Best Loose Leaf for Catechin Content
by Alberto Bessudo
(Rehovot, Israel)
First of all, thank you so much for this great site. It is very helpful!
I am moving from coffee to green tea for medical reasons. Here come many questions, I hope i am not much of a bother. I would like to go for a green tea with high catechin content, in particular ECGC.
You indicate that the tea with higher catechins content is loose green leaf tea. But I couldn't find a recommendation of a specific loose leaf green tea with high catechins content.
From what I understood, Sencha teas would have high catechins content. Is this correct?
Is there another green tea type with higher catechin content?
From the Sencha teas, you mention that the Fukamushi is steamed longer. Since enzymes are better neutralized under longer steaming, is it reasonable to expect: less oxidation, therefore higher levels of antioxidants, among them catechins?
Yet, this would be in contradiction with the less astringent flavor found in the Fukamushi (astringency in green tea, isn't it supposed to be due to the catechins?)
Would you brew the tea leaves in water with lemon for higher catechin extraction? Is there knowledge about this?, Or would you add the lemon only after the brewing? Is there knowledge that the lemon does not destroy the catechins?
I guess not since the tea goes to the stomach which has high acidity, but if you have more information on this it would be great.
Your recommendation for brewing temperature is 70 to 85 deg C. But literature indicates a much better catechin extraction at higher temperature. Any comment on this?
My first tea buy is a green tea from Hyleys brand. Ultra-cheap. The leaves are large, which I read somewhere that have higher catechin content. The leaves fome rolled like balls (partial rolled) and they open into full leaves, which would indicate high quality.
The leaves smell fresh in the package. The resulting tea is yellow-orange and with not much flavor. Do you know this tea? Please feel free to comment and criticize. Thank you!
