Green Tea

The history of green tea in China lasts at least 3000 years. It is one of the oldest teas in the world. There are three characteristics of green tea that are green dry leaves, green tea liquor and green wet leaves. It is harvested in early spring, and Chinese tea drinkers think that the top green tea is picked before Tombs Festival (about April 5th) which is called Mingqian Tea. Green tea is suitable to drink in spring and early summer. According to Chinese traditional medical principles, Chinese people believe that drinking green tea in spring is good for liver and eyes. As non-fermented tea, the key process of green tea is only three steps: ferment-preventing, rolling and drying. According to the different ways of ferment-preventing, green tea is divided into four categories which are shined green tea, steamed green tea, fried green tea and baked green tea.

Shined green tea

The shined green tea now is rare due to its long history. The characteristic is its special aroma reminding people of sunshine. At that time people considered it as a kind of medicine and nowadays shined green tea becomes the material of puerh tea.

Tea consumption has its legendary origin in China of more than 4000 years. Green tea was frist brewed in 2737 BC during the reign of Shen Nong, the leader of contemporary clan. Because it can eliminate inflame and lower the body temperature, green tea has been used as both medicine and beverage in most counties in Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Steamed green tea

A steamed green tea also known as Gyokuro in Japanese, made in Japanese style. Steamed green tea was first appeared in Three Kingdoms Period which has history of 1500 to 2000 years then with Buddhism it was exported to Japan in Tang Dynasties. During the Tang and Song Dynasty steamed green tea was Chinese tea drinker’s beloved tea drinks, and steamed tea appeared with shape of cake. Before Mid-Tang Dynasty, this period belongs to Tea Soup Times. So when people brew tea cake at that time, they would like to bake the tea cake to soft and grind, and then put them into boiling water with other material such as sugar, ginger, nut, and other fruits and so on. As one of the green teas, the steamed green tea also gets three characteristics of green tea which are green dry leaves, green wet leaves and green tea liquor. And the steamed green tea tastes fresh like seaweed because the steamed green tea is rich of vitamin C and is popular in female tea drinkers. From Song Dynasty, owing to the quality of steamed green tea cake is better than Tang’s and the steamed tea cake became a popular goods among Asian counties. Especially in the regime of Emperor Song Huizong, the production zone of steamed green tea enlarged. It is Emperor Sone Huizong that created Dropping Tea Art with steamed green tea cake which is popular in Japan now. At present, the world famous Japanese Macha is made from steamed green tea.

Fried green tea

The fried green tea appeared in Ming Dynasty that is 600 years ago. Because making steamed green tea was a waste of labor and finance, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty called on people drinking fried green tea instead of steamed green tea cake. The characteristic of fried green tea is high fragrance. What is more interested is that the fried green tea produced in different province having different aroma. For example, the famous Longjing tea, namely Dragon Well Tea, belongs to fried green tea which tastes like soy or chestnut. In China, there are lots of fried green teas with nearly one thousand varieties.

Longjing--- Dragon Well Tea

In China, the most well-known green tea originates from Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province. Longjing is fried in the shape of flat. Nowadays, Longjing becomes a souvenir in Hangzhou with five original production zones.

 

Biluochun

Biluochun is one of the most famous teas in China, which produced in Dongtingshan, Jiangsu Province. Biluochun is harvested in early March every year, so the appearance of the tea looks full of soft and tender buds with much Baihao, white fur, on it. This tea tastes fruity for its growing environment. When tea farmers plant Biluochun tea bush, they will plant some fruit trees together with them. It’s said that there is palmitic acid in tea bush which could absorb aroma. That’s the reason why Biluochun is fruity.

Baked green tea

The baked green tea appeared at the same time with the fried green tea in Ming Dynasty. Usually, we choose first buds in spring to fry, and one bud with two leaves to bake. So the leaves of baked green tea are matured and the taste is stronger than the fried teas. As far as we all know, Anhui Province is the homeland of the baked green tea. There are many famous breeds in this area, such as Huangshan Maofeng, Liuan Guapian, Taiping Houkui and so on.

Huangshan Maofeng

Huangshan Maofeng tea is a baked green tea produced in southeast interior Anhui Province of China. The tea is one of the most famous teas in China and can always be found on the China Famous Tea list.

The tea is grown neat Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), which is home to many famous varieties of Green Tea. Tea farmers pick one bud with two tender leaves to make this tea. After ferment-preventing by baked, the shape of Huangshan Maofeng is like an opening mouth of sparrow with its tongue out. The superior Huangshan Maofeng smells like orchid while the lower class is less of fragrance and suitable for making jasmine tea.

Liuan Guapian

Liuan Guapian is produced in Liuan County, Anhui Province. And the name originated from the melon seed shape. The first appearance of this tea is in the time of Minguo, around 1911. In order to improve the quality of this tea, tea masters cut the bud only left two leaves, and then bake it. The tea tastes strong fresh with fragrance of nuts.

Taiping Houkui

Taiping Houkui is produced in Huangshan, Anhui Province which first appeared in the end of Qing Dynasty. The tea bush of this tea is totally different from other green teas whose leaves like persimmon’s leaves. The shape of this tea is long and flat looking seaweeds. When the tea is ferment-prevented by baked, all the tea leaves will be put into a steamer together, so the vein of leaves will be fermented. In this way, the dry leaves of tea are green leaves with red vein.

As one of the oldest teas in China, green tea has a history with 3000 to 4000 years. Green teas belong to non-fermented tea with character of three grades, which is green dry leaves, green tea liquor, and green spent leaves. It tastes fresh, bitter and sweet.

Westerner calls Chinese tea art show as Yoga in cup.

 

Step one: warm up the cups

Pouring 30% hot water into the cup, rolling around the cup from right to the left for warming up the cup and helping dry leaves send out their aroma.

Step two: lower the water temperature

Green tea harvests in early spring. Because it belongs to non-fermented tea, so the bud is rich of vitamin C. The temperature of water should not be high. Usually it is from 75℃ to 85℃. In order to lower the water temperature, we should put water into the glass pot from the hot water pot.

Step three: put dry leaves

Fetch the dry leaves from the tea container with teaspoon slowly and slightly. After appreciation with others, we dispel the dry leaves into glass with three to five gram.

Step four: wet dry leaves

Because of the raw bud, the upper class Longjing is called lotus plumule. The second class is called flagstick for its shape. The third class is called sparrow tongue, because the shape of the tea is one bud with two raw leaves. Dropping some hot water into the cup, shake the cup. After that, dry leaves, dry leaves observe water perfectly and send out the aroma.

Step five: put in hot water

Lifting teapot and putting water into the cup three times, this is called phoenix nodding head.

Drinking green tea is like review the life. When you rink the green tea, it may taste bitter, but after taste is sweet. Like our life, although there are many troubles around us, but we live in the hope, and someday life will be sweet and round.