Green tea

Green tea is the oldest way to keep a leaf. Pluck it, and the clock starts — within the day it must be fixed, heated in a wok or steamed until the enzymes that brown an apple are stopped. Stop it well and the cup tastes of the field it grew in.

China fixes most of its green tea in a hot dry wok — chǎoqīng — which lends the toasted, chestnut note that distinguishes a Chinese green from a steamed Japanese one. The pan-firing is also the shaping: flat spears for Longjing, tight spirals for Biluochun, fine needles for Maojian.

How to read a green tea

Freshness is everything. The best greens are drunk young, in the months after the spring harvest, and brewed cooler than you would think — water off the boil, around 80 °C, so the leaf gives sweetness instead of bitterness. A glass shows the leaf dancing; a covered cup keeps the aroma.