Green tea...

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

If you mean that crap you can buy at some of the hipster coffee shops like starbucks, - i didn't like the taste of it. I think one could do just as well by mowing their lawn, and mixing the clippings in a cup of water.

This./\ The first time I tried plain green tea, I about yacked. I thought it tasted like hay\ dried grass clippings.

[AVGWarhawk]

Sources say it's a good source of antioxidants.

I have read the same. The jury is still out.

If you mean that crap you can buy at some of the hipster coffee shops like starbucks, - i didn't like the taste of it. I think one could do just as well by mowing their lawn, and mixing the clippings in a cup of water.

It is green! I have some with berry flavor. It's not bad tasting. I would say the berry flavor does make it better. Question is, are the grass clippings a good antioxidant?

This./\ The first time I tried plain green tea, I about yacked. I thought it tasted like hay\ dried grass clippings.

I would bet the plain taste like hay/grass clippings. Added flavor make it better. At least with this box I have. Certainly a acquired taste.

[AVGWarhawk]

Let'S say its' claimed positive effects are "discussed". Several meta-studies over the past ten years indicate that the miracles that get promised by some, are hopelessly exagerated, some are even unconfirmed alltogether, for example certain effects helping to counter cancer.

My advise would be to drink it if you like it, and then to truly enjoy it, taking the time, and not to hurry. The overall experience then indeed may be of benefit for you.

The overall experience of drinking a good scotch serves me better!

[tater]

Good green tea is quite good. I love it, though I prefer good, black coffee most of the time.

Note that if it is made with a bag, it ain't good tea (regardless of how it is dried).

[CCIP]

I'm drinking some right now

Not for health reasons or anything though, I just like it. Like any good tea, to really get it right, don't go for it at starbucks or get it in teabags at a supermarket, get the good stuff as leaves from a specialty store. Delicious!

[vienna]

I often drink green tea; very much so when I'm working on a long project and don't need the "after-crash-and-burn" from a long period of drinking coffee. It is quite true about the teabag version being the less preferred form of the tea; go to a good Asian store and buy the better quality tea. Oh, and yes, it is an acquired taste, but, then, so was beer for most of us...

[AVGWarhawk]

Good green tea is quite good. I love it, though I prefer good, black coffee most of the time.

Note that if it is made with a bag, it ain't good tea (regardless of how it is dried).

I like coffee as my first choice as well but I have a sore throat. The hot tea helps with that. My daughter, out of curiosity, want to try some tea. She did not like her selection of green tea flavored with berry. The box was in the cabinet so I figured I would use it up. We usually have the black tea around but not the green tea.

Like any good tea, to really get it right, don't go for it at starbucks or get it in teabags at a supermarket, get the good stuff as leaves from a specialty store. Delicious!

I don't darken Starbucks doorway. The coffee is overpriced like crazy. However, the Sumatra blend from Starbucks for my Keureg is awesome. If I find some on sale I will get that blend. I agree, the supermarket brand is certainly not as good as what you would find in a specialty store. It is the difference between already ground coffee and grinding your coffee beans just before the pot is made. Much different taste between the two.

[Ducimus]

I got your green tea, right here. Bon appetit, ya damn hipsters.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by tater

Note that if it is made with a bag, it ain't good tea (regardless of how it is dried).

So I guess instant is right out then?

[tater]

Heheh.

It's like coffee. I buy small amounts of beans at a time, usually the day, or at most the day after they are roasted. I consume them within 2-3 days. They are ground instantly before brewing (I have a full-auto espresso machine), and I do not even load the bean hopper, I keep it in sealed baggies, and dump just enough for the coffee I will be making (2-4 cups worth).

Bagged tea is like preground coffee. If you get high-end bags, it's "acceptable," but just barely. Like coffee, it's probably fine if you put crap IN your tea or coffee (milk, sugar, etc). In that case, it's sort of a waste to bother with better tea as you are ruining it, anyway (if you load coffee with cream and sugar, you might as well make folgers, IMO).

I like some "adulterated" teas, however. I like genmai cha (has some toasted rice in it). I like masala chai as well sometimes---but it's not made with "champagne" tea, it's cheap black tea boiled with milk, sugar, and spices al together. Gotta love places like starbucks calling masala chai "chai tea." Chai means "tea." Maybe they should sell café coffee?

