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Will boiling water ruin green tea?

myjapanesegreentea.com

171–180 of 219 posts

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#171
post #62
post #2

TL;DR no, but it will make it bitter and astringent because more caffeine and catechins will be extracted.

>TL;DR no, but it will make it bitter... See, that's where the "no" is actually a "yes" for me. For my palate, bitter tea = ruined tea.

Just do it like everyone else and drown it in sugar and milk.

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#172
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is very hard to convert. The US has about 4% of the world population. Adapt. It's not worth the communication problems.

F to C -> subtract 32 and divide by 1.8 C to F -> multiply by 1.8 and add 32 This sounds messy but works out well for a lot of temperatures we are used to, for example... 0C is 32F ... 100C is 212F ... 20C is 68F ... 30C is 86F ... etc.

Why on earth would anybody willingly do that, unless forced by situation... and that situation should not be happening in 2023, period. Heck, even whole science is on metric system and Celzius/Kelvin scale so there goes usability argument.

I've heard all the excuses in past 4 decades whenever this topic comes up, but they can all be summed up as: butthurt ego, we are better than anybody and we don't care about reasons.

In Europe, during more primitive medieval times, even my tiny little country that wasn't country before had maybe 10 different measure systems mostly based on human body, various weight systems etc. There were always reasons for system XYZ, different conversion tables and so on. They were not worse than what US uses now, and are all part of history for same very good reasons.

Its not even a topic about 2 balanced viewpoints like driving left or right, metrics et al have trivial conversions so even folks struggling to finish primary school are well versed in it. What you describe is impossible to do for even older university-educated folks, unless they have been doing it for their whole lives.

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boiling isn't going to do anything about arsenic.

You might want to use water with high level of iron though. My grandfather used to use arsenic to brew cider because its local water had really high levels of iron.

Personally, I wouldn't count on it, see:

[1] Metal Attraction: An Ironclad Solution to Arsenic Contamination? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1257624/

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#174
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is very hard to convert. The US has about 4% of the world population. Adapt. It's not worth the communication problems.

F to C -> subtract 32 and divide by 1.8 C to F -> multiply by 1.8 and add 32 This sounds messy but works out well for a lot of temperatures we are used to, for example... 0C is 32F ... 100C is 212F ... 20C is 68F ... 30C is 86F ... etc.

I always forget when do subtract or add, or divide or multiply. So I use the known conversions 0->32, 100->212 to help remember.

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#175
post #169
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US customary units have a lot advantages. For example: In Fahrenheit, 0 is really cold while 100 is really hot. In Celsius, 0 is kind of cold while 100 is damaging to life. With feet and inches, you can easily divide a foot by 2, 3, 4, and 6 with no repeating decimal digits. It's the same reason the ancient sumerians used base 60 for their number system. With liquid measure, a cup is roughly what would be conside…

As a non-American I don't understand the Fahrenheit vs Celsius arguments. What's special about 0F being really cold and 100F feeling really hot? I find that -20C being really cold and 30C really hot quite intuitive and easy to understand. Also in terms of weather it is easy to understand that below zero temps snow and ice will form. Add the convenience that Celsius is basically just an offset of Kelvin and I really d…

In terms of outdoor air temperature in the North East US, 0-100F is basically the temperature range you’ll experience throughout the year. 50 is about average in spring/fall.

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0 is freezing, 100 is boiling. 12 is a handy number but decimal calculation isn't difficult either, especially when all your units use the same. What is a cup? How do you do calculations with a third of a cup etc? I know a cup is roughly 200 mil. From exposure in life I know 200ml is about a cup of tea and 300ml is about a mug of coffee /can of come, 500 is a big can of beer. How many cups are in a can of beer?

A can of beer is 12oz or 16oz.

So you change which unit you're using depending on what you're measuring? Much handier.

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#177

It definitely will. After a couple years of experimentation and testing I've found anything over ~200F is basically undrinkable. It took me so long to figure this out because there were a lot of confounders -- I drank a lot of tea over the holidays back home, and while my parents' town is on the same water source I swear their florination is different, in a way that changes the mouth feel of the tea. I also had a new…

I got into green tea around 2014 (my how time flies) and I've had a lot of experiences. Depending on how sensitive you are everything can change the taste, but IMO the big three are: - water (huge, huge differences) - type of tea (cultivar, when/ where it was harvested, steam time) - brew temp and time I eventually settled on a system where I heat filtered water in a regular pot with a meat thermometer to the right t…

I read that soft and low mineral water makes the best tea and tried to use water with such values bought from market. It was trash. Tap water where I live is very hard and have a good taste and the tea is much better with it - so my experience contradicts what I found about the topic on the net.

Are there any objective parameters of water which makes a better green tea?

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#179
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?

Re: Will boiling water ruin green tea?

#180
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From experience, if it’s not a passion or priority, it helps externalize the decision process. Have a friend (or online service) who does the research for you. Then you buy the minimum equipment (a temperature controlled kettle and a strainer) and a few teas. When you get time, brew them to the instructions. If you have some free time, you can start it with a cup of tea. There no need to get massively invested. This…

Just be cognisant that it is entirely optional to care. And it is a free choice to care in whichever way you want (you might simply have a preferred supermarket tea brand).

Definitely. I don’t bake and even through I have the skills to. Cooking is an occasional thing done for purely utilitarian purposes, even through I could and have done a lot more.
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