How to make Cheap Green Tea the Lazy Way

How to make a little bit of Green Tea go a long way.
This post is about making your own green tea powder and using tiny amounts of it to make a surprising quantity of tea. This method makes a bag of green tea leaves go a long way and is also fuss free, there is no need to strain away tea leaves.

The first tip is to avoid buying Green Tea Blends, go for the real McCoy in leaf form, read the label to get the best bang for your buck.

The Second tip is to avoid buying Green Tea that comes in Tea Bags.  In Asia, it is common practice to make Green tea from Green Tea leaves.  In some Restaurants, Green Tea powder is used.

It looks 'pretty' and 'authentic' to use lots of tea leaves and let them unfold and infuse in the strainer, but this used up a lot of leaves just to make 1 cup of Green Tea. The leaves are also only partially utilized.

                                   
To use the the leaves completely, you can grind them in a clean coffee grinder until they become powdery. Grind half a cup of leaves at a time, this is to make sure you get a fine powder that looks like this

Keep the powder in n air tight jar for storage.

Boil some water and fill your cup to approximately 3/4s full.

Green Tea is best made at a temperature a bit lower than boiling point, add 2 teaspoons of cold water to the cup of boiled water to lower the temperature.

Stir in 1/8th of a  teaspoon of green tea powder for small cups and 1/2 teaspoon for tea pots.

Stir in one direction until you get a 'vortex' then stop and reverse, this action sinks the powder into the water for full infusion.



Give it a minute for the Green Tea Powder to settle on the base before drinking.



You only need a tiny amount of powder because the powder has a large surface area to volume ratio and this allows the flavour to infuse efficiently.  You can treat yourself to quality leaves with good flavour and make them last a really long time.