How to brew a mean cup of green tea
I've seen a lot of awful things in my day of tea drinking. I've seen people take black tea and pour water that has been allowed to cool for several minutes over it. I've seen them do the opposite with Green tea. This needs must end!
Instructions
- Take a cup, put in sugar if desired.
- Pour boiling water into the cup, stirring if there was sugar
- Allow the water to cool for approximately one minute (thus cooling to approximately 85°C)
- Very gently, drop a teabag of Green tea into the water.
- Allow the tea to sit perfectly still for exactly 5 minutes. Do not stir or move the cup.
- After 5 minutes, remove the teabag while attempting to disturb the contents of the cup as little as possible.
- Enjoy!
Rationale
Unlike Black teas (and herbal teas), Green tea is very delicate. Green tea also contains a large amount of Tannins. These tannins have a strongly bitter and astringent flavor. By disturbing the tea while it is in hot water, one can cause these bitter tannins to fall out of the tea leaves and into the liquid. Tannins will sink to the bottom of the cup, causing it to become increasingly bitter as it is drunk.
A well brewed cup of high quality green tea should be sweet throughout (with perhaps elements of a sweet/sour lemony taste in my experience). Only a minimal amount of bitterness should be tasted towards the bottom of the cup.
Nutritional Information
Tannins themselves are considered to be very healthy. They are what give a bottle of red wine its bitter sediment. However, speaking of flavor, they are undesirable.