Exploring green tea
Green tea splits along a line most people never hear about: Japanese greens are steamed, Chinese greens are pan-fired, and that single processing difference accounts for nearly everything that separates them in the cup.
Who this is for
Someone who wants to understand green tea rather than tolerate it.
What you should come away with
You will be able to tell steamed from pan-fired blind, and know which of the two you actually prefer.
Leg 1 · Steamed: the Japanese line
Marine, vegetal and savoury, in increasing concentration.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Roasty and gently sweet with essentially no astringency — the Japanese green tea for people who dislike green tea, and a common evening choice for exactly that reason.
Why this step follows
Roasting removes the vegetal and marine notes that most often put new drinkers off Japanese green tea.
Vegetal and savoury at once. Brewed cool it leans sweet and broth-like; brewed hot it turns sharply astringent, which is the single most common way people decide they dislike green tea.
Why this step follows
Identical processing, opposite cultivation. Expect a much cooler brew, several times the leaf, and a thick savoury cup with no astringency.
Thick and almost broth-like, with very little astringency and a sweetness that arrives before anything else. The clearest teaching case in tea for what umami actually means in a cup.
Leg 2 · Pan-fired: the Chinese line
A change of processing rather than a step up. Pan-firing gives nutty and chestnut notes where steaming gives marine ones — the same leaf, a different decision in the first hour after picking.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Nutty and sweet with a soft body and very little grip. Where Japanese greens go marine and savoury, Longjing goes toasted and sweet — the clearest single illustration of what pan-firing does that steaming does not.
Why this step follows
Both pan-fired Chinese greens. Bi Luo Chun is more fragile and more fruity, and wants leaf dropped onto poured water rather than the reverse.
Fruity and floral in a way few green teas manage, with a very fine downy texture in the cup from the bud hairs. Fragile: a few degrees too hot and the fruit turns to hay.
Read alongside
- From green tea beginner to enthusiast
A route through green tea in an order that builds, starting with the forgiving teas and reaching the demanding ones only once the brewing is under control.
- What is green tea?
Tea whose oxidation is stopped before it starts, by heat applied within hours of picking. The method of heating — steam or pan — splits the category into two families that taste almost nothing alike.
- Why green tea tastes grassy
Because the fixation step preserves compounds that oxidation would otherwise transform — and because in Japanese tea, steaming preserves a different set of them than pan-firing does.