Green Tea Forum

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 112

I was out of town at a hotel and one of my friends was drinking bigelow green tea with lemon at breakfast. I had heard about how it was supposedly really good for you so I had some myself. I left the tea bag in the entire time and cringed at the bitterness (and horrible lemon flavor) but I was determined to like tea. Surprisingly after a few mornings I discovered that the flavor was growing on me.

Once I realized that tea is delicious if you take it out after a few minutes and the bitterness comes from oversteeping, I saw what all the fuss was about. Ever since then I've made the progression into snobbery starting with teabags, to starting with loose-leaf at Strawberry-Rooibos-Pu-erh-Tropical-Silver-Needles (at $10 dollars/ounce) Teavana, to buying a teapot for nearly every occasion, to buying thermometers and finding sites like o-cha.

I consider tea a hobby which is weird but I like it.

(by the way, one of my friends works at Teavana and I got a to-go cup of "Gyokuro Imperial", and it was interesting...not bad, just different but one of the employees told me it was better blended with the Turkish apple tea, I said I would consider for next time...NOT mhehehe)

syntheticpanda · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 198

Ha! I ordered a cup of the same gyokuro at Teavana, which they served steeped in nearly-boiling water. I haven't ordered anything in-store since, and I've only bought loose leaf from them when I was really in a pinch for tea.

Thanks for the story!

Chip · Posted: Feb 12, 2008 9:37 am Post subject:

MMMMM, apple flavored gyokuro. ranting

That is a crime.

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 112

Yeah it was really hot, hahaha, he asked if I wanted an ice cube in it and I said yes, hoping that at least it would seem as if it were brewed with less than boiling water. And yes, when she said about the apple i instinctivly reached for my cell phone to call the tea police but then regained myself and counted to ten; is not the way of the leaves a taoist sense of action through inaction...and at least it was free for me, I would argue better to have bad gyokuro than no gyokuro at all (and their sencha is really bad).

I did buy a couple ounces of their genmaicha (you can't go too wrong) cause I had to get rid of a gift card...though the "Strawberry Slender Pu-erh" and "Ginger Bread Cookie" tisane were briefly tempting. The genmaicha really isn't bad at all, and they're probably making more money off the average american with their pina colada tropical with sugar rooibos iced tea than they would if they were just selling first flush fukamushi to people like us.

But herein lies a question of morality; I shed a little tear as I thought of the lonely puerh leaves that are swept off the ground somewhere in Yunnan to be thrown in with the flavor bullies of Strawberry and..Slender. And also for the gyokuro which has to end up in a double paper cup, maybe even with some apples, agonized in boiling water and burnt to a crisp when it could've ended up in a lovingly seasoned kyusu at a comfortable 150...even though its probably just kabusecha, mhehehehe!

Chip · Posted: Feb 12, 2008 2:09 pm Post subject:

Too funny, GIG (green is good).

...a blogger gave their sencha a 1 out of possible 10 points, that is really bad. Kevin, look out, teavana is nipping at your heals.

Markmarkymarcus · White Belt Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 37

My interest in Japan and there ways of life lead me to Green tea. Very Happy

maddawg · Uh, Can I Add Sugar? Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 17

I hate to admit it but i discovered green tea from a bottle of Gold Peak at the local quicktrip gas station. What caught my eyes was the green color of the green tea. Gave it a try and loved it. I then discovered the green tea latte at starbucks and i was addicted to that thing. I must have spent at least $20 a week on that drink. It was a expensive habit that had to be stopped. Went online to do some research which lead me to 0-cha and this forum. I ordered the green tea bags first and it was really good. My first loose leaf green tea came in about a week ago. I could not decide which bag to open first, the miyabi or the midori. Went with the miyabi and it was awesome. The aroma was amazing. I vowed not to open the midori until the miyabi was all gone. I broke that vow last night and opened the midori. Out of the 2 , I give a slight edge to the midori. The color of the midori is so beautiful. Gonna try other green teas at o-cha to see if any of them are better than the myiabi and midori.

Ryan · Sensei Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 475

Welcome to the family maddawg.

brianlavelle · Posted: Mar 31, 2008 4:55 am Post subject:

I'd always been a coffee drinker, and was a little elitist about it - I'd normally only drink espresso and only when made properly at the right temperature (and served in the right vessel). Sound familiar? Laughing

I'd never really enjoyed my limited exposure to tea, mainly because it was via cheap teabags, and then I came across a site selling loose green tea (sencha) direct from Japan and thought, why not, I'll give it a try. The rest is history. I've since moved on to the whole gamut, and count matcha as a favourite. And don't get me started on the teaware...

