The best green teas in the UK 2023

Known for its innumerable virtues, green tea is consumed in the morning or during break times. People who are on a diet also like this beverage. Presented in various forms and offered by a number of brands on the market, green tea is not to be chosen anyhow. Luckily for you, here is our guide to everything.

Destination - Premium matcha green tea Japan 1
8/10

Best value for money

Destination - Premium matcha green tea Japan

The best green tea in 2021

This liquid jade foam brings good things to the body and the taste buds. Destination matcha green tea is indeed very rich in vitamins and fiber.

18,32 £ on Maxicoffee

The leaves used to produce this green tea are picked only once a year, in April. They are delicately processed to obtain that beautiful jade green color. And at Destination, the tea is prepared even before it is picked. Indeed, 3 weeks before the harvest, the leaves are covered with bamboo mats. This way, the chlorophyll in the buds and tender shoots will become more concentrated.

The taste is an excellent green matcha tea, with a creamy foam. It has a very slight bitterness offset by a nice roundness in the mouth. It is often prepared in a bowl of water at a temperature between 70 and 80 °C. To obtain a jade foam, you just have to whip it with a bamboo whisk to avoid attenuating its exquisite taste.

1336 - Green tea with mint 2
7/10

Best value for money

1336 - Green tea with mint

The best entry-level green tea

The mint green tea from this French cooperative is both lively and subtly astringent. The taste of green tea blends very well with this mint note.

2,55 £ on Maxicoffee

Simple, but effective, the tea offered by 1336 respects the codes of green tea. The leaves are carefully sorted and made according to Chinese methodology. To give more taste and pep, the French cooperative has combined green tea with perfectly proportioned mint leaves. This product contains 90% green tea and 10% mint leaves in powder.

Easy to prepare, the green tea with mint 1336 is packaged in an individual muslin bag. Simply boil water at 70-90°C to prepare it. Soak one bag of Mint Green Tea in 150 mL of lime-free water. Let it sit for a few minutes and enjoy.

Destination - Natural Green Tea Gunpowder 3
9/10

Best value for money

Destination - Natural Green Tea Gunpowder

The best premium green tea

Tell us more about this natural green tea. Destination promises delicious cups of green tea, rich in antioxidants, without fermentation or flavors.

35,49 £ on Maxicoffe

We have here green tea without fermentation and without flavors. The taste is the result of nature and high level preparation methods. The green tea leaves are delicately prepared. They are first plucked and sorted before being pressed, rolled and dried. Its main difference is its rolled form to have green tea pearls.

This green tea is very rich in antioxidants. For a cup of intense gustatory pleasure, all you need is 2 g of green tea pearls, an electric kettle or a pot and a thermometer, and finally a paper filter or a tea ball. The 1 kg capacity will give you 500 cups of green tea.

Lipton - Sencha Green Tea 4
8/10

Excellent

Lipton - Sencha Green Tea

A delicious sencha green tea

Lipton's green tea is harvested from Rain Forest Alliance certified plantations. The leaves are meticulously picked and sorted and are full of antioxidants.

4,79 £ on Maxicoffe

This Lipton Sencha green tea is actually a combination of tea leaves, pieces of fruit and carefully selected herbs. Each cup delivers a pear flavor without bitterness and a subtle rose petal scent with a hint of smoke. Light and floral are the key words in this beautiful one-sip combination.

The green tea leaves are well preserved in a wrapped bag. Very practical and ensuring a faster infusion, the pyramid bag allows the leaves to soak up water and release all their aromas. Thus, the tasting promises to be unforgettable.

Buying guide • November 2023

Best green tea

Any specific needs?

The best green tea in 2021

The best entry-level green tea

The best premium green tea

A delicious sencha green tea

Your guide : Samuel

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Comparison table of the best green teas

