Green Tea

The leaves are 4 to 15 cm long and 2 to 5 cm broad. Fresh leaves contain about 4% . As a rule, the bud and the two or three side leaves are plucked for processing. The older leaves are a deeper green than the tips. Green tea is non-fermented, so the leaves stay green. Top quality loose green leaf tea is plucked by hand. A machine normally picks middle and lower grades. All tea whether it is Black (Red), White, Oolong or Green comes from the same plant; the Camellia Sinensis. In China, green tea is regarded as the essential tea and hundreds of different varieties exist throughout the world however, the original Chinese teas are still rightly thought of as the finest. Green tea has no fermentation or oxidization because after the leaf and buds are plucked they are heated in large woks to remove moisture and prevent the leaf from oxidizing. There are many ways of doing this and some of them very complex. Generally there are three picking seasons in the year. The first is in spring (April) after the first flush of buds. There was a time when spring could not officially be declared until the very first tea was delivered to the emperor. The most prized green tea is the first tender buds of spring. The pickers start their day before dawn on the eastern face of the mountain when fog and mist cover the terraced slopes. The tea buds need to be plucked before the sun stimulates rapid growth. There is only a window of about 4 or 5 days when this choice grade of green tea (Dragon Sword and Silver Bud) is available. Most green tea produces a greenish-gold soup, generally much lighter than Oolongs. The Chinese have believed for centuries that green tea has medicinal properties beneficial to human health.

Green Tea