang, Anhui, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei Province are the major green tea producing areas.
Green Tea Processing
Fixation
Fixation comes first to produce green tea. Through high temperature and passivation of oxidation enzyme activities in fresh leaves, evaporate water in the fresh leaves to soften the tea leaves, and thus to roll tea leaves easily and to promote fragrance.
Generally there are two kinds of fixation: by heat and by steam. Green tea made of steam-fixation called steaming green tea, yet heat-fixation is used more often.
Rolling
After fixation, the tea will be rolled repeatedly to a certain shape and promote the cell breakage of tea leaves, facilitating the seepage of tea leaves soluble in water.
Drying
There are fried drying, baked drying and sun drying. It is to evaporate excess moisture in tea leaves to keep the live enzymes in tea, and therefore it is easy to maintain tea quality and fix tea shape.
Different Appearance of Green Tea
- Flat shape: flat, level, straight, such as Longjing.
- Loose leaf shape: uniform shape and size, same tightness of tea strips, such as Chunmee.
- Round shape: around and tight, such as Gunpowder
- Powder shape: Such as Matcha
- Bud shape: tea with rich buds, such as Maofeng, Maojian
Cup Color of Green Tea
The light green or light yellow green cup color, clear and bright is of fine quality.
Aroma
With unique flavor, natural fragrance, and delicate, lingering flavor, green tea may sends out faint scent, tender scent, or floral scent.
Taste
Tea with fresh, mellow, and sweet aftertaste.
Effects of Green Tea
Green tea is rich in theanine and catechin, it can delay aging and remove free radicals.
Meanwhile, polyphenols and their oxidation products in green tea are able to absorb poison of radioactive materials, and thus to help prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Green tea also can prevent and treat radiation injury. Caffeine in green tea can enhance the excitement process of cerebral cortex and plays a role of refreshing.
Types of Green Tea
- Roasted Green tea: Long roasted such as Chunmee; Roundness roasted like Gunpowder; Flat roasted like Longjing
- Baked Green tea: like Huangshan Maofeng
- Sun-Dried Green tea
- Steamed Green tea: Like Sencha, Matcha, Gyokuro