THE BEST CHEAP TOP OF THE LINE EXCELLENT
Destination - Premium matcha green tea Japan 5
8/10
1336 - Green tea with mint 6
7/10
Destination - Natural Green Tea Gunpowder 7
9/10
Lipton - Sencha Green Tea 8
8/10
OUR SELECTION
Destination - Premium matcha green tea Japan
1336 - Green tea with mint
Destination - Natural Green Tea Gunpowder
Lipton - Sencha Green Tea
This liquid jade foam brings good things to the body and the taste buds. Destination matcha green tea is indeed very rich in vitamins and fiber.
The mint green tea from this French cooperative is both lively and subtly astringent. The taste of green tea blends very well with this mint note.
Tell us more about this natural green tea. Destination promises delicious cups of green tea, rich in antioxidants, without fermentation or flavors.
Lipton's green tea is harvested from Rain Forest Alliance certified plantations. The leaves are meticulously picked and sorted and are full of antioxidants.
Origin
Japan
China
China
Japan
Taste
Vegetal
Floral
Vegetal
Floral
Quantity
30 g
40 g
1 kg
118 g
Flavor
Nature
Mint
Nature
Pear and rose petals
Preparation
In infusion or culinary preparation
Infusion
Infusion
Infusion

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Buying guide - green tea

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How to choose your green tea

To find the right green tea for you, you need to know a few important criteria such as the method of storage, the harvest, the condition of the harvested leaves, the processing methods and the aromas associated with green tea.

#1 - Method of preservation

For the green tea leaves to remain green, the oxidation must stop during the harvest. This is why it is called green tea. Once the oxidation is stopped, the green tea keeps a maximum of its main active ingredients. Basically, the preservation method explains how the green tea got to this stage. And for this, there are 3 crucial steps:

  • Roasting: the leaves are first picked and then placed directly into basins heated to 100°C or steamed for a few minutes. When the leaves become supple and easy to handle, they are rolled.
  • Rolling: this step allows to give shape to the green tea leaves. It can be done by hand, but also by machines. The leaves can take the form of sticks, pearls or twists.
  • Drying: Finally, the leaves are dried on hot air racks for about 30 minutes. This step is repeated until the moisture content of the green tea is close to 5 to 6%. If the leaves are too dry, they cannot be brewed. If they are too wet, they will go mouldy.

#2 - Harvesting

The harvesting season of the tea leaves plays a lot on the taste and aromas. Indeed, tea lovers admit that green teas harvested in spring, between February and March, are more delicious. Taste it, you'll see a definite difference!

#3 - Leaves

To have quality green tea, opt for whole leaves with powder and pieces, which swell when wet. For color, here are some guidelines:

  • Dark green sencha leaf: This color is due to a strong steaming. The green tea will have a very pronounced vegetal flavor.
  • Bright green sencha leaf: slightly steamed, the leaf will have a brighter color and a less herbal flavor.
  • Grey green tea leaf: the taste of a tea with dark grey-green leaves will be bitter with a strong astringency.
  • Yellowish green tea leaf: this color ensures a pleasant, slightly sweet and roasted tea in the mouth.

#4 - Processing process

There are 2 ways to process green tea. The CTC process or using machines to process tea leaves is very common. Here, the whole manufacturing process is done automatically by industrial machines.

The traditional method is to sort the high quality leaves by hand. Here, the tea is either fully processed by hand or partially processed by machine. That said, during harvesting, the leaves are sorted by hand with less chance of being damaged.

#5 - Flavoring

The taste of plain green tea is not for everyone. For everyone to find something to their liking, there are several flavors and tastes that can be added to green tea. You can find green tea with fruity (apple), spicy (cinnamon) and fragrant (vanilla) flavors.

How to prepare green tea?

Compared to other drinks, green tea oxidizes very quickly. Green tea in bags is better preserved in individual packaging. But in general, whether it is loose or in a bag, it should be kept in a cool place, away from light and especially without humidity.

Before starting to prepare green tea, it is strongly recommended to use bottled water, spring or mineral water, with low mineral content. Indeed, water rich in limestone and chlorine crushes the aromas of green tea and makes it bitter.

Preparation of green tea in bags

  • Boil water between 70 and 80 °C
  • Brew Japanese tea for 1 to 3 minutes and Chinese tea for 2 to 4 minutes.

Preparation of loose green tea

  • Boil water between 70 and 80 °C
  • Use filters (disposable paper, reusable textiles, balls or metal filters) that have not yet been used for strong or fragrant teas.
  • In a teapot, add water and green tea leaves.
  • Let the Japanese tea steep for 1 to 3 minutes in the water and 2 to 4 minutes for the Chinese tea.
  • When ready to serve, strain the tea through filters (disposable paper, reusable textiles, balls or metal filters). Make sure that the filters have not been in contact with strong or fragrant beverages.

