As promised, a green tea follow-up to last weekend's post on scented rooibos teas. This will be our last post until Wednesday. If you're celebrating Christmas, have a perfect holiday and I hope Santa is very good to you. If you're not celebrating Christmas, enjoy the temporary respite from rampant commercialism.
As I said last week, I drink a lot of green tea. Most of the green teas I buy are unscented/unflavored, but I do have a cup of jasmine tea every day, and floral-scented or fruity teas are nice to have around in the afternoon. Here are a few favorites:
Green tea scented with jasmine* is a marriage made in heaven. There are lots of expensive hand-wrapped presentation jasmine teas, where the tea leaves unfurl in the glass to reveal a single blossom, and then there are the famous jasmine pearl teas, where the tea leaves are first scented with jasmine, then wrapped into individual balls or "pearls". All of those are lovely but expensive. Cheaper jasmine teas can be an iffy bet; sometimes they aren't highly scented, sometimes the tea leaves are of inferior quality. For an everyday jasmine tea, Upton Tea's Yin Hao Special Grade Jasmine is hard to beat — it has a simply incredible fragrance (I love to stick my nose right into the foil pack and breathe deeply) and taste, and at $14.80 for 100 gr at uptontea (samples available), it won't eat up your perfume budget. This is my second morning cup, every day (my first is Upton Tea's China Special Green Mao Feng).
Harney & Sons Citron Green (shown above) has a lively, bright citrusy taste, and makes a great iced tea in the summer. You can buy it loose or in sachets, organic or non-organic. The adventurous might want to try their Bangkok blend, with coconut, lemongrass and ginger. I've gone through 2 tins and haven't yet decided if I really like it or not, but it's unusual. A 4 oz tin of loose Citron Green tea is $6, the Bangkok Blend is $7.50 for the same amount at harney (samples available). Harney & Sons, by the way, has a very informative website, including an interesting series of "tea travel" articles detailing the Harney's adventures while visiting tea plantations around the world.
Newcomers to green tea (those who haven't yet learned to appreciate the taste of the unadorned leaf) will find much to love at the French tea house of Mariage Frères. There are too many blends to mention them all here, but three of my floral favorites are Lune Rouge (green tea with rose petals, ginger and honey), Festin d'Or (with marigold petals, fruits and mint) and Bouddha Bleu (with blue cornflower petals and fruits). If you can imagine it, the last time a friend went to Paris and offered to bring me back perfume, I sent her to Mariage Frères instead. Tins of Bouddha Bleu can sometimes be found at Dean & Deluca or Balduccis (or at Bergdorf Goodman, where conveniently enough they keep the tea right by the chocolates on the gift floor), and run around $18. For the Festin d'Or, try culturedcup (although they haven't got it in stock at the moment); for Lune Rouge, you've got to go to Paris (and while you're there, pick some up for me).
Another French tea house, this one not quite so well known in the US, is Le Palais des Thés. Beautyhabit recently starting carrying a small selection, so you've easy access to Thé du Hammam, a delicious green tea inspired by a traditional Turkish recipe (shown at right, with rose petals, orange blossom, green dates and red fruits). This is another that I love to smell right out of the bag. Somebody really needs to make a perfume that matches the smell of this tea. $11 for 3.5 oz at beautyhabit.
Next time you're wandering up Madison Avenue to Penhaligon's, keep an eye out for Ito En (822 Madison at 69th Street). The staff are extremely knowledgeable, and they'll brew you a sample of most anything on request. Their selection of Japanese teas is extensive, and if you love shade grown green teas, you must try their Yame Gyokuro ($18.50 an ounce) and Uji Kabuse ($8 an ounce). In keeping with our theme, I'm including Ito En here because of Estio, a fruity blend of green tea, apricot essence, bergamot, yuzu, dried orange peel and lemongrass. It makes a great iced tea, but also has enough body to make it enjoyable on cold winter afternoons. $5.50 an ounce at itoen.
Wayne Tea Salon's Passion Fruit Green is a simple but enjoyable fruity tea, and one of my favorite summer iced teas. $6 for 2 oz at wayneteasalon, where you'll also find lots of other fruity green tea options, including Blueberry & Mango and Papaya & Wild Pineapple.
Rishi Organic Orange Blossom is a blend of lemongrass, green tea, osthmanthus flowers, lemon myrtle and natural essential oils of rose, orange, lime and tangerine. It is mostly herbal components with only a small amount of real tea, so is a good choice for someone looking for a low-caffeine tea. The flavor is brisk, citrusy and summery, and perfect for hot weather. $6 per ounce at rishi-tea (and can also be found in tins at some health food stores).
Yamamoto Yama Ginger Tea is a simple green tea blended with lots of ginger, and is the very best thing in the world when you're feeling under the weather, especially if you add a dollop of honey. When I run out, I sometimes settle for Tazo Tea's Green Ginger, but it has more tea and less ginger so doesn't pack the same wallop. Another alternative is to buy dried ginger on its own (Upton Tea sells plain organic ginger root) and add it to whatever green tea you've got on hand. Yamamoto Yama Ginger Tea is $6.50 for 100 gr or $3.79 for 20 tea bags at stashtea.
