How to Brew Green Tea

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What is Brewing ?

Brewing of Green tea simply means soaking the tea in boiling or very hot water.Brewing is the whole process and if over brewed the tea will taste bitter so proper temperature and timings shall be chosen to brew it. The better the brewing process is followed the better tea will taste.Steeping time and temperature of green tea type is different . According to researchers, longer brewing times and using boiling water increases the amount of polyphenols in the green tea. According to sciencedaily.com - "A polyphenol antioxidant is a type of antioxidant characterized by the presence of several phenol functions". Polyphenols are the main antioxidants in Green Tea that give the health benefits to green tea.

Ways through which polyphenols in Green Tea can be increased

1. Temperature  - Temperature is the most critical factor in brewing of green tea. if the Temperature is too hot it'll make the tea bitter in taste and if the Temperature is too cool it won't be successfully able to extract the flavour out of the leaves.The right Temperature to brew green tea is between 140°F - 185°F. time of harvest and grade of green tea are also influencing factors according to which steeping time should be decided. If using lower temperature, green teas picked during spring will be efficient due to their higher levels of amino acids.

2. Steeping Time - Green tea doesn't requires much time to be brewed Normal time of steeping should be  two to five minutes.It's the basic steeping time.For chinese teas Steeping time should be two to three minutes and for Japanese teas steeping time shall be one to two minutes.The lower the temperature, the longer tea can be steeped. Longer steeping time results in irregular flavour of tea and bitter taste.

3. Loose leaf vs. teabags -  For better extraction of polyphenols, tea leaves are preferred over tea bags as    tea leaves are untouched and  are  natural form of tea as compared to Teabags.