The loose green tea revolution is here! Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but here is a simple truth... if you like green tea, you will LOVE loose green tea because it has so much more flavor and varieties for you to enjoy.

While many of people are accustomed to popping a tea bag into a cup, brewing a pot of tea from loose leaves is the traditional method, going back thousands of years. But don't be fooled into thinking that old means primitive. The traditional brewing methods for loose green tea yield a cup of tea that is absolutely delicious. Bag tea just can't compare.

Loose Green Tea vs Tea Bags

Contrary to popular belief... generally loose leaf teas are less expensive than those in bags because you are buying in bulk.

Because they are going to be cut up anyway, often leaves of lower quality are chosen for bagged tea (no need to mass produce the top quality leaves). And the action of chopping up the tea into tiny particles causes the flavor to degrade quickly. The loose green tea leaves store their flavor for long periods of time.

Also, the paper the tea bags are made of has a negative impact on the taste of the tea, due to the paper itself having a flavor.

Loose Green Tea Quality

Many factors influence the quality of green tea. The highest grade green tea is sometimes called 'tippy', because they grow at the top of the tea bushes. They are bud tea, not the leaf tea you normally see.

Seasonally, Spring grows the best loose green tea leaves and summer the worst. Summer tea leaves are used for bag tea.

The different kinds of green tea each have distinct flavors, but they do have a taste in common. The taste of loose green tea can be described as: fresh, light, green, or grassy. Some varieties of green tea are have a bit of sweetness to them, and some are a little astringent.

Also, The shorter processing times gives loose green tea a much lighter flavor than black tea. Some would describe it as "refreshing".

Benefits of Green Tea

The loose green teas have caused quite a buzz in the science and natural healing worlds recently. Scientific studies have shown that young tea shoots contains the highest level of theanine and EGCG. EGCG is a powerful and abundant antioxidant present in green tea.

While not yet proven in double blind studies, there is a growing body of evidence that loose green tea has health benefits ranging from cancer prevention to help with weight loss.

Where To Get Loose Green Tea

If your city has a Chinatown area or Japan Town, you'll probably find some amazing green teas there. In fact these areas almost always have tea tasting rooms where you can try a variety of loose green teas before you buy.

And thanks to the Internet, there are many locations online where you can buy bulk green tea and premium loose green tea from China and Japan.

Enjoy the videos below that show you what loose green tea looks like, how to brew it, and even how to pick it.

Loose green tea is used to distinguish it from the tea in tea bags. Fact is, both teas are loose, but the tea bag is a self contained brewing system all you need is hot water.

Loose green tea comes... loose. It is a tea bought in buik. It comes in a tin, a can, or even in resealable glass jars. It also comes in smaller amounts in plastic storage bags to keep it fresh.

Because the tea is loose, you need a way to brew it. Now you can actually brew it in the same cup you will drink out of, but most people prefer to have most of the tea leaves filtered out somehow.

There are a variety of devices you can do this with, ranging from tea balls, tea pots with filters, and even tea 'press' type brewing systems (my personal favorite).

If you are a traditionalist, you can find hand crafted tea pots from stores that carry fine Chinese and Japanese loose leaf teas. These not only brew delicious tea, they look good when you serve the tea.

As for the 'green' part of loose green tea, it has mostly to do with the color of the tea after it is brewed. The green has a range to it depending on the variety of green tea, the quality of the leaf, and the methods for preparing the dried tea.

There are also white teas (much younger leaves) and black teas (different drying process).