To get a good brew and avoid waste, avoid piling the leaves into the tea ball. If you want the green tea to deliver all its flavors and release a maximum of antioxidants, let the leaves unfold on contact with the water. Regarding the quantity, the ideal is to use 2 g of tea for 20 cL of water. If the leaves are of good quality, you can infuse it several times (up to 3, even 4 infusions).

Be careful!

Never put green tea in a thermos and never heat green tea that has cooled down. The taste would become ignoble!

The different types of green teas

Green tea can be classified according to its form, but also according to its origin. There are 2 main types of green tea: Japanese green tea and Chinese green tea.

Japanese green tea

The steam roasting process allows the tea to retain as many of its components as possible, including its taste properties. The harvesting method is hand-picking, so the quality of the tea is perfectly safe. When one thinks of Japanese tea, one immediately thinks of Shincha and Bancha.

Shincha is well known for its virtues, its taste is a bitter and delicate. This type of tea is extremely rich in iron. The matcha tea, on the other hand, promotes the health of its consumers. The preparation is done according to the tradition. And once dry, the tea leaves are crushed to give a powdered texture.

Chinese green tea

The plucking of Chinese tea is traditionally manual and obligatorily done by expert hands. The oxidation is stopped thanks to the metal basins at high temperature. Long Jing green tea is widely used for its sweet and refreshing notes.

If most teas are offered in powder or stick form, Gunpowder rolling is done with machines capable of shaping small pearls of green tea.

Green tea or black tea?

Green tea and black tea both come from the same shrub, the camellia sinensis. The only difference lies in the way they are processed and transformed.

Green tea

Green tea is so called because of the first stage of transformation that it undergoes after plucking "roasting". It is important to know that green tea leaves oxidize in just a few hours after plucking. In other words, the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant age quickly once they are removed from the bush. Green tea should be brewed for 1 to 3 minutes. It gives a slightly bitter taste and long in the mouth.

Black tea

Unlike green tea, black tea leaves are plucked and left to oxidize so that the leaves are fermented. The wilting and rolling stages also stimulate fermentation. Once these two steps are completed, the black tea is put in a temperature and humidity controlled room for 90 minutes to continue the fermentation. In the mouth, black tea is rounder, with more body. To drink it, infuse in water not exceeding 95°C for 5 minutes.

Verdict

The manufacturing steps and processes change the molecular structures of the tea leaves. This makes each tea unique. Green tea retains the catechins and antioxidants that protect the body from cellular aging. This beverage brings tonus and vitality. Black tea, as a result of fermentation, contains much more theaflavins and polyphenols. This type of tea is less rich in theine, perfect to help digestion.

5 reasons to buy green tea

To get rid of excess fat

Green tea has the ability to rebalance the percentage of fat in the body. This is why it is often recommended as a dietary supplement to help lose weight. According to clinical studies, this method works perfectly well. However, like all good things, it must be taken in moderation. Otherwise, you risk increasing fat oxidation by 17%.

Reduces the risk of cancer

It is scientifically proven that oxidative stress contributes to the development of cancer. According to extensive studies, the antioxidants in green tea have a protective effect against this pathology. In women, green tea reduces the risk of breast cancer by 22% and colorectal cancer by 57%.

Good for the brain

Green tea is composed of a sufficient dose of caffeine to provoke a response in the body. L-theanine is also found in green tea. These components improve brain function. According to research, green tea promotes cognitive brain function, especially working memory, and protects the brain from aging. In other words, it helps prevent neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

To prevent cardiovascular diseases

In 2006, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that green tea reduces death due to cardiovascular disease. In particular, drinking green tea five times a day significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular death and stroke and has a cardioprotective effect on the consumer.

A little moment of escape

Having a tea is an expression that calls for a few minutes of break or a small escape from a busy day. It is a moment of relaxation. It is also a time to get together and chat with friends. It offers a warm and comforting sensation. Green tea is composed of L-theanine, an amino acid capable of stimulating dopamine, the happiness hormone.

The best brands of green teas

In our opinion, the best brands of green teas in 2022 are :

Vahdam
Biotiva
La Pagode
Lipton
Destination

Vadham has specialized in tea marketing for decades. Committed to the environment and fair trade, it donates 1% of its revenues to the education of the children of tea growers.

When it comes to organic dried plant-based ingredients, the Biotiva brand is never far away. All its products are certified organic and it promotes healthy eating in harmony between man and nature.

