Tea: Buying and Brewing on a Budget
I wouldn’t recommend being stingy about tea, but we don’t always have a choice do we…
I speak from experience when I say that a green tea obsession can easily get out of hand and become unaffordable. If you’re downing the good stuff at the rate I am, you’ll need to find a few decent-quality decoys to pad your expensive routine with a cheap cup now and again.
Now, I don’t typically drink anything that’s pre-bagged, because you can be sure the freshness suffers without vacuum sealed packaging. However, you can’t be too picky on a budget, and these two teas are still consistently delicious:
Itoen Genmaicha Matcha
- This is brown rice green tea, which imparts warm starchy flavors and a fuller body. The matcha content adds a nice green cloudiness to the tea too.
Itoen Hojicha
- This is a roasted green tea. It reminds me of toasted wood chips, chocolate, and coffee.
I know that Itoen makes a few other varieties, and I have tried the matcha and sencha ones but sadly was not impressed. The two I recommended have been consistently decent though. Hopefully you can get some enjoyment out of these more affordable options like I have!
How to brew:
Because these are bagged teas there really isn’t a specific process you have to stick to. I usually heat the water to just below boiling, and then I steep for at least 5 minutes. That’s it!
