Can you age green tea? — The Tea Squirrel

Can you age green tea?

That is the question that I asked myself while holding a nondescript pouch I had just retrieved from the back of my tea cabinet. It was still sealed, unlabeled and had a long code handwritten on one side. I knew exactly what it was. A micro-lot Korean green tea I had purchased at a tea tasting two years ago. Unintentionally, I had been putting off opening it, waiting for the perfect occasion. Honestly, my first response to the question “can you age green tea?” would be a resounding “no”, but I was about to find out firsthand anyway.

I took 6 grams of my tea leaves, put them in a spouted tea bowl and poured 60 milliliters cold water on top of the leaves. Then I added 2 ice cubes and let it cold brew (somewhat mizudashi style) for 15 minutes at room temperature. The scent was insanely umami, savory and mouth watering and please bear in mind that the steeping technique didn’t involve hot water. I was astonished. The steeped tea liquor was viscous, full-bodied and delicious with some roasted notes.

It’s a bit of a myth that you can’t age green tea. I’d say that it depends, though. If you don’t start with high quality leaves, there’s literally nothing you can do to improve them. Some green tea types will work better than others. The way they are stored will also have an impact on the end result. In my case, the tea was sealed in a pouch (air tight and not exposed to light) and stored in my tea cabinet, which, despite being in my kitchen, is away from heat sources. Additionally, my tea cabinet only contains unscented teas (the scented ones are stored elsewhere).

There are instances in the tea world where aging green tea leaves can produce excellent results. Here are the ones that come to mind.

Kuradashi

I had heard of this method in relation to tencha, the green tea that is ground into matcha but it can be applied to other Japanese green teas. I found the article on kuradashi on the Tea For Me Please blog extremely informative and this is an excerpt of what Nicole says about it.

“Kuradashi tea is intentionally aged Japanese green tea. This method was originally used for tencha destined to be made into matcha, but gyokuro and sencha can also be aged in this way. Over time the taste of the tea becomes more rounded, mellow, and sweet with deeper umami. The tea is traditionally stored away in the spring and released from storage in the fall. Kuradashi teas are usually aged for anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.”

Green tea or light oolong?

There’s one tea I love that blurs the boundaries between green tea and light oolong, the Grass People Tree Masters Green from Guizhou in Southwest China. It was aged for 3 years and it is absolutely captivating, beautifully floral and aromatic. Another green tea that defies stereotypes.

Sheng Pu erh

Sheng pu erh starts out as a green tea in terms of processing. In a very broad sense, we could say that it is some sort of aged green tea. The difference though is that the ‘kill green’ process in sheng pu erh “doesn’t completely cook the leaves throughout, and not all of the enzymes in pu erh are killed. Since not all of the enzymes are killed, it slowly oxidizes over a slow and a long period of time.” Beautifully explained by my friend Cody, The Oolong Drunk.

Have you ever intentionally or unintentionally aged green tea? How was it?