[Stealhead]

I have to agree with Ducimus on green tea being big with the hipsters.
I do sometimes drink it though not from Starbucks I have never set foot inside a Starbucks in my life and do not plan to.I got introduced to green tea by this Japanese engineer that was an adviser for Mitsubishi ship building that was helping set up some machinery at my uncles machine shop so they could make parts for Mitsubishi.I thought it was pretty good and I also have to use much less sugar for green tea than I do for other types of tea so I would say that is a good thing.That engineer also got me hooked on Japanese candy.

[tater]

Sugar?

Dunno about hipsters, I don't think I rate as very hip (nor have I ever).

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

It is green! I have some with berry flavor. It's not bad tasting. I would say the berry flavor does make it better. Question is, are the grass clippings a good antioxidant?

Note that antioxidants have chnaged their percpetion by the scientific community, too. They are no longer seen as the miracle catchers of free radicals, in fact it seems that they even can do damage.

What they now focus on to say is that you need a good balance between both antioxidants and free radicals, else, with not enough free radicals, the imune system looses in striking power.

Do not buy tead bags. That is guarantee for bad green tee. Do not - never any tea! - brew it with hot boiling water that still produces bubbles - let it cool down a bit, 1-2 minutes. That boiling water tip is BS advice from teabag producers not knowing their stuff. Use loose tea, and ask for as good one - the differences in different green teas are very very huge. Brew it very short only. 2 Minutes, not more. It shall not taste strong, and it shall not get bitter, which it easily does.

Have to say that I like Japanese Green Tea very much. There are a couple of Chinese teas as well that by taste are somewhat familiar, White Tea/Pai Mu Tan for example.

Never use these with sugar or added artifical aromes. Its just water and tea - no sugar, no milk, no nothing. If you like it sweet, get African Roibosch "tea" (its no real tea plant, so no coffeine), with sugar and milk. I kill for it, occasionally!

Coffee, okay everybody knows it, but I prefer a strong espresso any time, even when it is a lie: it taste so much better and much stronger but has at least 1/3 less of coffeine, due to the different brewing method. It's also milder and more friendly in effect.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Do not - never any tea! - brew it with hot boiling water that still produces bubbles - let it cool down a bit, 1-2 minutes. That boiling water tip is BS advice from teabag producers not knowing their stuff. Use loose tea, and ask for as good one - the differences in different green teas are very very huge. Brew it very short only. 2 Minutes, not more. It shall not taste strong, and it shall not get bitter, which it easily does.

Very good advice also! This is another reason that green tea has a bad name - it's simply brewed the wrong way by a lot of people. You can't do it with water that's still boiling, and you can't brew en masse and hold it for a long time. Knowing those two things alone makes for better green tea. Naturally, at a lot of restaurants, they don't do that due to the demands of mass service, and you end up with mediocre tea. Or if it comes in bags - bad tea that's often full of filler (think wood chips or seed skins from rice).

My own conversion to tea happened 3-4 years ago when I was educated on how to buy, brew and serve it right. Green tea, red/brown tea, white tea, flower/fruit teas - they are all awesome in their own ways, but require the right approach. That doesn't mean you need to learn the tea ceremony to appreciate them, but brewing them right will make a lot of difference.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by CCIP

That doesn't mean you need to learn the tea ceremony to appreciate them, but brewing them right will make a lot of difference.

I had the privilege to have repeatedly gotten served green tea in the ceremonial way by my trainer and mentor, who was Japanese. For that, the powder form of the tea is used, completly pulverised, and then a bamboo brush used to shake it in the water.

It tastes completely different. And if I am honest: not necessarily better.

Also one thing you should know: the real premium quality of the yearly tea harvest never leaves the country, but is exclusively for the national market. If you have the chance to order it via a friend you have in Japan, or stay there yourself, go for these teas, if you can. What they bring to the European and American market, is ALWAYS just second choice, no matter what they tell you in the tea shop.

Maybe you cannot get access to these. But at least you can stay away from teabags and tea with added aromes.