Dragon Well Green Tea

Dragon Well is a green tea that is considered one of China’s famous teas.  This famous tea is also known as Long-Gin or Lung-Ching.  Dragon Well leaves are pan fried instead of steamed to stop the fermentation process. Dragon Well is one of the famous tribute teas and is still carefully picked and processed completely by hand.

Dragon Well is the most popular green tea from China. This tea comes from the Hangzhou region in Zhejiang province and has flat, long and vibrant green leaves.

Dragon Well, a stone-fenced karst spring on Bamboo Ridge southeast of West Lake, gave its name to the tea. Believing its perennial running water opens to the ocean where sea-dragon lives, the locals used to come to pray for rain in dry years. Dragon Well tea is made of tender tea shoots, not leaves like many other teas. They are very small, no larger than 2 cm.

Dragon Well is one of the most delicate of teas, and its flavor can rapidly be lost through improper storage. Dragon Well may be reinfused by gradually increasing steeping time and water temperature. Refrigeration in a tightly sealed container is recommended, and modern methods of nitrogen packaging can also be used with benefit.

Sencha Green Tea

Sencha is the most popular type of green tea in Japan. It is known for its sweet, mellow flavor, great with any meal. Sencha is noted for its delicate sweetness, mild astringency and flowery-green aroma. The quality of Sencha will vary depending on origin, time of harvest and leaf processing techniques.

Sencha is one of the exquisite teas with a very delicate taste and aroma . There are many varieties of Senchas with prices from a few to a few hundred dollars per ounce . Sencha is distinguished by delicate sweetness and mild astringency. It is also high in vitamin C.

Sencha green tea have to be steeped at perfect temperature to achieve the best taste. Sencha will become severely bitter if oversteeped or steeped at too high.  Tea that was far too small to be strained sits in the bottom of the cup, making the brew bitter.  Sencha has a natural sweetness; it’s lively on the tongue, assertive, and clean.

Sencha green tea was once prepared by roasting but nowadays Sencha is steam treated before additional processing with hot-air drying and is then pan-fried as a final step. Sencha is also known as I-chi Ban Cha, or “the number one pick”, and it is surely my choice of tea! Sencha Green Tea is a beautiful light green when steeped. It contains 41 percent less caffeine than regular brewed coffee.

Tea becomes green, black, or other varieties depending upon the time of harvest, and the way it is cured and handled. Tea begins to oxidize as soon as it is picked.  The infusion is green, unlike how Chinese green teas appear yellow in a cup. Sencha is the most popular green tea in Japan. Unlike Chinese teas, which are “dry-fried,” Japan sencha is steamed briefly before rolling and drying.

Matcha Green Tea

Matcha tea is very well known tea all over the world, but mostly popular in Asian countries.  Matcha is both sweet and grassy, with the pleasantly leafy taste of, again, green tea ice cream, especially when you mix it up in something sweet. The flavor is deep and concentrated, so don’t overpowder or it will end up bitter.  It tastes great with chocolate chip cookies and little frosted sugar cookies.

Matcha, is perhaps the most refined tea available on the market today. From the unique way it is produced to the important place it holds in the cultural life of Japan, few other teas can compare. Matcha is being used in ice cream, cheese cakes, cream cheese spreads, white chocolate, latte beverages, hot chocolate etc. There is no limit to the recipes that matcha can be added to. Matcha green tea powder is a bright green color, it is of higher quality and much less processed than other teas. Unlike steeping and straining, matcha green tea powder consists of ground leaves.

Matcha is also a popular additive to soy or dairy milk, when it is sweetened with sugar. Matcha is a very aromatic drink. That is why its aroma also fades quickly. Matcha exposed to oxygen can easily become compromised. Oxidation smells like hay and affects colour and texture as well.

Matcha comes from gyokuro leaves that have been steamed and dried. All stems and veins are removed from the leaves. Matcha may also be mixed into to other forms of tea. For example it is added to genmaicha to form what is called matcha-iri genmaicha (literally roasted brown rice and green tea with added matcha). Matcha has a natural detoxifier built in - chlorophyll. It’s loaded with it!

Matcha powder is significantly different than other green tea powders. First its taste is much sweeter and smoother due to the fact it lacks the bitter tannins of other green tea powders. Matcha combined with cashew cream makes a lovely blended drink. Matcha is an integral, interwoven part of the religion, the meditation and ceremonies.