2014年6月6日星期五

Enjoying Your Homemade Genmaicha

Genmaicha is the tea that blended with fried rice almost as the same quantity of tea leaves of Bancha or Sencha.To fry the boiled rice till dry and looks like popcorn and then mix them with tea leaves of Bancha and Sencha.You would see among the brown tea leaves there are something popcorn likes inside there.

Many persons might be in wonder that genmaicha was invented during the time of WWII. That means genmaicha has quite a short history unlike other teas who can be trace the history back to hundreds years ago.

During the period of WWII those tea sellers didn't want to waste the rice bread crumbs and try to come out with a new use for them. They roasted the crumbs together with tea leaves and they never expected that they have created a new flavor for a tea which will be widely spread and popular around the world in future.

Because those tea sellers only concerned about the way to reduce the tea leaves in blends by adding more fried rice in without ruining the tea flavor. Finally they managed to find thebest ratio between roasted rice and tea leaves and made this new kind of tea could be sold in a cheap price ordinary people could afford easily.

Because of its very "kind" price to ordinary people genmaichais impossible to be classified as a highquality teas such as Sencha of Gyokuro but as acheap daily beverage to be soldin market to meet the general demands of ordinary Japanese people. Now when talking about theflavorof family tea the unique aroma of genmaicha would come out in many Japanese's mind.

In order to extract the maximum aroma and avoid bitter taste, it is better to brew genmaicha in boiled hot water. Then you will fell the steam mixed with particular flavor of fried rice gradually spread in the air stimulating your taste buds.

There are two kinds of method to process rice, it is roast or fry. We all consider the genmaicha blended with fried rice as the best cause the strong and particular flavor of fried rice inside would make the teamore delicious and tasty.

Generally we use Bancha as the tea leaves part of genmaicha, you can find it in many tea store easily. Or you could use other green tea to blend with, such as Sencha, Bojicha, Matcha, Chinese green tea etc.Interestingly blending with Bojichasurprisingly generate more tea flavor than blending with Matcha.

Genmaicha is the jazz of tea, everyone can easily make their own genmaicha at home with their own creativities. It is cheap and easy to make. To find some favorite tea leaves to blended with roasted or fried rice, brew them up and enjoy the genmaicha of your version.

Well Known Chinese Herbal Teas

Some times called Tisanes, Chinese herbal tea is technically not really tea at all! They are actually medicines that have been created with herbs. Teas are typically made with the wonderful Camelia Sinensis herb. Extracting the essences of the herbs can be done by steeping it with hot water.

Traditionally, Chinese herbal tea is used for the medicinal and healing properties. Of course, there are many such teas that are simply enjoyed due to their flavors and aromas. China has always been known for its production of medicinal herbs, which also is the reason of herbal tea are so popular there

The Fantastic Floral Herbal Teas

Flower teas are some of the most popular herbal tea among Chinese young ladies as their unique aromas and good properties to calm and sooth body or lose weight.

They are a caffeine free method to get all of the benefits that the Chinese herbal teas have to offer. On top of that many of the teas have comforting and soothing effects. A couple of the most popular herbal teas are Chrysanthemum and Rose.

In China, both Chrysanthemum and Rose teas are thought of as woman's herb. However, they are a useful digestive aid. Every person who enjoys teas will love the fresh and floral aroma of this flower tea. Chrysanthemum tea is well known and has been used for a long time to aid in reducing fevers. As there is no caffeine contained at all, those flower herbal tea is good to drink a cup of it before come to sleep.

Flower Teas of Scented Teas

Although many teas are still flavored directly with flowers, herbs, spices, or even smoke, teas with more specialized flavors are produced through the addition of flavorants or perfumes. This is particularly true for tea blends with pronounced fruit or flower aromas, which cannot be achieved with the original ingredients. Some firms such as Mariage Frères and Kusmi Tea have become quite famous for their perfumed teas.

Due to the number of scents that can be produced by the mentioned artificial methods, the section will concentrate on teas flavored directly with the original scent materials.

