What is good quality green tea?

Many people are aware of the health benefits of green teas today due to the frequent publication of research results in the media.

For many consumers, their first experience of green tea is when they purchase some teabags from a supermarket or loose teas from an Asian grocery store.  We have heard a lot about their rather negative experiences, such as the taste being bitter or an unpleasant after taste. This is quite the opposite of what the Chinese tea drinking experience should be; The Chinese have been enjoying their teas for 5000 years, and are still doing so.

There are two main reasons for these negative experiences:

1. Low quality tea. Chinese tea (similar to other teas) is all about quality.  There are numerous factors that contribute to the final quality of the teas, such as the tea plants, geological location of the plantation, seasonal weather conditions, time of harvesting, and tea making knowledge, experience and skills.  Over the long history of Chinese tea production, the knowledge and skills of tea making have been highly developed and fine-tuned so that tea making (similar to wine making in the west) has became an art of its own.  Contrary to other industrial products, most of the top quality fine teas are snatched up by tea lovers in China and rarely exported.
2. Inadequate brewing method.  Tea brewing is also crucial when it comes to making a good cup of tea. It is important to brew the tea with the right temperature water and accurate timing.  For example, use 80-90oC hot water to brew green teas made of young tender leaves (premium green teas) and serve freshly-made, without over steeping. (More Information)

Teabags are rarely consumed in China. Tea quality deteriorates rapidly as a result of the oxidisation.  The oxidised tea leaves will produce a bitter taste and rough texture.  This oxidisation process happens many times more in broken leaves than whole leaves.  This is the main reason for the teas to be sorted after their production: leaf tea, broken leaves, fanning and dust. Only fanning and dust are made into teabag, while broken leaves are more often used in blends.

Storage is also crucial for green teas. The premium teas are vacuum sealed and refrigerated to avoid elements which are potentially harmful to green teas: high temperature, moisture, light, air (oxygen) contact and foreign odours.

There are hundreds of recorded Chinese green tea varieties. Green tea production and consumption are deeply traditional. Certain well know green teas such Dragon Well and Bi Luo Chun are consumed widely, while many others are produced and consumed locally only. The locals normally have the most knowledge about their teas, in production and consumption.

There is always a price/quality range within a tea type, and in some more than the others.  For example, for the same Dragon Well green tea (leaf tea, not including fanning or dust), the market price could vary a thousandfold between the lowest and top quality.  The prices supposedly reflect the quality of the teas, although the correlation it is not always linear.  The results of the low quality teas are often the ones experienced by the above-mentioned ‘first time’ consumers.

A few general indicators of high quality teas:

1. Whole leaf tea, teabags are at the bottom of quality range
2. New season teas are always of better quality
3. Adequate packaging and storage. For example, there are certain green teas sold in Asian grocery stores which, although they are loose leaves, are of low quality to start with and have been exposed to tea damaging factors for a long period of time; such as temperature (premium green teas require below room temperature for long term storage), moisture, air/oxygen contact and foreign odours. When they are brewed, the flavour is not much different from teabags.
4. Right colour.  Fresh green tea should appear freshly green/deep green/yellowy-green, bright but not dull/dark.  Many have a visible white down produced from the dried young tender top leaves.  This white down is often used as an indication of the proportions of the young top leaves contained in tea when a tea quality is graded in China, the more the better.
5. Right shape. Green teas are in various shapes: flat shape for Dragon Well, snail shape for Bi Luo Chun and needle shape for Mao Jian.  The tea shapes should appear firm and tight, unless they are meant to be loose and stretchy.  Inconsistent leaf shapes in one tea is an indication of a poor manufacturing process.  The rule is as such:  high quality teas have to have the right shape, but leaves with the right shapes do not always guarantee their high quality.
6. Finally, it is the taste experience that everyone is after. Fresh high quality green teas should produce an instant aroma once that hot water is added, the tastes are refreshing with a trace of various nutty flavours for the roast dried teas and the after taste is lingering and delightful.

Your tea experience could be seen as a personal journey.  The more experience you have of one tea, the more you will be able to differentiate the quality and develop personal preferences  regarding the tea brewing/serving vessels and brewing water temperature and time etc.