August 26, 2009
Traditional Japanese Green Tea
To know that Japanese Green Tea traces its roots to China will come as a surprise to many people. The Green Tea was used by Chinese who had developed much more than their neighbor Japan who had no idea about it at that time.
The Chinese had been making use of green tea from the ninth century. It was via the Buddhist monks of Japan who went to China to study and brought the tea back home on their return that green tea made its way into the Japanese tea cup.
During their study period in China the Japanese Buddhist monks discovered the wonderful shrub and its many advantages. The Japanese were marveled by the drink and immediately began making use of it for various purposes.
It became the most favorite drink as it was heavily patronized. The Japanese were also fast to realize the medicinal benefits of green tea and got straight down to extracting the maximum benefits from green tea.
The experimental ground for green tea was the temples of Buddhist monks. As they were the first to discover it, they declared green tea as their authorized drink. This fragrant blend next catered to the aristocrats of Japanese society.
Green tea revolution in Japan
As green tea became famous in Japan, it was imported from China for some centuries. Finally they decided to grow it locally by procuring seeds from China. This led to the green tea revolution in the country.
With green tea seeds at hand many people began cultivating their own green tea. This resulted in a wide spread consumption of green tea amongst the general masses
Once the Japanese started using green tea steadily they started discovering all its benefits which led them to make it their official drink. The health benefits and medicinal properties of green tea pushed them even more.
According to the tradition green tea was grown in the shade. After gathering the leaves they were put through a steaming process making it different from black tea which is fermented.
The beneficial features of green tea which it retains comes from the process of steaming the leaves rather than fermenting them. Later they are dried up and powdered
Filed under Tea by Stavros Kapinski