How to Use Green Tea in your Recipes

Green tea is not only healthy but mighty delicious as well. They can be used as garnishes, dried, or infused.

The trick? Brew your tea leaves that you use for any green tea recipes in a different way than when prepared for drinking.

Here's how to include it in your recipe: use a cool spring water and loose leaf teas, and brew for twenty to thirty minutes in a cup. This prevents it from ever being overly astringent or bitter.

A typical measurement for one recipe is one and one-half heaping teaspoons (7.5 ml) of loose leaf to eight ounces (250 ml) of water. Adjust to your taste accordingly.

So, how do you include it with any food recipe?

Green tea, is cooling, refreshing, and palate cleansing. It is wonderful with any food recipes.

Chinese tea tend to be sweeter than Japanese tea, which is nonetheless subtle and mild.

Indian and Sri Lankan teas are stronger more solid tasting.

All are wonderful for any recipes, but only the subltest ones would be lost with dramatically spiced foods.

Japanese tea is good with typical recipe of that country, and their mildness makes them refreshing with fruits, salads, or any recipe.

The very fine gyokuro is magnificent by itself, or lovely with fresh fruit or pastries.

Sencha is good with main recipes from sukiyaki to beef stew. Hojicha, bancha tea, and genmaicha tea are excellent for all ages to drink, and taste good with all recipes because of their mild flavor and soft aroma.

With a hint of floral, it is wonderful with recipe for desserts. And when it is intentionally scented with jasmine, osmanthus, lychee, or chrysanthemum is lovely with pastries.

The best way to determine which one you would like to drink with your food recipe is to try as many selections as possible.

Below are the recipes you can make. Just have fun with it!

From: http://www.green-tea-expert.com

Green Tea Scones

Makes 8 Scones

Ingredients

250g cake flour (90z.)
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3/5 cup milk
1 egg, separated into yolk and white
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon matcha green tea
70g(2 1/2oz.)butter
Strawberry jam and fresh whipped cream to taste.

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, matcha and sugar.

2. Cut the butter into small pieces. With your fingertips, mix the butter into flour until it becomes dry and flaky.

3. Combine the milk and egg yolk, and pour the mixture into the flour a little at a time. Mix and knead into a moist dough, but not so moist that it becomes sticky.

4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (360 degrees C).

5. Place the dough on a floured board and knead slightly until smooth. Roll out to a thickness of 1 inch (2cm)and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter or the rim of a glass.

6. Brush the tops with a little egg white, place on a baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes, until slightly brown.

7. Cut each scone in half and serve with jam and fresh cream.

This recipe is from 'New Tastes in Green Tea', by Mutsuko Tokunaga.

Green Tea Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• 2-4 tbsp sugar
• 200ml heavy cream
• 1-2 tbsp matcha
• 2 tbsp hot water
• 50ml water

Directions

1. Lightly whisk egg yolks in a pan.
2. Add water and sugar in the pan and mix well.
3. Put the pan on low heat and heat the mixture, stirring constantly.
4. When the mixture is thicken, remove from the heat.
5. Mix hot water and mattya green tea powder together.
6. Add the green tea in the egg mixture and mix well, cooling in ice water.
7. Add (80% completely) whipped heavy cream in the mixture and mix well.
8. Freeze the mixture. ( Every 1-2 hours, whisk the mixture. - a few times)

From: http://www.o-cha.com

Green Tea Side Effects

The side effects of green tea are mostly related to the caffeine it contains. Each cup of green tea has around 40 milligrams of caffeine (a cup of coffee has about 100 milligrams of caffeine). Too much caffeine from green tea may cause side effects such as difficulty sleeping, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, reduced appetite, diarrhea, or headache. Using green tea extract, rather than drinking the tea, provides the health benefits of green tea with little or no caffeine.

Those with kidney problems, certain heart problems, stomach ulcers, psychological disorders - especially anxiety or panic disorders, and pregnant and lactating women should use caution with green tea.

Green tea may interfere with or affect some medications such as adenosine, some antibiotics, sedatives, beta blockers, blood thinners, anti-psychotics, MAOIs, some cough, cold, and weight loss products.

Those with any health problems or health history, or taking any prescription or over the counter medications or supplements, should consult with a doctor to find out about possible side affects, precautions, and interactions with green tea.

From: http://www.cupofgreentea.com/

Green Tea Diet

The Fountain of Youth, delaying Alzheimer’s disease, fighting the flu, and helping with weight loss are all some of the claimed benefits of the Green Tea Diet.

The Green Tea Diet has been around for thousands of years in China. There are many people who have heard about the Green Tea Diet but don’t know much about it.

How the Diet Works

Incorporating just 3 to 4 cups of green tea daily into a balanced healthy diet of your choice along with regular daily exercise can add numerous medical benefits. There is no “green tea diet” per se. Just add green tea as the beverage choice for each meal.

It is best to drink the tea when it is freshly brewed. This helps to preserve all the antioxidants and nutritional value of the tea. The bottled variety of green tea gives you very little of its natural healing properties.

Also, black tea is not the same as green tea. Even though it comes from the same plant, black tea is processed differently so it loses almost all of its healthful attributes.

Side Effects

Green tea does have some side effects but most come from the caffeine. One 6 oz. cup of green tea contains approximately 30 mg. of caffeine. People who are caffeine sensitive should take green tea supplements instead of brewing their own tea.

More than 6 cups of green tea daily can cause sleeplessness, irregular heart beat, diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches, and loss of appetite.

People with heart conditions, anxiety, panic attacks, kidney disease and sensitive stomachs should be cautioned about ingesting green tea.

