Best Way to Drink Green Tea - According to Zest

Drinking green tea is a great way to enjoy a range of health benefits, a gentle hit of caffeine, and a refreshing grassy flavor. But do you know how to brew pure green tea? And are you aware of the numerous tasty flavor ingredients you can add to spice up your cup?

In this article, we're exploring the best ways to prepare and drink green tea, from hot to iced. Use these methods to get the most out of your favorite Zest energy tea blend!

 

How to Use Green Tea Bags

Making a cup of green tea isn't rocket science, but if you're unaccustomed to making hot tea, you may find that your cuppa sits wrong on an empty stomach and may even taste bitter.

Thankfully, there are simple ways to ensure that your plain or flavored tea tastes great. This is our favorite method for using a tea bag:

1. Bring your freshly drawn water to a boil,
2. Let the boiling water cool - you want the hot water to be around 80°C/176°C,
3. Add 1 tea bag to your mug or cup and pour the hot water over it,
4. Let the tea steep for 3 to 5 minutes, or as directed,
5. Remove the tea bag and discard it.

Now you can drink your homemade green tea. Using tea bags is the easiest way to make green tea.

Explore energy tea in tea bag format at Zest Tea.

 

How to Use Loose Leaf Green Tea

With loose leaf tea, how much green tea you use is completely up to you. At Zest, we recommend using 1 teaspoon of our loose leaf teas per 250ml cup. Brew for 3 to 5 minutes and you'll get a delicious high-quality tea with around 135mg of caffeine.

Of course, the attraction of using loose green tea leaves is that you can customize how much brewing water and tea leaf you use, adjusting to taste.

1. Add 1 teaspoon of tea leaves to an infuser,
2. Boil your water and let it cool to 80°C/176°C,
3. Pour the hot water over the tea leaves and let them steep for 3 to 5 minutes (or as directed),
4. Remove the infuser to remove the tea leaves, or simply filter them out as you pour the tea from your pot to your cup.
5. Enjoy!

To make brewing loose leaf tea as easy as possible, try using our Paris Tea Cup Infuser.

 

Green Tea with...

Black tea is great with a splash of milk, and hot green tea tastes amazing with sharp and sweet flavors. You can enjoy green tea with any of the great flavors below. Alternatively, try our pre-blended green tea flavors at Zest Tea, to excite your taste buds and boost your energy.

 

Lemon

Lemon juice or fresh slices of lemon fruit can enhance tea's flavor. Lemon freshens up those green grassy or bitter notes and is really uplifting.

To make lemon green tea, simply add a slice of lemon or teaspoon of lemon juice to your tea after removing the tea bag/leaves. Lemon can also be combined with mint or honey (see below) for an extra dose of sweetness.

 

Fresh Mint

Mint leaves add a little sweetness and menthol freshness to a cup of tea. We are huge fans of minty green tea at Zest - check out our Pomegranate Mojito blend to find out why.

To make a mint green tea, add a few mint leaves to your pot or cup when you add the green tea leaves. Let them steep together and remove before consuming. You can also brew mint green tea at a lower water temperature - see iced tea and cold brew below.

You can use any mint you like. Peppermint provides a very strong menthol flavor, or you can use spearmint and sugar to make an authentic, Moroccan mint tea.1

 

Honey

Green teas can be off-putting to tea beginners, thanks to that strong grassy flavor. It's the exact opposite of coffee! Besides reducing your water temperature and steeping time, you can also reduce the bitterness by adding a sweet element.

A teaspoon of honey or sugar can really soften the astringent edge of green tea, producing a mellow and sweeter taste.

Be careful, however, not to go overboard! Too much sugar is rarely good for you.

 

Fruit

A good cup of green tea is naturally a little sweet, but if you want to turn up the sweet and fruity notes, you can add fresh fruit or concentrated fruit juice to your cup. We recommend selecting a higher quality tea as a base of your home-blended concoction.

Best Fruit and Green Tea Combinations

• Mint, pomegranate and lime (Pomegranate Mojito)
• Acai, strawberry and passionfruit (Superberry Samba)
• Blood orange and mango (Ready-To-Drink Blood Orange Mango)
• Cucumber and melon (Ready-To-Drink Cucumber Melon)

At Zest, our green tea bags and green tea leaves are formulated with fruit, herbs, and tea extract, to create a plant-powered kick start to your day. Unlike coffee, our caffeine rush doesn't lead to the dreaded caffeine crash in the afternoon.

Visit ZestTea.com to learn more.

