Green Tea

There are those that say it is good for you, but it tastes like cat's pee to me, so it's a possible benefit I'll happily forego.

Green tea is reportedly good for you - but it contains caffeine. Try some of the herbal teas, especially to calm the stomach. (your other posts mentions stomach concerns)

Good evening PUNKEY, thanks a lot for your health advice.

not being familiar with the taste of cat pee, all I can only say that green tea has a flavor that is "acquired" and of which I would rather not.

The green tea that is sold to NAmericans is pure ****. It shouldn't even be named green tea. The stuff you get in Japan is pure heaven, though, like any product, some is worse some is better. I suspect that most of SE Asia has decent green tea.

I have to agree, it's nothing but tea dust.

I buy my gyokuro tea online.

I've really been into chia seeds for the last few months, so in a separate cup I let the chia expand in some hot water, then strain my tea into that.

Nice to get all the benefits of the loose leaf green tea and the chia at the same time.

note....I like to drink it with a straw, so I can keep the chia mixed up in it, and I like the way feels going into my mouth using the straw. Little beads.

I also like (love) genmaicha, which is loose green tea mixed with roasted brown rice.

It's really amazing stuff.
It gives the tea a nutty taste.

I like eating some of the roasted popped rice (a grain or 2) by itself, before steeping. Wonderful.
It's ok after steeping too, but it's gotten soggy by then.

All the green tea Ive drunk was served me by staffers while I was attending meetings in offices of our partners in China or Taiwan. SO, Ive still been revoleted by the somewhat fetid odor of many of them, Id hardly expect our Chinese counterparts would serve their other Chinese partners a tea that is "crap".
In Kobe, Id drunk something that was spoken of as a green tea and it was somekind of green woodshavings whipped up with what looked like a shaving brush in a bowl of hot water. It too was hardly to my tatse. Thus my observation that its acquired , and , like grits, you can have all a my share .

In Japan we got cups of this stuff. In China, they served it in huge crystal glasses with the company logo, of which, when I admired , the president had a set of glasses sent to my hotel as a gift. They got stolen in Korea.
SO, my experiences with green tea have never been what Id call satisfying.

I do like **** like Lapsang Souchong, or even Puehr, but these are full bodied, fermented and smoked (or in the case of Puehr--I think it was buried in cheese)

I agree that I don't think they would give you crap tea either.

I don't know about Chinese tea, the stuff I get is from Japan.

The Japanese stuff you speak of is matcha....a powder whisked up.

I've never had a full cup of that, the rice in the tea I spoke of is coated with it, but doesn't make a difference texure wise in a big 12 oz cup of tea.

The only thing I can think if the tea tasted fetid (and I doubt they did this, or would do it on purpose) is if they made it with boiling hot water, or let it steep too long.
Green tea has to be made with very hot water, not boiling, and should steep no more than 2 minutes.
I know if I've put tea in a cup then got called away for 10 minutes, it wouldn't be at it's best, and would have an off aroma, and a weird, like you said fetid taste.
As you know, green tea is not fermented, so it's very delicate. Can't be treated like black tea.

Today, I don't care for fermented teas anymore, as they Always have that what you might call "old" taste, like it's going off.

Lordyaswas, I remember you once saying long ago that you didn't like tea anyway, but preferred coffee.
Do you like your coffee strong, and how do you take it?

farmer, here's matcha...is this what you got?

So what's wrong with Lipton? Or Tetley? Or even Red Rose?

Sorry if I'm being too plebeian for y'all.

Don't be sorry.
I just don't like black teas. I don't like tea dust put in a little bag either, black or green.

If I use one of those tea bags, it tastes dead and worse, like it's gone bad.

Just like a lot of people seem to distinguish between all kinds of coffee, Folgers or Maxwell House is just fine with me, for the one or 2 cups I have in the morning.

I don't drink soda, except like maybe once a month, and stick pretty much w/ tea, so I guess I figure I might as well drink what I personally like.

btw andy, I think it's kinda funny when people talk about this wine or that, or the same w/ beer, or types, brands of hard licker.

I mean sure, I accept some are better than others, but I think a lot of it is just pretension, unless you're a real expert.

Back in the day, in college, when I was drinking, I had an interesting experience. My roommate had invited me to go to this dinner at a restuarant with these 2 guys she knew. They were apparantly "experts" and were studying wine, and where going to have all sorts of fancy varieties ready for each course of the meal....something like 6 or 7 of them. I remember not wanting to make a fool of myself, or embarrass my friend/roommate, so I was determined not to get drunk, and just sample a bit of each, and fully appreciate them. By the end of the meal, the 2 guys were totally sloshed and one of them got pretty belligerent with me for not drinking more of the port that was served with desert (I just didn't like it, thought it was heavy and gross) I was the only sober one there. Either him or the other made a pass at me in the car later, which was not welcomed. I remember thinking if this is what being a wine expert led to, I'd just as soon sit home and drink a 6 pack.

So, I hope I didn't come across as pretensious, I just know I like those types of tea.

You ain't just whistlin' dixie, Chai! Super stuff that.

You never get a full cup of matcha, Chai. That is only served for tea ceremony and the amount one gets is really quite small.

Have you ever had matcha ice cream? That is also very nice.

They're alright, Merry, they're just not green tea.

We never steeped green tea. You'd put a jag of it in a strainer and pour hot water from these large thermoses/tea h2O "boilers" over the tea into your cup, which obviously sat below the strainer. The first go round gave the strongest cup of tea. Successive uses resulted in a weaker tea but you could do a double pour thru the strainer, as long as you were using a fresh cup.

See tea h2O "boilers" here,

http://www.zojirushi.com/user/scripts/user/prod_category.php?prod_category_id=2

That was it, very dainty. (In China the crystal glasses were huuge)
In Japan, the boss of the company invited us to drink out of these dainty raku-like ceramic cups (I later found out that there were several "seasonal varieties " of raku cups. Some for the colder months and one design for the summer (cups were more open -like bowls.
I was impressed with the stoneware pottery since I was already a ceramics nut. Its just that the tea was underwhelming with a fishy taste. It tasted the same in China. AT least in China the fermeted teas were more robust and not full of "flowery notes". I really dislike **** like jasmine or rose blossom teas even more than green teas.

We have several chain sushi restaurants that also serve the green tea (We always try to have them serve up out own and we bring in teabvags that we convince the server that I must have for health reasons. But the sushi place green tea is similar to what I hD in China or JApan. Possibly a genetic taster allele Im stuck with.

I also tste a chemical taste in certain salad dressings and other people say Im nuts.

we make a seasonal iced tea from our own mint plants (spearmint and peppermint) We add one small coop of lapsang souchong to the brew while its steeping from dried mint leaves. It makes the best iced tea in my mind (That's sorta a green tea but the menthus just masks the " fishy plant taste"

Oh yeah, I hate that stuff too. Feels like you get a nose full of perfume.

Like I said, I'm no expert or connie-sewar.