This is a question we are consistently asked here at BlendBee. We carry 7 unique types of loose leaf green teas. Each one has its own unique history and special traits that make it distinctive in flavor while benefiting your health. Benefits of green tea include keeping your blood pressure regulated, your immune system going strong, your metabolism pumping and even fights cavities by strengthening your tooth enamel. Learn about each of the Green Teas we carry...

Sencha Green tea has its beginnings (1700s) in Kyoto, Japan, by Soen Nagatani, who came up with a process making an aromatic tea of the highest, consistent quality, yet it was also affordable. Sencha tea is a savory blend of sweet and bitter, and has a pleasing bright yellow-green color. The benefits are many. It is no wonder that Sencha tea is the most popular tea in Japan. It has a high concentration of antioxidants and polyphenols. What does that mean for you? The antioxidants in Sencha tea wipe out the free radicals from the pollution, and keep you healthy. Blend Bee Sencha tea effectively helps your cardiovascular system, warding off disease. The polyphenols work to control the cholesterol levels, and also keep your body’s sugar level low. Both the antioxidants and polyphenols (among these compounds are catechins) build up your immune system. What are the best green teas? Certainly, Sencha is one!

Some benefits of Sencha Green tea:

• Loaded with antioxidants.
• Develops your immunity to diseases.
• Helps boost your metabolism.
• Helps control your blood sugar levels.
• Helps control levels of both cholesterols in your body.

China, or Chunmee tea has been a popular green tea in China since the Ming Dynasty of the 17th century. In the Anhui, Jianxi, and Zhejiang Provinces, Chun Mee tea means “Precious Eye Brows”, and its dried tea leaves look just like eye brows. This green tea has an exceptionally soft taste with an aroma like sweet plums that stays with you after every sip.  China Green tea’s fruity taste blends well with many other tea flavors. We will often use China Green tea as our base when we use flavors, as it holds it so well.

Some benefits of China Green Tea:

• Boosts your immune system.
• Aids in shedding excess pounds.
• Helps fight different cancers.
• Wards off carcinogens.

Gunpowder green tea was first created during the Tang Dynasty, as early as the 7th century in the Zhejiang Province, China. Its distinctive trait is that every tender dried tea leaf is tightly rolled into a pellet. In China it is called Zhu’ Cha, meaning “pearl” due to its resemblance to shiny pearls before brewing. Gunpowder Green tea is a bold deep green with a strong slightly bitter taste. It is exceptional blended with a little licorice root, stevia leaf, or peppermint. You can make your own mix of Gunpowder Green in our Blending Station.

Benefits of Gunpowder Green tea are:

• A longer life
• A natural barrier to diseases
• A healthy metabolism booster
• A healthier cardiovascular system? 

Young Hyson Green Tea is among them. Hailing from the Anhui province, China, it is called “Young” because this very flavorful tea is harvested before the rainy season; its young leaves bring your taste buds a sweet, sunny flavor. Its popularity spread west rapidly from China in the 18th century. Hyson means “thriving spring”, giving you a sunny golden tea to savor every sun-ripened sip! It can be served piping hot, or ice cold to suit your season and taste. What’s more, the benefits of Young Hyson are many.

Young Hyson Green Tea is known to:

• Reduce high blood pressure
• Regulate cholesterol
• Help your digestion
• Keep stamina
• Keep your circulation flowing well
• Keep your skin glowing

Jasmine Green tea has been a fragrant medicinal tea for many centuries. In the 1200s Jasmine tea had its origin during the South-Song and Ming Dynasties in China, where the process of getting the most flavor and aroma from jasmine was perfected in the Guangdong province. It is a lightly sweet, fragrant tea that is beneficial to you from its blending with green tea. So it is also an effective medicine. Who says medicine has to taste like medicine?! Jasmine tea has proven to be an effective medicine in preventing/treating depression. There are other health benefits as well. Jasmine Green tea also has significant value for aroma therapy. Medical studies show that people with a dangerously high heart rate enjoy such a calming effect from its aroma that their heart rate lowers, while their mood is enhanced. What a tasty way to relieve stress! By drinking our jasmine tea, the antioxidants keep your “good” HDL cholesterol at the desirable high level, and your “bad” LDL cholesterol at a low level.

