40 teas · 4 free in the app

Green Tea

Green tea is unoxidised leaf, fixed by steaming or pan-firing within hours of picking so it keeps its fresh, vegetal character. It is the type hot water punishes hardest: the 40 green teas here sit at a median 80 °C (175 °F) for 2 minutes, and Japanese shaded greens go lower still.

Green Tea at a glance

Green Tea at a glance
	Leaf	Water	Temperature	Time	Re-steeps
Western	3 g	250 ml	80°C / 175°F	2 min	3
Gong Fu	5 g	100 ml	80°C / 175°F	25 s +	4.5

Caffeine: 30 mg per cup22 with a Gong Fu ladder 4 free in the app

Median values across all 40 teas on this page. Each tea's own page carries its exact numbers.

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What makes green tea green

Green tea is the same plant as black tea, stopped early. Within hours of picking, the leaf is heated — steamed in Japan, pan-fired in China — which deactivates the enzyme that would otherwise oxidise it. Everything that follows is shaping and drying, so the finished leaf keeps its chlorophyll, its fresh vegetal aroma and most of its catechins.

That single processing difference explains the split you taste. Japanese steaming produces the marine, umami-heavy profile of sencha and gyokuro; Chinese pan-firing produces the chestnut and toasted-grain register of Long Jing and Bi Luo Chun. Neither is a stronger version of the other — they are two different answers to the same leaf.

How to brew green tea

Green tea is where guessing costs you most. The median across these 40 teas is 80 °C (175 °F) for 2 minutes at 3 g per 250 ml, and the delicate shaded Japanese greens want 60–70 °C — boiling water scalds the amino acids into bitterness in seconds and cannot be undone by any adjustment afterwards. If you have no thermometer, boil the kettle and let it stand five to seven minutes, or pour once between two cups to shed the heat.

Twenty-two of these teas also carry a Gong Fu ladder at 5 g per 100 ml, starting near 25 seconds and running about five infusions — the way a Chinese green is drunk when the leaf is worth following through its arc. Matcha is the exception to everything on this page: it is whisked, not steeped, so you drink the leaf itself rather than an infusion of it.

Caffeine and when to drink it

The median here is 30 mg of caffeine per cup, though the range is wide — shaded teas like gyokuro and matcha climb well above it because shading raises both caffeine and theanine. The combination is what people mean by green tea's alert calm: caffeine for the lift, theanine to take the edge off it.

Four of these teas are free in the app, and the collection below is ordered by what readers in this language open most, which is why the list you see differs from the English one. Each tea links through to its exact temperature, ratio and infusion schedule.