When I speak to people about tea, they often proceed to tell me that they either hate or they love green tea. For those that hate green tea I will ask them why they hate it and I often get the same response: “because it tastes bitter”. The first thing I’ll explain is that green tea is a category and not a type of tea and then I go on to explain that the bitterness could be due to a variety of reasons:
- The quality of the tea, as green tea in a tea-bag often means that the leaves are broken.
Broken leaves can often create a bitter taste. - The temperature used to make the brew may be too hot
- The steeping time was too long.
So when people taste my Lung Ching (Dragonwell) green tea (using a good quality leaf, correct temperature, correct steeping time and with good quality water), they’re often surprised by the vegetal and nutty note of the tea and how delicate the taste can be.
Green tea may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it could be down to the preparation of it and I hope to change people’s perception of green tea cup by cup.
Note: Bitterness shouldn’t be confused with astringency but that’s another post waiting to be written 🙂
14 responses to “Why Green Tea shouldn’t taste bitter”
maykingtea
August 10th, 2010 at 23:04
So what is the correct temperature for green tea is another question I’ll often get asked. The best temperature is around 70-80C (158-175F).
There’s two ways in which you can achieve this:
1. Pop the kettle on, but don’t walk away from it. Watch the water level on your kettle and when you first hear a rumble and can see the water murmur a little, this will be the correct temperature.
2. Pop the kettle on and when you hear the click, it’s around 100C (212F). Wait for a good 6-7 minutes for the water to cool.
The number of minutes you steep tea is also extremely important, especially for green, so when you use a teaspoon of green, pour the water over the leaves and leave for 2 minutes before removing the leaves.
Remember the leaves can be used several times (each time is known as an infusion).
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Frances Jones
October 27th, 2010 at 09:41
Hi May King,
Thank you for educating people!
I always use a glass tea pot so I can see the colour and the leaves. I put the right amount of green tea in the pot, then put about 30% cold water over the tea and 70% boiling water. It works out well for me like that. After each infusion, I keep the leaves in a strainer until I want another pot.
I’m enjoying brewing Gyokuro in the mornings now that the weather’s getting warmer.
Frances
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maykingtea
December 16th, 2010 at 14:30
Hello Frances,
What an excellent way to make green tea, 30/70 ratio of cold and hot water! Thank you for sharing! May you continue to enjoy Gyokuro and other lovely green teas in this beautiful Aussie summer.
May King.
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Sam Farley
May 13th, 2012 at 00:50
Totally agree, I hated green tea up until I went to Japan and participated in a tea Ceremony, totally different and alot better 🙂
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maykingtea
May 14th, 2012 at 00:08
Isn’t the Japanese Tea Ceremony just wonderful!!?!?
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Sam Farley
May 14th, 2012 at 00:21
Love it! was so informative and the Geisha were just beautiful 🙂
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maykingtea
May 14th, 2012 at 01:08
Agreed 🙂 What green tea have you been drinking today?
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Sam Farley
May 14th, 2012 at 07:14
I stick with Matcha as that’s what I had in the Ceremony and I really enjoyed it, though I make it weak, not strong 🙂
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maykingtea
May 14th, 2012 at 07:25
Matcha is lovely. I do worry about making it incorrectly though which is why I go to a tearoom to sip it rather than take some home with me :oD
How do you find making it? Easy Peasy? Any tips you can share?
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smitha
September 19th, 2012 at 04:46
is brewing green tea for 30 mins bad????????coz i always think dat maximum infusion occurs then
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maykingtea
September 19th, 2012 at 06:15
Hello Smitha, no, brewing green tea for 30 minutes isn’t bad. In fact it could be argued that the longer the steeping, the more chance that all of the health benefits from the leaf will truly come out. The only downside of brewing for 30 minutes, is that it might not taste very nice. It might taste too bitter for some people. The best thing to do with green tea is to brew the tea for 30 minutes and if you like the taste of it that way, keep doing it that way! Thanks for asking the question though.
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Green Lon
May 31st, 2014 at 14:58
The problem w/ the taste of green tea is not that it tastes bitter, nay, quite the contrary good sir. It tastes like yak pee and grass, the type of grass that makes your throat sore and itchy after chewing and swallowing a handful.
I have actually tried brewing it for less time and it ended up tasting like diluted grass. Grass doesn’t taste good. It may be healthy, but it’s a taste one might put up w/ if starving, but it’s not pleasant at all. I’m talking about the grass blades, not those long, thin, round stalks – those are OK, & so is rice, corn, barley, & oats, which are all derivitives of grass, but green tea? No, that tastes repulsive. I may actually invest another $5 & give it another go w/ the low temperature water, but I’m afraid I’m not expecting much of a change in taste.
Now overbrewed black tea is in fact “Bitter” tasting, but green-tea is just grass-tasting. There’s a difference. It’s not bitter, it’s just yucky.
I’ve tried adding honey or sugar and ended up just throwing it all out. It’s just sweetened nastiness.
Word to your mug, truth out.
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maykingtea
June 7th, 2014 at 02:18
Hello there,
thank you for your comment. There are over 2000 different types of green tea out there and that’s even before any flowers or herbs have been added to them so when you said that green tea tastes like yak pee and grass (what a lovely image!), it might be that the green tea you’ve tried may not be your cup of tea. Try and find one that you like. As I said there are plenTEA to choose from. I hope you find the right one for you 🙂
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Green Lon
June 22nd, 2014 at 10:40
Well you are just a little gem, isn’t she?
Are you married?
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5 Trackbacks / Pingbacks
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