 

Iced Green Tea

You can quickly change the water temperature of your cup of green tea to transform it from hot and comforting, to cool and refreshing. To make iced green tea, simply follow the instructions above for tea bags or loose leaf tea. If you want to add an ingredient that must dissolve in the liquid (e.g. sugar or honey) add it while the tea is still hot.

Next, fill a glass or pitcher with ice cubes and pour the tea over it for an instant iced green tea.

You can also make green tea cold brew, using more tea leaves and cold/room temperature water. Let the leaves brew overnight or for at least several hours.

 

Best Green Tea for Iced Tea

Pomegranate Mojito is our favorite green tea blend for making iced tea. It's a mixture of green tea leaves, mint leaves, lime and pomegranate. It's naturally sweet and refreshing without any lemon, mint or honey added.

One cup of Zest green tea provides up to 135mg of caffeine. If you don't have time to make iced tea at home, take a look at our ready-to-drink range instead.

 

Matcha Green Tea

There are numerous kinds of green teas, one of the most popular is known as matcha. Rather than drinking cups of green tea made by infusing the leaves, matcha is made by grinding the leaves into a fine powder and whisking them into water.

A good quality matcha will have minimal astringency (no bitter flavors) and fresh vegetal or grassy notes that are often pleasantly sweet. As drinking matcha involves consuming 100% of the green tea leaves, it's higher in caffeine with up to 70mg per serving. It's also strongly flavored, so consider consuming it alongside a healthy meal.

To make matcha green tea:

1. Add a scoop of matcha powder to a cup or bowl,
2. Add hot water (around 80°C/176°C) and whisk the matcha,
3. Once whisked, you should have a vibrant green liquid with a smooth bubbly foam on top.
4. Consume immediately, pour over ice, or combine with milk for a matcha latte.

Learn more about drinking matcha green teas in our article Understanding Matcha Tea Caffeine.

 

Benefits of Drinking Green Tea

Green tea has a low caffeine content and various other properties that are beneficial for your health. Green tea is typically high in antioxidants, amino acids, and catechins, including epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

Consume green tea has part of a healthy lifestyle to benefit from:

• Anti-inflammatory properties that could be beneficial for treating a number of inflammatory diseases,2
• Green tea could be linked to preventing cancer, although more research is needed to confirm this. Researchers believe the antioxidant properties of green tea catechins could be key.3
• Green tea consumption may be linked to weight loss. Studies analyzing the impact of green tea on BMI, weight, and waist circumference found some evidence that the beverage can help with losing weight - although the very minimal weight loss recorded is statistically non-significant.4

Side Effects

Besides frequent urination from consuming more liquid, you're unlikely to experience any side effects from consuming a cup of green tea. If you're at all concerned about consuming caffeinated beverages regularly, don't hesitate to reach out to a medical professional.

 

FAQs

How do you make green tea taste better?

If the flavor of hot green tea doesn't appeal, try following our methods above to use a slightly lower temperature. You can also try drinking green tea iced or with additional ingredients, like fruit, herbs, and spices.

Green tea can also be a little too astringent for an empty stomach, so consider drinking it with food or a small meal.

Should I put milk in green tea?

Green tea leaves can produce a bitter taste when brewed incorrectly (find a better method above) but don't be tempted to add milk to your green tea. Generally, the taste won't be improved! Save your milk for one of our black tea blends, like our Spicy Masala Chai, and try your green tea drink with lemon, honey, or even mint.

Can I drink green tea everyday?

Yes, absolutely, a cup of tea every day is unlikely to provoke any adverse effects. There are some concerns that come with consuming too much caffeine, however the FDA defines this as 400mg or more per day.5 Most green teas contain around 28mg per serving,6 and Zest Tea has up to 135mg - so, you can enjoy drinking several cups of green tea per day without any problems.

Other factors, like how much sugar you consume, have a bigger effect on your health than a simple cup of tea. In fact, you're more likely to experience the health benefits listed above if you consume tea on a regular basis.

How should I drink green tea to lose weight?

Some people may suggest that you drink green tea not for the flavor, but for the associated benefits for health.

But is green tea good for weight loss? Although there's some evidence that green tea boosts fat burning, it's not a miracle drink.7 If you need to lose weight, maintaining a healthy diet and exercising regularly is key - green tea is only a small part of this!

Our high-caffeine energy tea is a great way to boost your energy for a hard workout alongside a healthy meal.

 
SOURCES
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghrebi_mint_tea
2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27634207/
3 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30205425/
4 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23235664/
5 https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much
6 https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20049372
7 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29345213/