Green tea
One green tea is one little fermented at the time of manufacture. This type of tea is very popular in and with , where it is famous to have the therapeutic properties most effective. It is spread more and more in Occident, where traditionally one drinks rather . It is also the basic ingredient of .
Synopsis |
Manufacture
After the gathering, the sheets are often faded, then heated very quickly at high temperature (torrefaction), in order to destroy them and thus to prohibit any possibility of fermentation. They are then rolled and dried several times (rolling). Drying according to the Chinese method uses copper basins placed on fire, whereas Japanese practises drying with the vapor.
Preparation
? For more information read the principal article: Preparation of the tea
That they are Chinese or Japanese, the green teas have jointly to be prepared with a not very hot water (70 °C). Certain teas of great quality prepare even with a water with 50° C.
One prefers to use one teapot out of porcelain or one zh?ng.
Varieties
There exists in China of the hundreds of different varieties of tea. They receive conventional names, most of the time related to the shape of the sheets. These denominations are not at all guarantees of authencity nor of quality. Only the serious one and the honesty of the salesman is insurances on the origin of the tea.
Among the most known green teas, let us quote:
- Pi Lo Chun ("jade spiral of spring") is produced in the province of
- Lung Ching ("puit of the dragon") comes from the province from .
- Gunpowder ("gunpowder") its name must with its sheets rolled in small balls. It is produced in the province of and in that of Zhejiang.
- Chun Mee ("eyebrow of viel man") is produced a little everywhere, but especially in .
- Taiping Houkui province of Anhui.
Japanese teas
Japan produces nothing any more but green tea today, in a vast range of price and quality. The plantations are located especially on the islands of Kyushu and of . There are four harvests of tea, being spread out mid-April at at the end of September. The first (in April-May) is most required, because considered to produce a tea more refined less astreigeant that the following ones.
- sencha constitute the three quarters of the production. It is a tea with characteristic vegetable savour. It is famous to be preserved less longer than the Chinese green teas (not more than six months).
- shincha ("new tea") is resulting from the first harvest. Coldly gathered, it is prepared like a sencha, though with more delicacy. It is snuffed for its wealth of vitamins, its softness, and its more constant savour. It is a highly perishable tea, not lasting more than three months. It is produced in April, in the south of Japan.
- bencha is a sencha of less quality. It is prepared with sheets starting from the fourth, resulting from harvests of summer and autumn. Though not missing character, its savour is less delicate than a sencha. It is also less rich in vitamins.
- gyokuro is obtained by covering the tea plants with covers in straw both or three weeks preceding the first gathering. In "ombrant" thus the seedlings, one increases the content of of the sheets, confèrant with drink a typical savour of algae. The gyokuro is regarded as one of best the Japanese tea.
- tencha is a ombré tea whose sheets are not rolled.
- hojicha is a bencha whose sheets are slightly roasted, while genmaicha is a mixture of bencha and roasted rice grains (genmai). Starting from the genmaicha one prepares one frozen tea very popular in Japan.
- The Japanese produce also a tea according to the Chinese method, where the sheets are torréifiées instead of to have passed to the vapor: tamaryokucha.
- matcha is a reduced green tea powders some very fine. It is primarily produced in Japan, in the area of Aichi. Contrary to the other teas, the matcha does not infuse but must be beaten in hot water with a whip in bamboo (it chasen) to create an emulsion. This tea is used for the Japanese ceremony of the tea: .
Other teas green
With the growing success of the green teas in Occident, of many areas of the world put themselves to produce some: Ceylon, Vietnam, . These teas are prepared according to the Chinese method, and resemble one Gunpowder or one ChunMee.
See too
External bonds
In English
- With shorts history of green tea in Clouded, Japan and the West
- What is in A green tea leaf?
- Green Tea World
- Discover Green Tea with the Green Teas Guides