For people who want the benefits of green tea but don’t like the taste, green tea supplements are available. The dietary supplements normally come in 500 mg capsules which are to be taken two to three times daily.

Results

Green tea has many properties than can help to enhance the quality of life for most people. Besides the normal cancer fighting, protector of the liver, destroyer of the free radicals properties that green tea possess, it also tastes delicious! So drink green tea for your health, for your liver and for your body.

From: http://www.happyjuicer.com

How to Minimize Green Tea Caffeine

Green tea is delicious and very high in antioxidants. It has one drawback, however, and that is its caffeine content, which can surprise and affect some tea drinkers deleteriously. Instead of foregoing the health benefits of this tea, here are some simple and effective measures to enjoy green tea without suffering from its caffeine side effects.

1. Know your green tea.The younger the tea leaves, the more caffeine will be produced in the tea. The most prized part of green tea is the terminal bud and the adjacent two leaves, also called the tea flush. They are the sweetest, but also contain the most caffeine.

2. Color is a poor indicator of caffeine levels - Gyokuro, a top level Japanese green tea, contains more caffeine than a dark tea such as Lapsang Souchong. High grade teas are made from the bud and two adjacent leaves (the tea flush), where the caffeine content is highly concentrated. On the plus side, these are the sweetest part of the tea and also contain the catechins and the theanine (mentioned below).

3. Become familiar with your level of tolerance. Many experts recommend consuming no more than 300 milligrams of caffeine a day. When compared to black teas, coffee and soft drinks, green tea has been found to provide a gentle and steady source of stimulation and there are few reports of common caffeine side effects, such as nervousness or headaches. To realize the cancer-fighting benefits of green tea, researchers generally agree that drinking 14-16 ounces (415-475 mL) per day is reasonable.[1]. If there's an average of 30-60 mg of caffeine per a 6-8 oz cup of green tea, drinking the recommended amount translates into 90-105 mg of caffeine per day (much less than 300 mg), and even that caffeine level can be reduced by following these instructions.

4. Avoid green tea teabags. Green tea teabags contain a lot more caffeine - and you will suffer some loss of quality as the teabags are poorer in flavor than the loose green tea leaves. Try to buy loose green tea leaves. You can use the same high-quality leaves three times before throwing them away, so after you've thrown out the first infusion (as described below), you still have two more cups of green tea to enjoy.

5. Start slowly. One cup of green tea can contain anywhere from 15 to 75 milligrams of caffeine. The best thing that you can do is to try green tea in small doses and monitor your own reactions. Start with a half of a cup per day and increase the amount gradually, observing your reaction to the increase and adjusting accordingly. If you feel calmly stimulated and content, you will know that green tea works for you.

6. Brew your green tea half strength. This can be a helpful solution if you are suffering from caffeine intolerance. Purchasing loose green tea will allow you to adjust how many leaves are brewed in your tea. Most people brew approximately one to two teaspoons of loose green tea per cup;[2] you can try cutting that in half. If the resulting brew is too weak, increase it little by little.

7. Throw away the first infusion. Caffeine is quicker to dissolve than the other tea compounds. Throw away the first infusion, as it soaks up 70% of the caffeine within the first five minutes. The length of the first infusion can affect the strength of the second infusion--the longer the infusion, the blander the next, but also the lower the caffeine presence. Try to find the longest first infusion time that still preserves enough green tea flavor for your liking.

8. Drink it hot. Green tea contains catechins (location of the antioxidants) and theanine (provides sweetness and freshness) that reduce caffeine activity. Brewing green tea allows these molecules to combine with caffeine in hot water, rendering the caffeine less effective. If you let it cool off too much after brewing, the catechins break down and more caffeine is released.

Top 10 reasons why your tea didn't turn out green

How to Brew Green Tea - The Top Ten Reasons Your Tea Didn't Turn Out Green

1. You brewed it too hot. If you brew it too hot, it will become bitter. This is probably the most common of all mistakes, and one which has the most influence over the taste. Depending of the variety of green tea, it should be brewed around 175 degrees F, give or take 5 degrees.
   
   
2. You started off with old green tea. Green tea, "when properly packaged", has a shelf life of about 6 months. Once opened, you have about 2-3 months to use it. That's for properly packaged (vacuum packed or nitrogen packaged) tea - If your green tea wasn't packaged properly and is exposed to any amount of air, it probably was never good to begin with.
   
   
3. Your green tea was from a late harvest. It's no big secret - the best green tea comes from the first harvest in late April, early May. You can get this throughout the year, however.
   
   
4. You brewed it too long. This depends on the variety, but generally speaking, no more than 2 minutes.
   
   
5. You used too much tea. This is where you have more room for adjustment. Again, it depends on the variety, but for normal sencha, about one teaspoon to 8-10 ounces of water. For one type of tea, you may have to use an even level teaspoon, and for another a heaping teaspoon; it will vary from tea to tea.
   
   
6. You didn't use enough tea. For gyokuro, you won't get good results unless you use double the amount used for sencha.
   
   
7. You didn't start out with good water.You need good water.
   
   
8. You tried to use a tea ball or paper filter. Green tea is compact. Once you brew, it really expands and needs plenty of space to open up.
   
   
9. You tried to use a 2 liter English Teapot. If you really know what you are doing, it is possible to use a Western teapot to brew green tea. However, you would be way better off using one designed for green tea.
   
   
10. You started of with low quality tea. Even in Japan, the quality levels of green tea vary considerably. Just because it's from Japan doesn't necessarily mean it's good.

From: http://www.o-cha.com