Loose Leaf Tea for Beginners 1

If you're curious about green tea but you don't know where to start, this is the perfect video for you. We're going to be taking a look at the 10 best teas for beginners and show you how you can begin your tea journey into the world of premium loose leaf tea. These teas are affordable, easy to prepare, and they taste great, even to people that are new to tea. These are mostly loose leaf teas, but if you don't have a teapot at home, you can easily prepare all of them with a strainer. Stay tuned to the end of the video so you can get our picks for the best teas to start with. Starting off on our list of the best teas for beginners, we have the Shizuku Sencha. This is a rare green tea mixed with matcha powder, and it's designed to be the ultimate cold brew tea. In the first brewing, the matcha powder mixes into the water to create a cloudy green infusion and a smooth, fruity flavor. This tea makes a great addition to our list of best teas for beginners because it works so well as a cold brew. Cold brewing is a great way to enjoy Japanese green teas, particularly for beginners. Just let a tablespoon of leaves brew in a cup of water for an hour and then strain it out when you're done. Next, we have the Karigane Sakamoto. This tea is actually made from both the stems and the leaves of the tea plant. The stems are lower in caffeine, and they have a mild flavor to them. What makes the Karigane unique from other stemmed teas is that it's made from the same plants used to make Sakamoto's famous Gyokoro tea. These tea plants are shaded for three weeks before the harvest, giving them a smooth and sweet flavor profile. Whether you brew this tea hot or cold, the Karigane has a pleasant, sweet flavor to it that makes a great introduction to the world of premium loose-leaf tea. So next we have the Henta Asanoka Sencha, a tea made from the Asanoka cultivar. Just like wine is broken down into different varietals, tea is broken down into different cultivars, with each having a slightly different flavor. This Asanoka Sencha provides the best value for money, and for that reason, it's one of the best teas for beginners. When you are getting into loose-leaf tea, one of the most intimidating things can be the price tag, but great tasting tea doesn't have to be expensive. This tea is a mere fraction of the price compared to other premium Sencha teas, and it tastes just as good. It's made from the farmer Mr. Henta, who lives in Kirishima. When we visited him, we were impressed to learn that he grows eight different tea plant cultivars on this small plot of land. The flavor of this one is smooth and sweet, with notes of warm cereal. Next on our list of best teas for beginners, we have the Gyokoro Cha Musume. This is the best beginner's Gyokoro, and it comes with a reasonable price tag. Like the Karagane, this Gyokoro is made by the legendary farmer Mr. Sakamoto in Shibushi. Mr. Sakamoto specializes in Gyokoro teas, considered to be the most prized leaf teas in all of Japan. The reason they are so special is because of this trademark sweet and savory flavor, a result of the high amino acid content cultivated during the long shading process. This creates a very unique flavor and texture, almost more similar to a soup than a green tea. The tea has more caffeine than coffee, but rather than getting a jolt of energy and a crash later on in the day, thanks to the theanine, you get this long-lasting, calm-alert feeling that lasts throughout the day. Next we have the Masuda En Maki no Hara Matcha. This is actually a top-shelf matcha we found after visiting the farmer Mr. Masuda in Shizuoka, but it has the price tag of a beginner's matcha. We wanted to add this one to the list of the best teas for beginners, because while it is super smooth, it's also quite affordable, and typically with matcha, you can either pick one or the other. The reason premium matcha is so expensive has to do with the long, labor-intensive production process. Like Gyokuro, the tea leaves are shaded for three weeks before the harvest to reduce the bitterness. Then, the top sprouts of the tea plant are selected, as they have the highest nutrients. Finally, the stems and leaves need to be removed before the tea is ground into a fine powder in a large stone mill. It takes this mill an hour just to grind 50 grams of precious matcha powder. With the Masuda En, you can make a full bowl of matcha tea for less than a dollar. If you want to try this tea, you can find it on our website, Neoteas.com. So next we have the Bonsha, one of the best teas for beginners. Bonsha is actually the second most popular tea in Japan, after Sencha. This tea is made from the more mature leaves of the tea plant, so it's lower in caffeine, higher in minerals, and it has a mild, slightly earthy taste profile. It's more forgiving of higher temperature water and longer brewing times, so it's easier to prepare. It's also very inexpensive, and even cheaper than a lot of bagged tea. The leaves can be reused up to five times, so with a single pack of Bonsha, you can make 100 individual cups of tea. So if you're curious about matcha, but you're not ready to drink it plain yet, why not try it in a latte? Matcha lattes and matcha ice cream are the first experience many people have in the world of Japanese green tea. These can be a great way to start getting used to the unique flavors of green tea, and if you want to make your own lattes or matcha desserts at home, you can use our Latte Grape Matcha. Even though this matcha is much more affordable, it's still made without the use of pesticides or chemicals. It's also made in Shizuoka by the farmer Mr. Masuda, but the difference is it comes from the later tea harvests. The only downside of this matcha is that it can be a little bit more bitter, but this isn't a problem if you're going to be mixing it with milk and sugar. Coming in at number three on our list is the Noekei Hojicha, a roasted tea from Kyoto. This tea is produced by Mr. Noekei, who grows his tea on a small plot of land in the middle of a pine forest. When he roasts the tea leaves, they trade these vegetal, slightly citrusy flavor profiles for warmer notes of coffee, caramel, and chocolate. This tea is low in caffeine, and it makes for a nice treat on a cold winter afternoon. The warming flavors are what a lot of people are looking for in a tea, making the Noekei Hojicha one of the best teas for beginners. So second to last we have the Henta Saimidori Sencha. Remember before we talked about Mr. Henta and his different tea cultivars? This sencha is made using the Saimidori cultivar, which is known for its light and sweet flavor. It works perfectly in this tea, giving it a sweet flavor, thick syrupy texture, and beautiful green color. What's even better is that like the Asanoka Sencha, this one is also a great deal. When you brew the tea three times, you end up only paying a few pennies for a delicious cup of Japanese green tea. Finally on our list of best teas for beginners, we have the Gyokuro Genmaicha. Genmaicha is a popular type of Japanese green tea that's made by combining green tea leaves with toasted rice. This started out as a way to make the tea harvest last longer during times of economic hardship, but people soon began to fall in love with this tea for its delicious flavor, with notes of warm cereal. What makes this Genmaicha unique is that it's made from shaded tea leaves, so it has an even sweeter flavor. Genmaicha is a flavor most people like the first time they try it, so it's usually top of mind when people ask us which teas we recommend for beginners. If you want to try this tea, or any of the other teas on this list, you can browse Neoteas.com to find your favorite. After traveling around Japan for the past few years, we've met with dozens of tea farmers and sampled hundreds of different teas. We've ultimately selected a small handful of our favorites, and you can find them all on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Until then, we'll see you next time.