Comment by a_c
3 years ago
Temperature, length of brewing, water hardness all affect the taste.
Boiling water gives the tea a bitter taste. Trying brewing gyokuro with boiling water in front of a Japanese. Both the Japanese and the tea grow bitter because of it. The effect is very prominent.
Houjicha and bancha are low end tea. (Btw, are they even considered green tea?) Do whatever you want with them. It's like choosing the best glass for a table wine, it doesn't really matter.
Black tea, on the other hand, is more forgiving in brewing.
Tangentially, how popular is green tea in the UK? It seems quite niche?
Sometimes native doesn't mean right.
Try brewing yerba mate in front of an Argentinean/Paraguayam, using using a thermal bottle. Also, boil the water in an electric kettle and pour a bit of cold water on the bottle to bring back the temperature to 80°C
They'll go bananas on how mate isn't served like that, on how you ruined it, etc.
But you can do it like that just fine. And it can be perfectly brewed like that and the taste will be the same.
People just like treating their ceremonies like shaolin kung fu.
Green tea in the UK isn’t a staple like black tea is but it is still quite common. All supermarkets tend to carry a good range of teas including green, jasmine, mint and chamomile.