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Would it be advisable to grind loose green tea to fine powder to increase the flavour concentration ?

Also, please share your opinions on the pros and cons of this method.

Thank You

kesari
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    You might want to look into matcha, that is essentially the same thing - high quality ground tea powder used to make a thick concentrated beverage and as a bonus it is readily available. If you're looking to make your own matcha-ish powder from other green teas, I don't know the exact process matcha goes through - but you can probably experiment and see if you like the results – Megha Feb 27 '17 at 04:41
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    Matcha is usually the highest quality Japanese green tea that gets ground, though, which makes it both fairly expensive and very distinctive, taste-wise. I don't know that the taste would be something you'd enjoy if you applied the process to another kind of tea, though of course that's personal preference, so feel free to experiment. The usual method of increasing flavor concentration with tea is to simply use more tea leaves per cup. Have you tried that, and is there a reason you don't like it? – senschen Feb 27 '17 at 12:07
  • Con: fine grind can bring out bitters. – thrig Feb 28 '17 at 00:16

2 Answers2

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Grinding should not increase the flavour concentration, unless you mean increase the amount of tea you can fill a container. The quantity of leaf and steep time would play a bigger factor in the strength of flavour. However, if you powder the tea the main benefit would be shortening the steep time. Which can also be a drawback as you have a higher chance to over steep and bring out unwanted bitter and/or astringent properties out into your tea. For more information on powdered green teas and usage, look up "Sencha" and "Matcha".

Note: If you are wanting a stronger tea flavour you should consider the stronger end of the tea spectrum. Such as Oolong (e.g. Tieguanyin aka Iron Buddha) (e.g. Pu-erh, Goishicha) or Post Fermented Teas.

Food Lover
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  • Why wouldn't grinding increase flavor concentration? You get much more extraction from the increased surface. – rumtscho Mar 02 '17 at 16:34
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Grinding tea leaves will help to extract more flavour from the tea leaves faster. The logic is simple. After grinding, there's more 'tea surface' that can come in contact with water. Real life proof in practice is that when you compare grinded tea in a teabag compared to full leaf teas. Tea bags release most of the flavour in the first steeped, while full leaf teas taste lighter and can last for 4-5 steeps easily.

However, grinding leaf tea wouldn't make much sense, since you can get tea bags; or if you need something super fine than you can get matcha powder. Very difficult though to grind your own matcha. For a real matcha, the stems and nerves of the leaves are carefully removed before grinding and turning into powder. It's something really hard to do by yourself. Let alone the machines you need.

Lisa at Teasenz.com
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