Gyokuro green tea, often regarded as the powerhouse tea in Japanese culture, offers a robust yet pleasant flavor with a resemblance to seaweed when perfectly brewed into a cup of tea. While other varieties of Japanese green tea are steam processed green tea leaves, Gyukuro, on the contrary, is from the tea plants grown in shaded areas six weeks before the harvest. That’s the reason why Gyokuro bushes develop extra chlorophyll and turn dark green prior to their harvest. The light starvation for weeks results in creating an exceptionally rich flavor with a distinct seaweed broth-like character beautifully balanced by the intense sweetness from the green tea leaves. In Japan, Gyokuro tea is enjoyed in comparatively smaller servings.
What makes Gyorkuro tea so nutritious?
In general, all green teas are full of nutritious elements, antioxidants, plant compounds, and flavonoids. Gyokuro, however, has the highest share of all. It has many natural plant compounds, including polyphenols, proanthocyanidins, and flavonoids, antioxidants, and chlorophyll. Everyday consumption of Gyokuro tea helps in destroying free radicals, toxins, byproducts from the metabolism and other toxic compounds found in the human body. This tea, because of its high caffeine content, acts as a brain stimulant beverage too.
Apart from its detox effects, this tea aids in weight loss too. Drinking two to three cups of gyokuro tea throughout the day will help you in losing weight, building muscles, and burning fat. Therefore, In Japanese culture, traditional health practitioners use the gyokuro tea to treat digestive disorders, blood sugar disorders, and heart disease. Because of its free radical damage capacity, gyokuro tea also has significant anti-aging effects.
What does Gyokuro tea look like?
Due to the shade-growing techniques, gyokuro tea has a dark green color. The dry rolled gyokuro tea leaves resemble needle-shaped thin structures. To brew a perfect cup of gyokuro tea, steeping at a low temperature is the key. To develop the full depth in flavor, allow the tea leaves to brew for a few seconds to few minutes for the unique, sweet, and soft marine-like flavor.
Why is Gyokuro tea so popular?
Green tea enthusiasts often describe the mild flavor of Gyokuro as an ocean flavor quite identical to a light seaweed broth but with a sweeter flavor. These varieties are unique and rare, and probably, the priciest ones in the international market. Because of the specific measures and methods used for harvesting, this tea has an amazing fragrance and a delectable flavor unlike any other. Only a very few tea plantations in Japan grow and harvest this tea every year. That’s the reason it is so difficult to find this unique tea. Considering its tremendous health benefits and its unique flavor profile, it is certainly one of the finest green teas that all tea lovers must try.
