How to Select Japanese Green Tea? - The Expert Advice

• You can make your own tea bag from loose leaf tea. 
  
  

  Other than using yunomi, my favorite way is to use a tea filter bag and loose leaf green tea. Usually, higher-grade green tea is available in loose-leaf form and not teabag form. We carry these tea filter bags here.

The most famous form of powdered Japanese tea is matcha, although there are other variations of powdered tea as well (click here for a list of powdered teas we carry).

You can click here or below the image to learn the details of the differences between sencha (loose-leaf form) and matcha (powder form).

One question we often get asked is if matcha is healthier than sencha.

Generally speaking, matcha is healthier than sencha because you are taking in the entire tea leaf rather than steeping it. Quality is an important word, as there are lower-quality variants of sencha. Matcha has a number of benefits, including helping to lower blood pressure, fighting cancer, boosting metabolism, improving dental health, and being rich in antioxidants. For more information, please click here or below the image.

The simple answer is: drink what you enjoy the most!

The common misconception is that a particular tea type can only be brewed hot or cold. Although some tea is meant for cold brewing, most Japanese tea can be brewed hot or cold.

A surprising fact is that when it comes to health chemicals in tea, cold-brewing tea retains more of its health benefits than hot tea. (This does not mean that hot tea is not healthy; hot tea is still a very healthy drink!)

Personally, I usually keep a jar of cold-brewed tea in my refrigerator using the below approaches and still drink hot tea when I want.

You can see how you can cold brew Japanese tea by clicking on the images below.

From a historical point of view, in Japan, Japanese tea has not been consumed with sweetener until very recently, when it was introduced outside of Japan. Therefore, if you try to look for sweetened Japanese tea, you will not find many Japanese sources.

This does not mean that Japanese tea does not taste good with sweetness. In fact, there are many ways to sweeten Japanese tea. Please see this article, in which I list different ways to sweeten Japanese tea.

In recent years, there have been many movements toward sweetening tea in Japan, and some tea companies are creating new tea products. I have covered a story here if you are interested in reading more about it.

Many Japanese green teas contain caffeine, which may not be ideal for people who are sensitive to caffeine or before settling down in the evening.

Low-caffeine Hojicha is available in our store. Japanese farmers focusing on a lower caffeine Hojicha tend to pick the leaves from a more mature harvest in combination with a roasting process that reaches approx. 200 degrees Celsius (392 F). The relatively high temperature adjusts the caffeine’s composition.

Unless you want herbal tea, no tea can actually eliminate its entire caffeine content. Please click here or on the below image if you want to know more about tea and caffeine. I tried to answer all the questions I could about this topic.

Aristotle emphasized balance when it came to a healthy physical condition. The same can be said about green tea, caffeine, and pregnancy. For those concerned with caffeine intake, generally speaking, 200 mg of caffeine a day is safe, which equates to approximately 3–4 cups a day for most green teas.

Please click here or on the image below for more information about this.

Is green tea good for kids? Please see below; the short answer is yes!

Given the prevalence of catechins in green tea and their associated health benefits, green tea has a plethora of benefits, including fighting obesity and being healthy for the heart. It helps boost the immune system as well as increase caffeine tolerance. One of the more important benefits for children is that it helps stave off influenza. We all know kids and their germs are a thing; why not add green tea to the arsenal?

Again, hojicha may be a good option with lower caffeine if you want to cut down on caffeine intake.

Hojicha is a very popular drink for kids and the elderly in Japan, as it is low in caffeine and easy on the stomach.

If you’re looking for diet teas, Japanese green teas have something to say. While we specifically offer a diet Pu-erh tea, green teas increase fat burning, and caffeine has been shown to "improve physical performance by mobilizing fatty acids."

Personally, I have done diets with Japanese tea, and what worked the most was intermittent fasting with Japanese tea. I wrote an entire article about this, so please check it out.

I also wrote a whole article about Japanese green tea and diet, so please also check out this article if you want to learn more about it.

Let’s start off with a personal favorite: matcha.

Matcha comes across as a simple powder you mix with water. While this is a great drink, it also hides its truly creative nature.
There are a plethora of great cooking and baking recipes that incorporate matcha: matcha souffle, cookies, cakes, donuts, and pudding, to name a few. Matcha has also been infused with alcohol. Click here to buy matcha.
(Please check out my book Cook with Matcha, to which I dedicate an entire book about this topic.)

There are different grades and "levels" of Japanese green tea. Of course, some are cheaper than others. For some, the idea of having the best is appealing. If you know the world of Japanese green tea, Gyokuro is generally sought after as a premium tea. We also offer Issaku Premium. This particular tea is a premium sencha, having won the label "Global Tea Champion" in 2017 and 2019.

Again, there’s a lot to learn about tea, but if you’re new to this world, then there are some great options for you as well. We offer Nozomi tea as a common recommendation for beginners. It’s almost as if non-covered sencha and gyokuro were mixed together. It’s soothing and easy to drink, with an aroma similar to gyokuro.

This is a question we often get asked when people are selecting which tea is good for them, so I wrote an entire article dedicated to how to tell if the quality of the tea is good or not. Please click here or the image below to read the article.