Japanese Sencha Green Tea

                                        Japanese  Sencha Green tea 

 Sencha accounts for 75% of green tea produced in Japan. It is the most popular and common tea in Japan and served for daily drinking use.

At the tea garden (open-air tea field) buds are picked from plants fully exposed to sunlight, then are stemed and dried as they are kneaded. Sencha has a unique fresh aroma and refined astringency.

Although all Sencha contains caffeine the efficacy of the caffeine in green tea is mild in the presence of other nutrients and vitamins. Nevertheless it does revitalize and wake the drinker in a healthy manner. That is why green tea first came to Japan as a medicine and incidentally there are many Japanese proverbs that refer to its awakening effect in the morning.

Brew Instruction:

Brewing tool: cups, bottles, tea wears, tea bags

Water temperature: 170° F-180 F

Amount of tea: 1-11/2 teaspoon

Amount of water: 6-10 oz.

Steeping time: put the hot water into the cup with the  tea, stirring the tea will make the tea flavor come out faster, stir about 20- 30 seconds for the first cup, strain it out. Later if you want more tea, put more water back in the cup, steep for another 30-50 seconds, then strain it. This amount of tea leaves will make 3-4 cups of tea.

Try to keep infusion time to 10-20 seconds. Don’t worry if the tea isn’t very stronger – it’s not supposed to be, at least at the beginning. After 2-3 brews, the leaves will wake up and start yielding a dark stronger- brown beverage. That’s when you should keep steeping time just under 20 seconds, or the tea might develop bitter notes. After another 3-4 brews, as the potency of the tea decreases, feel free to gradually increase the length of infusion to maintain the desired level of strength

Drinking tips:

• Do not steep green too long. Green tea is non-fermented and has a lot of tea polyphenols, alkaloids and other nutrients, if you drink it too strong the nutrients have a too strong reaction it will irritate the stomach or dilute the stomach acid causing digestion problems or stomach aches. For more experienced green tea drinkers a strong brew will be fine.
• If brew green tea with hot water, drink the tea while still hot. We suggest drinking all the green tea you brewed within 60-90minutes. If the green tea sits too long it will oxidize lose the nutrients. If you want drink cold tea, use cold water to brew. It will take about 20minutes to 90minutes to steep. Once the tea turns green and brown color, it is ready to drink.
• We suggest drinking the green tea 30minutes-60minutes after meal. Drinking too soon after the meal, the tea will reactor with the nutrients of the food, especially the iron and protein. So if you have anemia, do not drink green tea, black tea, oolong tea, and pu-erh tea.

Green tea has increasingly become a very popular drink worldwide because of its immensely powerful health benefits. It is extraordinarily amazing what green tea can do for your health. And if you're not drinking three to four cups of green tea today, you're definitely not doing your health a big favor. Here are the 25 reasons why you should start drinking green tea right now:

1. Green tea and cancer: Green tea helps reduce the risk of cancer. The antioxidant in green tea is 100 times more effective than vitamin C and 24 times better than vitamin E. This helps your body at protecting cells from damage believed to be linked to cancer.
   2. Green tea and heart disease: Green tea helps prevent heart disease and stroke by lowering the level of cholesterol. Even after a heart attack it prevents cell death and speeds up the recovery of heart cells.
2. Green tea and Anti-aging: Green tea contains an antioxidant known as polyphenols which fight against free radicals. What this means it helps you fight against aging and promotes longevity.
3. Green tea and weight loss: Green tea helps with your body lose weight. Green tea burns fat and boosts your metabolism rate naturally. It can help you burn up to 70 calories in just one day. That translates to 7 pounds in one year.
4. Green tea and skin: The antioxidant in green tea protects the skin from the harmful effects of free radicals, which cause wrinkling and skin aging. Green tea also helps fight against skin cancer.
5. Green tea and arthritis: Green tea can help prevent and reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Green tea has benefit for your health as it protects the cartilage by blocking the enzyme that destroys cartilage.
6. Green tea and bones: The very key to this is high fluoride content found in green tea. It helps keep your bones strong. If you drink green tea every day, this will help you preserve your bone density.
7. Green tea and cholesterol: Green tea can help lower cholesterol level. It also improves the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol, by reducing bad cholesterol level.
8. Green tea and obesity: Green tea prevents obesity by stopping the movement of glucose in fat cells. If you are on a healthy diet, exercise regularly and drink green tea, it is unlikely you'll be obese.
9. Green tea and diabetes: Green tea improves lipid and glucose metabolism, prevents sharp increases in blood sugar level and balances your metabolism rate.
10. Green tea and Alzheimers: Green tea helps boost your memory. And although there's no cure for Alzheimer's it helps slow the process of reduced acetylcholine in the brain, which leads to Alzheimer's.
11. Green tea and Parkinson's: Antioxidants in green tea helps prevent against cell damage in the brain which could cause Parkinson's. People drinking green tea also are less likely to progress with Parkinson's.
12. Green tea and liver disease: Green tea helps prevent transplant failure in people with liver failure. Researches showed that green tea destroys harmful free radicals in fatty livers.
13. Green tea and high blood pressure: Green tea helps prevent high blood pressure. Drinking green tea helps keep your blood pressure down by repressing angiotensin, which leads to high blood pressure.
14. Green tea and food poisoning: Catechin found in green tea can kill bacteria which causes food poisoning and kills the toxins produced by those bacteria.
15. Green tea and blood sugar: Blood sugar tends to increase with age, but polyphenols and polysaccharides in green tea help lower your blood sugar level.
16. Green tea and immunity: Polyphenols and flavonoids found in green tea help boost your immune system, making your health stronger in fighting against infections.
17. Green tea and cold and flu: Green tea prevents you from getting a cold or flu. Vitamin C in green tea helps you treat the flu and the common cold.
18. Green tea and asthma: Theophyline in green tea relaxes the muscles which support the bronchial tubes, reducing the severity of asthma.
19. Green tea and ear infection: Green tea helps with ear infection problem. For natural ear cleaning soak a cotton ball in green tea and clean the infected ear.
20. Green tea and herpes: Green tea increases the effectiveness of topical interferon treatment of herpes. First green tea compress is applied, and then let the skin dry before the interferon treatment.
    22. Green tea and tooth decay: Green tea destroys bacteria and viruses that cause many dental diseases. It also slows the growth of bacteria which leads to bad breath.
21. Green tea and stress: L-the theanine, which is a kind of amino acids in green tea, can help relieve stress and anxiety.
    24. Green tea and allergies: EGCG found in green tea relieves allergies. So if you have allergies, you should really consider drinking green tea.
22. Green tea and HIV: Scientists in Japan have found that EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) in green tea can stop HIV from binding to healthy immune cells. What this means is that green tea can help stop the HIV virus from spreading.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Sunday Observer