Thanks to its high antioxidants and jasmine flower aroma Jasmine tea helps:

• Prevents coronary problems
• Combats cancer
• Settles anxiety
• Treats headaches
• Reduces chronic fatigue and malaise
• Controls cholesterol

White tea originated from the Zhejiang and Fujian provinces in China during the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century. White tea gets its name from the white temporary appearance of the tea plant’s buds which are included with the white tea’s leaves before brewing. Once brewed, it changes to light yellow. White tea is also loaded with catechins, an antioxidant that enhances your health. This tea helps you relax, and also benefits you in other ways. It reduces plaque in your circulatory system. White tea is picked early on in the season when the buds are still fresh, young, and tender. Due to this early harvesting, the taste white tea presents is very light and sweet, without the sometimes astringent qualities of usual green teas. White tea contains lovely, full length leaves, and young tight buds which produce a perfectly balanced cup. While the name of this tea can be deceiving, it should be known that it is mostly green and brown in color, with delicate white tones underneath. White tea is by far one of the best green teas you can have the luxury to drink.

White tea has many benefits:

• Preventing cancer
• Boosting metabolism
• Opening up your blood flow
• Helping prevent a heart attack or stroke
• Lessening the impact if there is a stroke
• Keeping your blood pressure regulated
• Protecting you from harmful bacteria and viruses

Yerba Mate tea was first harvested and enjoyed in southern Brazil by the native Tupi and Guarani tribes, long before the first European settlers arrived with the explorer Pedro Cabral in 1500. It is not technically a green tea, but it is one of our favsoites, so we're throwing it in the mix. This health-promoting tea is created by brewing the ground stems and leaves of the yerba mate plant. The composition of yerba mate is unique from other caffeine-containing plants. It has xanthene which works to calm your body’s smooth muscles while you sip this flavorful tea. It is excellent for you if you are sensitive to the caffeine in other beverages. Yerba Mate actually clears the lactic acid from your body after any kind of exercise. Also, yerba mate has many beneficial minerals: manganese, magnesium, and potassium. The taste is acquired due to its tannin content, so it is not a sweet tea naturally. If you desire a sweet yerba mate, you can blend it with licorice root, or even stevia leaf in our Custom Blend section. Many medical studies have verified the many health benefits from drinking yerba mate tea. Due to its antioxidants (considerably more than green tea alone) it has been shown in medical studies to:

• Build up your immune system
• Decrease the risk of hypoglycemia and diabetes
• Enhance memory and concentration
• Enhance your mood
• Help lose excess weight by suppressing your appetite
• Relieve allergies
• Promote better sleep
• Lower the “bad” (LDL) cholesterol
• Increase the “good” (HDL) cholesterol
• Reduce cardiovascular problems

Drinking yerba mate often as a hot beverage (called chimarrao in Brazil) has also been shown to reduce the risk of various throat cancers, such as cancer of the squamous tissue, esophagus, and larynx. Please, note that in the studies (International Agency for Research on Cancer) it was found that sipping yerba mate is most effective in preventing these cancers if you eliminate smoking, and consume alcohol only moderately. It can actually slow down the aging process, cleanse your circulatory system, and even help prevent other forms of cancer. If you work out, or compete in any sport, yerba mate tea promotes physical performance. It stimulates your body metabolism so that your body burns all that you consume efficiently. The result is that it helps provide more stamina while it also burns the calories from stored fats. By preventing the usual lactic acid build-up, allowing you to recover quickly from all that exercise. If you have any food digestion problem at all, yerba mate is there for the rescue. This will also help your sports performance. Yerba mate tea flushes out your colon and makes your digestive system more efficient. Regularly drinking yerba mate cuts down the gastric juices in your system while wiping out the bacteria that causes halitosis (bad breath). So, grab a comfortable seat, and enjoy Blendbee yerba mate regularly. Have fun mixing it with other Blendbee ingredients to personalize the taste.

If you want to learn how to grow your own tea plant at home, check out this link

So, what are the best green teas? They are the ones that taste great, yet provide you the most health benefits. Here at Blend Bee we only use the absolute highest quality loose leaf green teas you can find. Have fun creating your own custom blends in our Custom Blends section, or choose from our Popular Green Tea Blends. Cheers! What are the best Green Teas, written by Jerry Rivers, Staff Writer for BlendBee.com

For more information on Green tea, visit ManyEats blog here

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Agency_for_Research_on_Cancer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sencha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_mee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_green_tea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmine_tea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_tea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate