Named for its green color when brewed, green tea is made from non-oxidized camellia sinensis leaves and has a fresh, vegetal flavor profile. While green teas may be produced in many areas of the world, China and Japan are the two most famous producers of green teas. Chinese green teas have a characteristic nutty taste due to the panning process used to halt natural oxidation after the leaves are plucked. Japanese green teas, in contrast, are steamed to stop oxidation and therefore often taste more of saline and fresh spring greens. 

Learn more about how green tea is made >>

Everyone's palate is slightly different, so we recommend experimenting with your green teas to determine the brewing method that you like best. That said, we are going to share some general brewing best practices for making green tea and discuss how you can tweak them to better suit your individual palate! 

Variables you can play with when brewing tea:

- Amount of tea

- Water (temperature and amount)

- Time

As a general rule of thumb, a high ratio of water to tea means a longer steep time, while a lower ratio of water to tea means a shorter steep time. Within these very generalized guidelines you will find your perfect cup of tea. There is no right or wrong way to brew tea, as long as you're enjoying the results!

*Using teaspoons instead of grams to measure your tea: Volume is an imperfect measure for tea because not all tea leaves are shaped the same. For this reason, we use weight at our Tea Bar to maintain consistency from cup to cup. To illustrate, Sencha Sumire is composed of very small, very fine leaves while our Long Jing Zehjiang has larger, flatter, and wider leaves. This means that much more of the smaller, denser Sencha will fit in one teaspoon than Long Jing. If you are using a teaspoon to measure your tea, always keep the density of the tea leaves in mind and adjust accordingly! As a general rule, though, a regular 8 ounce mug will use about one perfect teaspoon of tea!