Anyway, that's me - and now I'm hooked! It seems to get people that way, from what I can see! shock

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 112

Yeah, Japanese green tea is pretty much an addictive drug but maybe the best one for you too. And by the way, I think good tea and good coffee can go hand in hand (just don't drink tea right after having some espresso, its bad). I personally think coffee is much harder to "get in to" and really taste. One obviously can tell a good coffee from a bad coffee but its really challenging to taste subtle differences like you can with tea. Most of the time coffee just tastes like coffee but tea has so much variety. The range of difference between like a Mexican light roast and a good french roast is nothing compared to the differences between say a kabusecha and an aged puerh. With Japanese tea especially, I could probably never find a coffee producing country with as much interesting varieties and subtleties as Japan with tea. But I've found that tea has helped me appriciate coffee even more in a way. It will never be on the same level as tea but its still interesting and tasty.

brianlavelle · Posted: Apr 01, 2008 3:58 am Post subject:

HelplessFool · Posted: Apr 11, 2008 2:29 pm Post subject:

I've always liked tea, going all the way back to when my age was in the single digits. Especially the oolong they served at the local chinese restaurant.

I picked up quality loose teas around my first year of college, after someone started asking questions on another forum that I frequent (related to software/game development, needless to say it was in the off-topic forum) about tea. Prior to that, I had no idea you could buy it outside of bags. From there, as I like to try new things and have variety, it was only a matter of time until I tried some green teas.

My first green was actually the sencha from Teavana, as they had opened a location in the mall near my father's house. What can I say, I like being able to walk into a store and walk out with my purchase. Between their decent brewing parameters (which its a shame they don't follow in store) and the fact that I was still filling my drinks with sugar back then, I actually enjoyed it. Thats what happens when everything you've drank your whole life has had some quantity of sugar in it, I had no idea anyone even drank tea without sugar.

It's funny that everyone here has a distaste for their sencha (which I share now that I've weened myself off of the sugar), because when I go in to buy their teaware they always try to sell you tea and I can always manage to get the employees to say that their sencha is crap by showing interest in it(though that could just be because it's inexpensive and they have sales quotas). It is my theory that they have their teas blended to taste good when sugared up... something about trying to sell you their $8/lb sugar and $20 jars of honey. At my store, they even have a 'detox blend' which is just their 3 most expensive teas tossed together. 'monkey picked oolong' + 'silver needle' + 'gyokuro'. And you thought the apple-gyokuro was a crime Smile

Wow... that was a long post.
Also, I found O-Cha through wikipedia when I was looking at their gyokuro article. It had to have some purpose other than wasting time Wink

Oni · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 213

Have you ever tasted Japanese green tea? We guess most of the people have. But if you have drunk tea as following, it was not "Genuine".

The infusion is yellow.
Smells nothing or acetic.
Tastes like wood.
Bought from a general supermarket.
Tea bags or leaf in the loose paper and/or film package.
Tea leaf from bulk tin and sold in measure.
Do those mean anything to you?

Someone who drank cofee wthout sugar said to sencha and gyokuro that I`ve served him that it was a wonderfully natural tea taste, and others who were infected with refined sugars all their lives thought it was unbearable. Try not eating sugar and sweets even natural ones as honey for a few months and you will sense fruits to be much sweeter and if somebody puts you the same amount of sugar in your cofee you will say that it`s unbearably sweat.

Dreamer · Posted: Apr 13, 2008 1:05 am Post subject:

I have found green tea in my never-ending quest for healthier ways to take care of my one-and-only body!

I spent the first 40 years of my life eating bad food, drinking diet soda and sitting around too much. I started a journey on 1/1/2000 to change that. By mid-summer 01 I weighed 75 lbs less and was a different person (no longer "noodle momma" in my cooking, for example). Shortly after that I entered the wellness industry. Wellness is a spectrum and each decision you make about what to eat, drink or do, plays into where you are on the spectrum, so I keep looking for more good things. I'm 49 now and I've never been healthier in my entire life!

I'd never been a coffee drinker, but like a warm drink, especially in winter. I will live in Sanibel Florida, but for now am in St. Louis MO, we have LOTS of winter. I spent years with Lipt*n tea bags (stop cringing). Last year moved into "exotic" tea bags, like St*ash Red and White with a "tea buddy" at work. This year I found Teav*na. You see I could only drink tea with some sweetener (Stevia, it won't kill you) in it to hide the bitterness. Somewhere in my recent "googling" I found out about matcha...the description said it was "sweet" and very health-promoting. I wondered if I could drink it without sweetener. It got some at Teavana and love it! I kept googling and found this site. I read so much about Sencha here, that I decided to try that too. Right this minute, I'm drinking the 3rd infusion of Teavana's sencha. I've read enough here to know that this barely qualifies as sencha, but I like it. I can drink it down fast (like the matcha) because it seems like my body recognizes the goodness of green tea (our bodies are amazing!). The good stuff from here is going to really rock my world.

I love the matcha (just found 2 weeks ago) so much that I already have a 100-time Japanese whisk and holder, a bamboo spoon, and some tea bowls. I wonder how much I'm gonna love it when I get some really good matcha! Now that I'm interested in sencha, I'll of course need a teapot and some smaller cups.

Isn't life grand?

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 112

Yeah I made a very similar tea progression, once you get away from teavana you'll never go back. Their teas are in my experience either way too sweet, kind of old-tasting, or way too expensive for what you get, and more often than not its a combination of the three. Although I constantly rip on them, I always must also say that they really started me on loose leaf tea.