Bringing out the flavor of green tea! Various methods of killing blue

Introduction

Tea leaves continue to live and breathe for some time after they are picked.

Oxygen is taken in through breathing, and the components contained in the leaves change.

To make green tea, heat is applied to stop the action of the enzymes contained in the raw leaves, as this change in components would deteriorate the quality.

There are various ways to kill blue

Stopping the action of enzymes using heat in this way is called "sassei."

There are several methods for killing the greenness of fresh leaves, including roasting, frying, boiling and steaming, but most green tea made in Japan today is steamed, with some being made in a pot.

1. Bake

The tea leaves are cut off along with the branches, roasted over a campfire, and then boiled in hot water before drinking. This is called "roasted tea."

It is not a commercial product, but a simple tea for home consumption. In the past, foresters made it and drank it in between their work in the mountains.

2. Fry

When the leaves are roasted, parts of the tea plant burn and it takes on the scent of smoky campfire.

So the fresh leaves were roasted in an iron pot to kill the green color. This is called "Kamairicha" (roasted tea in a pot), and roasting in this pot is the mainstream method for making Chinese tea.

In Japan, it is mainly produced in the Kyushu region, and has a unique aroma called "kama-ka" that comes from being roasted in a kiln, which is not found in steamed food.

3. Simmer

This method involves boiling or parboiling the leaves in hot water to ensure that heat is evenly distributed throughout the leaves. Even today, in areas where mountain tea is grown, it is still made as bancha tea for home consumption.

Mimasaka Bancha from Okayama Prefecture is one such variety; the leaves are grown during the hot summer months and then slowly boiled in steel before being dried in the sun.

4. Steaming

Using steam allows the green tea to be killed evenly in a short amount of time, resulting in green tea that is a vibrant green color while retaining its fresh aroma.

Most Japanese green tea is steamed, with regular sencha steamed for 30-40 seconds and deep-steamed sencha steamed for 60-120 seconds.