Green Tea Information
Green tea comes from a plant which is native to Asia called the Camellia sinensis. High quality green tea is made from the youngest most tender leaves and buds located in the uppermost shoots of the plant.
The parts of the plants that are most sought are the top two leaves and the bud because of their full flavor and ability to be twistedinto different shapes.
When harvesters are looking for the highest grade sencha, they mainly look to pick off the bud or both the bud and the youngest leaf.
When the harvesters pick the bud with the top two leaves, this yields a average to good quality tea. Finally, for the lower quality teas three parts are picked; the top two leaves, leaves below them, and part of the twig.
The leaves are then taken away for processing. To stop the fermentation process, the leaves are immediately steamed and followed by drying and rolling to produces sencha.
The process for black tea is a bit different. Instead of steaming and drying, the fresh leaf is air dried and left to wither and ferment.
In Japan, The majority of all tea harvested is sencha grade. The quality of sencha is highly variable due to factors such as; the tea's origin, season, and processing techniques..
 Gyokuro come from only the youngest leaves of the Camellia Sinensis. To produce gyokuro, special growing techniques are implemented to produce the rich flavor tea which is also easily distinguished by its pale green color.
The process begins by growing the gyokuro plants in shade for about weeks weeks before the harvest. The reason for this is to reduce leaf photosynthesis by removing the leaves from direct sunlight which alters the amount of amino acids, sugars, flavenoids, and other compounds.
If one seeks a high quality gyokuro, they must age the leaves for approximately three months. Doing this blends the flavenoids and other subtances together which in turn produces a high quality tea.
Matcha on the other hand, differs from sencha and gyokuro because the leaves never go through the rolling process. After the steaming process takes place, the leaves are thoroughly dried and this is called tencha. The harvester then takes the tencha and grinds it up really good into a super fine powder, and the final product is called Matcha.
Since green tea is not fermented and goes throught a minimal amount of processing, it contains a much larger amount of polyphenols than other types of teas. Polyphenols are powerful antioxidants found in green tea that are known to contain many positive health benefit characteristics.
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