Why is it so expensive. For anyone who hasn't tasted green tea it is a completely different taste to the usual black tea, really refreshing. Can any Chinese or Japanese members let us know a good supplier of 'real' green tea help?
In the case of matcha, it is a very labor intensive process. The plants have to be shaded and the leaves selected and deveined before being ground to powder. Add to this Japan's perfectionnism and high labor costs and you have your answer when it comes to Japanese matcha. Matcha produced in China is usually more roughly produced and labor costs lower so it's cheaper. Still, the demand is also too high for the production to cope so...
Green tea in the form of leaves is much cheaper though. Not to say the best ones are cheap. A half decent Long Jin from China will easily set you at 15€ per 100gr.
Green tea in the form of leaves is much cheaper though. Not to say the best ones are cheap. A half decent Long Jin from China will easily set you at 15€ per 100gr.
There’s a local Coffee & Tea merchant (Murchie’s) that puts out a very nice Earl Grey Cream ( black tea, bergamot oil, blue cornflower petals, and vanilla), and traditional chai (black tea, ginger, cardamon, cloves and nutmeg).
Not generally a fan of green teas, but they also do a nice peppermint.
Not generally a fan of green teas, but they also do a nice peppermint.
Having sampled the expensive kinds of Long Jing tea, I prefer the relatively lower-priced offerings. The top stuff is just too refined for my coarse taste buds, I need more flavour, more earthiness and I guess this comes from the older leaves. Its still expensive in comparison to the tea I used to drink when I lived in UK though. There is a tremendous choice available here - probably due to my location of ~1hr bike ride from Long Jing village.
Whatever the origin of the green tea I drank in that Chinese restaurant in Granada it cannot have been expensive because the whole meal was cheap and the food was very good indeed. If any Spaniard or anyone else living in Granada or just visiting, the House of Wu on the avenida de San Juan de Dios is well worth a visit. If someone should ask exactly what that tea is.
I did the opposite - switched from Diet Coke to coffee. Funny thing is I find myself eating less sugar now. Can sort of blame the pandemic - didn’t want to go to the store every day or two to bring home 2-liters. Easier to stockplie coffee and it only takes 3 cups a day and not a whole 2 liter (or two) for the equivalent caffeine fix.
The wife is addicted to tea - coffee too, but has to have a bottle of iced tea in the car to drive. Green tea, unsweet, sweet - doesn’t matter - just can’t be water. Goes through more tea than coffee at home too.