What Is The Best Green Tea?

Green tea is the best food source of catechins, a polyphenol or chemical with antioxidant properties that in the lab has shown to be more powerful than vitamins C and E in halting oxidative damage to cells, the Harvard Women's Health Watch notes. The best green teas blend healthy amounts of catechins with exquisite flavor.

Benefits

The best green tea is caffeinated, hot brewed green tea, in whatever flavor you enjoy enough to drink three cups of per day, Harvard indicates. Decaffeinated hot tea, bottled green tea and instant teas have less of these compounds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in 2007 that regular green tea delivers the best benefits, with 127mg of catechins. This is double the amount in decaffeinated green tea, triple that of flavored green tea and 10 times more than instant or bottled green tea.

Expert Insight

Scientists are attempting to quantify catechin content by brand of green tea. In the United Kingdom, the Institute of Food Research in 2004 examined 191 green teas, most from China, and found that high-end Dragon Well tea displayed quality markers including higher quantities of catechins. A 2006 study by UCLA nutrition researcher Susanne M. Hemming and colleagues, published in the journal "Nutrition and Cancer," rated Celestial Seasonings as having the top catechin content, followed by Lipton and Uncle Lee's.

Geography

Japan and China produce many of the world's most acclaimed green teas. The highest-quality Japanese green tea, according to the World's Healthiest Foods website, is gyokuro, described as "history, philosophy and art in a single cup." Its leaves serve as the base for matcha, a tea powder used to brew tea in the Japanese tea ceremony. About 75 percent of the green tea harvested in Japan is sencha, rich in vitamin C and yellow-green in color with an astringent flavor. Bancha is a roasted variety, and houjica has a nutty flavor.

China produces charmingly named green teas including After the Snow Sprouting, Ching Ca, Chun Mei, Gunpowder and Snow Dragon. India's green teas of renown include Bherjan Estate, Ambootia Tea Estate, Mkaibari Tea Estates and Craigmore Estates.

Considerations

Dragon Well green tea, also called Longjing, ranks high for drinking quality as well as catechin content. Mary Lou Heiss and Robert Heiss in "The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas," note Dragon Well is one of China's Ten Famous Teas, once only enjoyed by the emperor. The authors describe Dragon Well's toasty, yeasty flavor with chestnut overtones, making the tea perhaps the best for both flavor and quantity of healthy catechins. The best green tea for beginners is Daily Sencha, notes the Japanese site O-Cha.com in its "Beginner's Guide to Green Tea," a mainstay of Japanese consumers. O-Cha also recommends kabusecha or deep steamed green tea for beginners.

Time Frame

Allow the tea to steep for three to five minutes to extract its catechins, most notably epigallocatechin-3-gallate, Harvard recommends. Add lemon or milk to tea, or drink it between meals, so that tea doesn't impede the absorption of iron from fruits and vegetables.