A variety of flowers are used to flavor teas. Although flowers are used to scent teas directly, most flower-scented teas on the market use perfumes and aromas to augment or replace the use of flowers. The most popular of these teas include the flowers of the following:

Jasmine :
Spread with jasmine flowers while oxidizing, and occasionally some are left in the tea as a decoration. Jasmine is most commonly used to flavour green teas to produce jasmine tea, although sometimes it is used to flavour light oolong teas such as baozhong tea

Osmanthus:
In China, osmanthus tea (called guì huā chá, 桂花茶) is produced by combining dried sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans) flowers (guì huā, 桂花) with black or green tea leaves in much the same manner the more familiar jasmine tea combines jasmine flowers with tea leaves. The flowers are spread while oxidizing, and occasionally some are left in the tea as a decoration. This flower gives the tea a mild peach flavour. It is the second most popular scented tea (after jasmine) in China.

Rose :
Spread with rose flowers while oxidizing, occasionally some are left in the tea as a decoration. In China, roses are usually used to scent black tea and the resulting tea is called rose congou.

Chrysanthemum:
The flowers are often brewed alone as a chrysanthemum tisane, but it is also commonly mixed with pu-erh tea to make chrysanthemum pu-erh.

Lotus:
Vietnamese lotus tea is made by stuffing green tea leaves into the blossom of Nelumbo nucifera and allowing the scent to be absorbed overnight. Another common technique for making this tea is by jarring or baking the tea leaves with the fragrant stamens of the flower multiple times.

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Pu-erh Tea of Dark Tea

Pu-erh or Pu'er tea is a variety of fermented dark tea produced in Yunnan province, China. Fermentation is a tea production style in which the tea leaves undergo microbial fermentation and oxidation after they are dried and rolled. This process is a Chinese specialty and produces tea known as Hei Cha, commonly translated as dark, or black tea (this type of tea is completely different from what in West is known as "black tea", which in China is called "red tea"). The best known variety of this category of tea is Pu-erh from Yunnan Province, named after the trading post for dark tea during imperial China.

Pu-erh traditionally begins as a raw product known as "rough" Mao Cha and can be sold in this form or pressed into a number of shapes and sold as "raw" Sheng Cha. Both of these forms then undergo the complex process of gradual fermentation and maturation with time. All types of pu-erh can be stored to mature before consumption, which is why it is commonly labeled with year and region of production.

Scientific studies report that consumption of pu-erh tea significantly suppressed the expression of fatty acid synthase (FAS) in the livers of rats; gains in body weight and help to lose weight, levels of triacylglycerol, and total cholesterol were also suppressed. The compositions of chemical components found to have been responsible for these effects (catechins, caffeine, and theanine) varied dramatically between pu-erh, black, oolong, and green teas.

Pu'er tea is widely believed in Chinese cultures to counteract the unpleasant effects of heavy alcohol consumption. In traditional Chinese medicine it is believed to invigorate the spleen and inhibit "dampness." In the stomach, it is believed to reduce heat and help in digestion.

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Oolong Tea

Tea is traditionally classified based on the degree or period of "fermentation" the leaves have undergone.

Oolong tea's oxidation is stopped somewhere between the standards for green tea and black tea. The processing typically takes two to three days from withering to drying with a relatively short oxidation period of several hours. In Chinese, semi-oxidized teas are collectively grouped as blue tea (青茶, literally: blue-green tea / "celadon tea"), while the term "oolong" is used specifically as a name for certain semi-oxidized teas.

Oxidation period certainly decides the flavor of oolong tea and different tea varieties require different period of oxidation to reach the best flavor. Common wisdom about lightly oxidized teas in Taiwan (a large producer of Oolong) is that too little oxidation upsets the stomach of some consumers. Even so, some producers attempt to minimize oxidation in order to produce a specific taste or allow the tea leaves to be easily rolled into the spherical or half-sphere form demanded by buyers in the market.

Oolong tea was first developed in the Fujian province of the period of Tang Dynasty. It was originally produced in thin brick form, known then under then name "Beiyuan" tea. The importance of the withering process for producing oolong tea was described by poet Huang Furen in his poem, which indicated that the processing of tea leaves is not a simple task, requiring the scaling of steep cliffs to pick the choicest leaves and the withering of the leaves under the sun and warm winds.

