It seems like an unwritten rule that a cup of tea is bound to hold a number of stories around itself. Right from its creation, until now, the story of tea begins with a handful of myths. However, the story of its unique creation deserves to be known by all. Talking about the uniqueness of tea, the one best thing about it is that it is just one single extraordinary plant that gives birth to all the six famous types of teas. YES… It’s true. Be it Green, Black, White or any other type of tea, all of them come from this same, special plant – Camellia Sinensis.
Of the various varieties of tea, green tea is the one with the longest history, and diversity in taste and aroma. How does it taste different from other teas? Well, the credit goes to like soil and environmental conditions it is grown in. Similarly, the speciality of green tea’s taste comes from the mechanical processes that the tea master may use in fixing and drying the leaves.
Let’s have a quick look at some of the techniques that define the quality of a perfect cup of Green Tea:
Shaqing:
Most green teas go through the process of physical withering so that they can be shaped and formed well. The tea master then introduces heat to the leaf to kill the enzyme responsible for oxidizing the leaf. To do this, he has to choose among four processes namely steaming, baking, sun drying and pan frying. For a better understanding, these processes are elaborated below:
- Steaming: This traditional Chinese method is now rarely used in China, whereas it is the primary method of fixing the oxidizing enzymes in Japanese green teas. This process creates a characteristic “grassy” taste and aroma as well as the bright green colour associated with many of the Japanese green teas. Some of the most well-known Japanese green teas like Gyokuro and Sencha are prepared with the help of this method.
- Baking: Baking tea leaves is similar to baking a loaf of bread in a large oven. Although, baked teas are often associated with lower quality teas, there are certain highly regarded teas that still use the baking method for shaqing. The difference between these highly regarded teas and the commodity teas is that the lower- graded, commodity teas undergo an automated process of baking that cannot create the subtle flavours and aromas required to be graded as a quality tea. Therefore, to bake a tea and still achieve a complex taste, it is generally quick baked at around 350 F to neutralize the enzyme responsible for oxidizing the tea leaf.
- Sun Drying: Under this method, leaves are laid on mats in partial sunlight and allowed to dry. To dry them uniformly, the leaves are shaken and tossed once or twice. This is a very old method of neutralizing the PPO enzyme, which stops the oxizidizing process and is used primarily to make dark teas. After the leaves lose approximately 60% of their original moisture content, they are finish fired and sorted.
- Pan Frying: Today, pan frying green tea by hands is done only for the highest-graded teas. The other pan fried teas are heated in a revolving drum that rolls the teas by simultaneously frying them. When done with proper care and skill, the contact between the hot metal triggers the Maillard reaction. This reaction occurs when the leaves reach a certain temperature allowing there proteins and sugars to react with amino acids and create unique odors, flavour and taste of a roasted nut taste.
Following any of the above shaqing techniques you can create different types of green tea. To name some:
- An Ji Bai Cha: This tea has the classic flavour of the high mountain green teas of Eastern China. Its leaves are long, slender, needle-shaped that dandle in water while steeping. It has a very fresh aroma that is slightly vegetal in nature and is a rare treat when of premium quality.
- Genmaicha: Genmaicha, also known as Genmai Cha, is one of the most established teas of Japan, especially among youthful tea drinkers. Manufactured by blending grains of toasted brown rice, its aroma is spicy and warm with hints of roasted rice. Its liquor is clear green in colour and tingled with an olive hue. This glorious beverage can be sipped just for pleasure, and is one of the few drinks that marries well with East Asian foods, both savory and sweet.
- Gunpowder: This tea is one of the best known and most liked of all the standard green teas. While brewing, it is easy to measure; will tolerate a range of water temperature, and spreads a robust and slightly flinty aroma all around. It is used as base tea most commonly for the minted tea of North Africa. It infuses slowly for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Gyokuro: Japanese green tea Gyokuro is one of the most revered drinks in the country because of its purity of flavor and depth of green taste. It is one of the few Japanese teas that is still hand plucked. Its liquor is pale emerald in colour, and provides a flavour softer, sweeter and more complex than that of the simpler Sencha.
- Longjing: This is China’s most beloved green tea with an aroma like that of a chestnut, fried in pans over wood charcoal. This tea is created by artisans who are masters in their craft. Its liquor is straw coloured, tending toward amber with a tea-oil sheen. High quality, first grade Longjing is comprised of flattened budsets that have a characteristic straw- yellow tingle.
- Matcha: Matcha is one of the more intricately manufactured green teas. It has herbaceous aroma and a vegetal flavour. Throughout history, tea in powdered form has resurfaced periodically, as the basic ingredient for a beverage made from freshly fabricated powdered leaf. Today, two types of matcha are found either vacuum-packed in a foil pouch or sealed in a small tin.
After reading this article, a question might have come to your mind- “What is the need to know about all these types of green tea? However, there is a complete new side to it. Knowing about all these teas is definitely going to solve a major problem for many of us. There are people who drink green tea just for the sake of its health benefits and are not too fond of its taste. Apparently, the advantage of knowing about all types of green tea is that we can easily choose the best among them according to our flavour preferences. So, the next time you wish to sip a cup of green tea, the last thing you need to worry about is its taste.
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