La Pagode has been around for more than 25 years and its expertise in beverages and spices is no longer presented. It has introduced 4 ranges of premium certified organic teas that are highly appreciated.

Sir Thomas Lipton, the creator of the Lipton brand revolutionized the tea industry forward with his several hectare plantation. In addition to their exquisite taste, Lipton tea leaves are Rainforest Alliance certified.

Leader in the organic market in the UK, Destination never stops innovating and offering products that always live up to its standing. Its teas, especially the green tea, are particularly good.

What is the price for a green tea

The diagram below will help you to get an idea of the typical prices for each price range (entry-level, mid-range and high-end).

However, more expensive does not necessarily mean better.

We therefore advise you to always consult our ranking before deciding, rather than blindly relying on price ranges.

Entry-level
1 £ to 10 £
Mid-range
10 £ to 20 £
High-end
more than 20 £
Price range diagram

Tips

Use green tea as a dark circle remover

Sensitive and thin, the eye contour is subject to dark circles or swelling. To have a smooth look, use green tea, it has a soothing action. After brewing 2 green tea bags, squeeze them lightly and place the bags in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Then simply place them over your eyes for about 10 minutes.

Stay smiling!

In addition to conferring a sense of happiness, green tea also helps in oral hygiene. Its rich composition in polyphenols eliminates the bacteria responsible for gingivitis. To brighten your smile, green tea protects your teeth from dental plaque. The fluorine in this tea strengthens the enamel. On the other hand, be careful with excesses, as the tannins blacken the teeth.

Stay young with green tea

Rich in antioxidants, green tea has the ability to trap those responsible for the appearance of small wrinkles and skin aging. Moreover, you will notice that in anti-aging products or care, cosmetic laboratories add antioxidants from green tea.

Use brewed tea leaves as a fertilizer!

You don't know what to do with your deposits of infused green tea bags? Think about your plants. Put the bags in a bucket filled with water and water your plants with it. This will protect them from fungus. For the used tea bags, sprinkle the base of your plants with the leftover green tea leaves. It will become more fertile and will keep rodents away. You can also add green tea to your compost to boost it.

Say goodbye to pests with green tea leaves

Did you know that mice don't like the smell of tea? To scare them away, consider putting a little bit of it around in places that are likely to have them. This trick will work much better with peppermint essential oil. This accompaniment repels certain pests, including spiders and ants.

FAQ

When to drink green tea?

Green tea has countless benefits. To benefit from it, you must drink it at the right time. In the morning, the stomach is still empty and green tea rehydrates the body, eliminates waste and toxins. It also reduces the feeling of hunger and will cut the desire to consume sugar. It is recommended to drink tea 30 min to 1 hour before and after meals so that the body can absorb iron. After the meal, it serves as an appetite suppressant and helps digestion, which eliminates excess fat. In the evening, if you are a sensitive person, avoid drinking it to avoid the risk of insomnia.

How many cups of green tea per day?

Given the benefits that green tea provides, we tend to drink too much of it. But too much is not necessarily good for the body. On the contrary, it can become bad for us. The ideal is not to exceed 5 cups of green tea per day and if you also drink coffee, consider decreasing this amount.

Does green tea prevent you from sleeping?

Green tea contains theine, a stimulant that is equivalent to caffeine. If you have a sleep problem, avoid drinking it after 4 p.m. Otherwise, green tea helps digestion and can be consumed before bedtime. To reduce its theine content, first brew the green tea once and discard it, then brew it a second time and enjoy!

Can you drink green tea on hot days?

Hot drinks such as green tea can be drunk when it is hot. This increases the body's heat and the body reacts by decreasing your heat (self-regulating effect of the body). In addition, green tea has the virtue of being refreshing. The ideal temperature is between 40 and 45°C.

Sources

Note: Below are some of the sources we have consulted in writing this article. Links to other sites are not continuously updated. It is therefore possible that a link may not be found. Please use a search engine to find the desired information. See more

Updates

March 2022 : Translation of this buying guide from our partner meilleurtest.fr

See more
Our selection
Destination - Premium matcha green tea Japan 9
Destination - Premium matcha green tea Japan
1336 - Green tea with mint 10
1336 - Green tea with mint
Destination - Natural Green Tea Gunpowder 11
Destination - Natural Green Tea Gunpowder
Lipton - Sencha Green Tea 12
Lipton - Sencha Green Tea

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