How To Make Green Tea The Right Way

Green Tea brewing secrets from JING Tea. One of the things we often get asked about is ‘how to make green tea? Luckily, we love green tea and have a few simple tips that will make your green tea taste amazing.
  • 02/01/2025
  • 5 minutes
  • blubolt team
How To Make Green Tea The Right Way

Green Tea brewing secrets from JING Tea. One of the things we often get asked about is ‘how to make green tea? Luckily, we love green tea and have a few simple tips that will make your green tea taste amazing.

Many people still think of green tea as bitter or drunk for health and not for taste. If that's you, then when we say green tea can be so much more. With the right leaves and brewing method, green tea can be sweet, velvety, and thick, rich in umami with deep grassy flavours and lots in between.

In this guide, we'll explain the differences between green teas from China and Japan and share everything you need to make green tea to discover its sweet, refreshing, and invigorating flavours.

The Basics of Brewing Green Tea

The key to great flavour lies in great tea leaves, so always start with high-quality green tea from a single garden or origin. Here are some basic rules that apply to any green tea:

  • Start with High-Quality Tea: The foundation of great flavour is in the quality of the tea leaves.
  • Use Cooler Water: Avoid boiling water, as it can bring out bitterness. Slightly cooler water will enhance the sweet, higher notes and create a smooth texture.
  • Give the Tea Space to Infuse: Tea leaves need room to unfurl and fully release their flavour.
  • Pour It All Out When Ready: Infuse one perfect cup at a time rather than letting your tea sit and stew, which can make it too intense.

We always recommend choosing loose leaf tea over tea bags when possible. It’s better for the environment and offers better value for money - a win-win!

Tea Bags vs Loose Leaf Tea

What’s the difference between tea bags and loose leaf tea? As the saying goes, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. If you’re using tea bags, always check that the tea inside is high quality and fresh, as lower-quality tea is typically used for tea bags. 

Our green tea bags, such as Organic Jade Sword and Organic Sencha, are packed with tea leaves that undergo the same sourcing and quality selection processes as our loose teas. In fact, you’re getting exactly the same tea whether you choose our Organic Jade Sword in tea bags or loose leaf.

However, it’s worth noting that the highest quality and largest variety of teas won’t ever be found in tea bags - small batches or large leaves will only be available loose. If you want to explore the depth and breadth of amazing flavours available from green tea, loose tea is the way to go. The good news is that loose tea making can be just as quick and easy as using tea bags, not to mention that it’s better for the environment and more cost-effective.

How to Brew Chinese Green Tea

Chinese green teas are often sweet, grassy and refreshing, with handpicked young tea leaves crafted to capture the essence of spring – the season in which they're produced. Grown at high elevations among mountain landscapes, they're enjoyed by locals throughout summer as a cooling and invigorating drink. Here are some tips for making one of our favourite Chinese green teas:

Organic Jade Sword – This is a forgiving green tea that maintains its sweetness and thick texture even if you think you've done it wrong or forgot to pour it out (as I often do!). As with most Chinese green teas, it requires cooler water, around 80˚C, which is easy to achieve by adding roughly 20% cold water to your teapot or Tea-iere before topping up with boiling water. This is our go-to recipe:

4g or 1 tea bag per 250ml
80˚C water
3 minutes per infusion (can be re-infused twice)

Top Tip: High-quality teas, especially loose leaves, can be re-infused multiple times. Don’t throw away your leaves after one infusion; add some fresh 80˚C water and infuse for 30 more seconds than the first time.

How to Brew Japanese Green Tea

Sencha is Japan’s most popular style of green tea. The leaves are picked, steamed, and rolled, resulting in a vegetal tea with an umami-rich flavour.

Japanese green teas tend to be grassy, smooth and satisfying with characteristic umami flavour, enhanced by the steaming of the tea leaves during their processing. Often grown at lower elevations in perfectly arranged tea gardens, green teas are Japan's most popular type of tea with many unique varieties. Here are some tips for making our staple Japanese green tea:

Organic Sencha These delicate leaves offer plenty of the umami depth and gentle sweetness that we love from Japanese tea. Japanese green teas often use even cooler water (sometimes even as low as 50˚C), but for JING Organic Sencha, 70˚C is best to ensure a balance of rich taste and smooth texture. Again, adding a little cooler water to the leaves before topping up with boiling water will do the trick. This is our go-to recipe:

  • 4g or 1 tea bag per 250ml
  • 70˚C water
  • 3 minutes per infusion (can be re-infused twice)

Top Tip: Use freshly filtered water for the best-tasting infusion. It ensures clarity of flavour, especially from the more complex green teas like Gyokuro, also from Japan.

Start Your Green Tea Journey With JING

By starting with high-quality tea leaves and following the right brewing techniques, you can unlock the full potential of your green tea, whether it’s a refreshing Chinese green or a deep, umami-rich Japanese green.

Whether you prefer the convenience of tea bags or the broader flavour profile of loose leaf, JING Tea has the perfect green tea to suit your taste.

@jingtea

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