Generally, 3 grams of tea per 200 ml of water, or about two teaspoons of oolong tea per cup, should be used. Oolong teas should be prepared with 200 to 205°F (93 to 96°C) water (not boiling) and steeped 3–10 minutes. High quality oolong can be steeped several times from the same leaves and, unlike other teas, it improves with re-brewing: it is common to steep the same leaves three to five times, the third or fourth steeping usually being considered the best.

It is said that oolong tea is good for losing weight. There are two main ways to gain this good result; increase energy expenditure and inhibit the absorption of nutrients, including fat and carbohydrates. Study shows that oolong tea in general contains caffeine, Caffeine is a stimulant so it is widely accepted that the caffeine in tea increases metabolism, so good at increasing energy expenditure.

Green Tea Processing

Tea is traditionally classified based on the degree or period of "fermentation" the leaves have undergone.

Green tea has undergone the least amount of oxidation than other kinds of tea. The best flavor of green tea is based on the fresh grad so that to produce green tea have to processing the tea leaves immediately within 1-2 days after picking. That is why the best green tea only comes into the market in early spring. And also green tea is the very kind of tea that retains the most chemical composition of the tea leaves contains inherently. Those chemical compositions are really helpful in supporting the body burn fat and maintain the body wholesome. Most of all the antioxidant inside that also assists fight cancer.

The oxidation process is halted by the quick application of heat after tea picking, either with steam, the Japanese method, or by dry cooking in hot pans, the traditional Chinese method. The tea is processed within one to two days of harvesting, and if done correctly retains most of the chemical composition of the fresh leaves from which it was produced. Variation in steaming time for fixation or processing from additional stages of rolling and drying are sometimes used to improve or altering the flavor for types of green tea.

The ancient Chinese society first encountered the tea plant and processed it as another medicinal herb for use in Chinese herbology. The processing technique used to process fresh tea leaves was to immediately steam the fresh tea leaves and dry them for preservation. This processing method was perfected 2000 years ago and produced a dried tea that would be classified today as "green tea" and quite similar to modern Japanese Sencha. For consumption, dried tea leaves were either decocted with water around with other herbs, or ground into a powder to be taken straight or in a liquid.

With the increase of tea's use in Chinese herbology, production methods changed, where the processed green tea leaves were not immediately dried after steaming. Rather the steamed tea leaves were first pulverized into a paste form, with the paste then formed in moulds and slowly dried into brick tea. Tender leaves and leaf buds were generally not used, as older mature tea leaves were preferred for tea production. Some tea bricks were also produced from whole leaves, which required the use of cooked rice slurry to bind the tea brick together. The preference of producing tea in brick form possibly stems from the fact that it can be more easily transported and stored.

2014年6月2日星期一

Losing Weight with Pu-Erh and Oolong Tea

Chinese tea has been considered an excellent diet aid. Many dieters consider a cup of diet tea standard with every meal. They believe it stimulates metabolism. Tea is low in calories, and is healthy when drunk with no added sugar or other ingredients.

Although most types of Chinese tea are great for losing weight, two in particular are excellent. These are Pu-erh, and Oolong. These two are probably the best known Chinese teas for weight loss.

Pu-erh Tea
Pu-erh Tea is gaining popularity in Western culture. Green tea has been the most popular tea lately, but pu-erh is quickly gaining on it. The Chinese have long thought of Pu-erh tea as a tea with medicinal properties.

Pu-erh tea has some benefits that is greatly known for. These are decreasing blood cholesterol and improving the metabolism of fat. This tea can also be "double fermented" in order to enhance some of its special enzymes and microbes. This is done to increase is content of these ingredients known to be essential for one's well-being.

In addition to these benefits, one cup of Pu-erh tea has been shown to stimulate weight loss when drank with every meal. It stimulates one's metabolism and aides one's body systems.

Oolong Tea
Oolong tea is another well-known semi-fermented or oxidized tea. It has a lovely flowery note and intense characteristics. Different varieties of Oolong can range in color from bright to dark. When it is fully-dried, the traditional rich flavors known for weight loss are locked in. This unique drying process will enable the stimulant qualities to come through, which are good for weight loss when added to a well-balanced diet.

Both Pu-erh and Oolong teas are becoming more widely available as they become more well-known for their weight loss qualities. One should be able to find both varieties more and more as they increase in popularity.

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