Friday, December 1, 2006

Green Tea 綠茶

Green tea 綠茶 is the palest in color, ranging from light green to light yellow in color. Green tea is not oxidized; the leaves are steamed or baked immediately after being plucked. They are then rolled and dried allowing the leaves to remain green in color. Green tea is made from both new buds as well as young leaves.

Green tea, which is unfermented tea, remains the most popular tea in Asian countries such as China and Japan. In fact, up until the eighteenth century, it was also the most popular form of tea in Britain as well. Imports of green tea into the United States outpaced black tea until about 1915. Much of the tea dumped into the Boston harbor during the Boston Tea Party, was in fact green tea. Thus it is unlikely that the harbor turned to a copper color!

Most popular green teas from China are Dragon Well/ Long Jing 龙井茶, Tai Ping Hou Kui 太平猴魁, Bi Luo Chun 碧螺春, Liu An Gua Pian 六安瓜片, and etc. On the other hand, popular green teas from Japan are Gyokuro 玉露, Matcha 抹茶, Sencha 煎茶, and etc. More details on different types of green tea will be illustrated in coming blogs.
Examples of green tea:
Long Jing 龙井茶
Bi Luo Chun 碧螺春
Liu An Guo Pian 六安瓜片
Tai Ping Hou Gui 太平猴魁

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