How to brew green tea
Green teas are finicky. If you brew too long or use boiling water, you end up with a bitter mess. Most green teas should be brewed for about 3 minutes using water that is about 180 degrees Fahrenheit, although some very delicate teas (such as gyokuros) shouldn't be steeped at temperatures above 140 degrees. All of the scented teas listed above can handle 180 degree water, but some of them taste better when brewed for less than 3 minutes so it's worth taking the time to experiment. The Yin Hao Jasmine mentioned above reaches perfection at about 2 1/2 minutes, maybe even a bit less.
If you demand precision, the nifty Utilitea from Adagio (shown at right) has controls allowing you to heat water to a preset temperature. It's been on my wish list forever, but I keep spending all my money on tea and perfume so I don't have one yet. $49 at adagio.
* Technically, many scented "green" teas such as jasmine teas are actually pouchong teas (semi-fermented), not true green teas. I am ignoring that distinction here.
Still to come: scented oolongs
Great article, R! I'm not much for flavored teas myself… The closest I'll come is a genmai cha, with the toasted rice krispies in it. In general, I prefer simple green or white needle teas, with no fruits or flowers, which seems to align with my fragrance preferences, though I never thought about that before! How do you boil your water for tea? Do you boil it, and then let it sit while? Or hold a thermometer in the kettle? I love my Utilitiea, and I can not imagine boiling water without it! And, speaking of Adagio, they have all kinds of flavored tea and nice sample sizes!
great post, Robin! I love green tea, too. My very favorite tea is from Todd and Holland Tea Merchants (todd-holland.com). It's Houjicha Gold, a Japan green that has this wonderful smoky flavor. I love smoky in my perfumes, so it's very fitting that I'd love this tea. They had a lot of great teas – there's a sampler you can order that lets you try several, which is how I found my Houjicha. Have a great holiday!!!
Robin – Have you checked out Tea Gshwender? http://www.teagschwendner.com/US/en/Homepage.TG I mostly drink black unflavored teas, but this has a very large selection of green also (I have a bit of their green with coconut and your mention of a similar one reminded me – I believe they told me it was their most popular green tea). I shop for tea at Harneys and the Cultured Cup also, but not at Todd's yet… it's actually local to me also, but I was rather shocked at the prices, compared to other places. Anyway, perhaps in 2008 I will try to drink green tea more often. Enjoyed your article – thanks!
K, I like genmai cha too. Ito En's is very nice. I am lazy on the water…I did measure the temperature a few times so I'd know the sound my kettle makes at around 180, but sometimes I just let it come to a boil and then add a bit of cold water 🙂
Had not heard of Todd & Holland — looks like a lovely shop, thanks for the tip. You have a great holiday too!
Someone mentioned Tea Gshwender last week after the rooibos article, I had never heard of them before that. Todd & Holland's prices look to be higher than Upton's, although sometimes it is hard to compare tea prices — T&H might have much higher quality leaves, or just a tighter selection. I am very fond of Upton, in any case.
Todd & Holland are pretty expensive, but the green I like there isn't. The amount you get will last you a very long time, which is kind of nice. I like the cups by Bodum, the double walled clear glass. It looks like the tea is floating in space – they also keep it hot. The drawback is that the cups are SUPER fragile, ridiculously so.
Ito En teas are fabulous. I love the scented green teas, like Shiso and Yuzu. The shop is so gorgeous too.
It is a lovely store, and the tea pots in the back are gorgeous, but REALLY expensive. I do like the Yuzu but haven't tried Shiso, will have to do that, thanks!
Good to know, I'll have to get that particular tea then.
I have a different Bodum infuser — glass cup, plastic mesh infuser basket. It has lasted forever, but I guess it isn't so aesthetically pleasing as the double glass.
That was me. 🙂
Jasmine Tea is also one of my favorites. With green teas I prefer unscented ones or those with natural aroma (bergamot, jasmine, rose…). Time to brew me a cup!
Hope you all have a wonderful christmas!
You are amazing. Wonderful. Except that now, regrettably, I must find a way to afford all this.
AGH.
Hello Robin, green tea is my very favorite of all teas.
Again my brand is Pickwick and I love their Earl Grey Green Tea, then their Green Tea Whole Leafs and then Green Tea Jasmine followed by Green Tea Mint and Green Tea Lemon.
My ice tea is also green tea by Nestea.
Green tea is wonderful at any time of the day and with meals as well.
Wish you and everybody from this blog a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year in 2008 !!
Marianne W. 🙂
And you as well!
Arantzain, one of the reasons I don't mind spending money on the tea is that I do use it all up — unlike the perfume, which ends up going to waste eventually. But start with samples!
And a very Merry Christmas to you!
Oh, wait a minute…Harneys & Son is very very good!! In one of my favorite restaurants here I drink their (black) Earl Grey tea after a very good meal. They have a lot of other flavours H&S teas, but instead of a good coffee I prefer this great tasting and smelling black earl grey tea, hmm so good! 😀
Kids! A bit late (but 5PM on xmas day isn't too late, yah?) Merry Christmas and many more days of dishing our fav fragrance! I hope you all made out like bandits last night. XOXOXO!
Santa was very good to us, and hope he was to you too!
I drink green Earl Grey once in awhile 🙂