Why wont my loose leaf green tea brew?

Question

i bought loose leaf green tea from www.grandtea.com and i use a ball wire mesh infuser. I use correct temp. water and I am using alot of tea leaves but when i put the tea into the water it barely even changes the waters color. and i brew for like 3 minutes. WHY wont this stuff brew. I never have problems with the disposable pouch ones u buy from the grocery store. What is the trick to loose leaf teas??

Answer 1

If you bought a green tea, green teas don't get very dark and neither do white teas. However, it is better to pour the hot water over the leaf or place it loose in the pot.
To brew green tea, using a Japanese teapot called kyusu is the best. Basically put green tea leaves in the pot and pour some hot water. Then, cover the lid and wait for a while before serving green tea into individual tea cups called yunomi which has no handles. When serving green tea, make sure not to leave any tea in the tea pot. You may brew green tea a few times from the same tea leaves.

To brew tasty green tea, water temperature is important. Change the temperature depending on the kind of green tea you are drinking. Cool boiling water in a tea pot or tea cups before pouring over tea leaves.

When brewing sencha green tea, use 160F degree hot water and brew about one minute in a tea pot. To brew gyokuro green tea, use 110F degree hot water and brew about two minutes. To brew hojicha, genmaicha, and bancha, use boiling water and brew just 15-20 seconds.

To drink macha green tea, shift 1 tsp of maccha green tea powder in a large tea cup and add 1/4 cup of 160F degree hot water in it, then stir quickly with a bamboo tea whisk.

Pouring hot sencha green tea over some ice in a cup makes iced green tea. Enjoy green tea!

Answer 2

How does the tea taste? Are you sure it's not brewed? Some teas are just really pale. The first oolong I tried was like that. I kept thinking something was wrong because the water was so pale, but it tasted fine.

Also, try putting the infuser in the pot and then pouring the water over it. A couple of times when I've put the infuser in the water, the leaves have just floated at the top and not really steeped. You could also try moistening the leaves before you brew.

Answer 3

Are you possibly putting too much tea in the ball? If not, I usually brew my tea for 5 min., not 3.

Answer 4

try using a tea/coffee press instead of the infuser

Answer 5

try just putting the leaves in a really hot cup of water and drink it like chinese people do.