1-3 How About a Cup of Green Tea?

Many people love to drink green tea. Did you know that green tea has been used as natural medicine for thousands of years? A lot of science and research tells us that drinking green tea can help people lose weight, prevent heart problems, reduce the risk of many kinds of cancer, and even keep your teeth healthy. All this from just a warm drink!

Tea is one of the world’s most popular drinks. There is even a special job for tasting tea to make sure people can get the best tea possible. Before tea is sent out  for people to buy, tea companies ask their tea tasters to try it. It sounds easy, but it takes at least five to seven years to train to be a tea taster! Watch this video to see a taster try out over 500 teas!

Tea is not just for drinking. It is a form of art in Japan. In Japan, there is a long history of having ceremonies for preparing and presenting green tea. Many Japanese people say, 'It is about preparing a bowl of tea from one's heart.'

Most people don’t have special ceremonies to make and drink tea but there are some basic steps to make a good pot of green tea! Most importantly, think about how many tea leaves you want to put in. If you put in too many, your tea will taste bitter. If you don't put in enough, your tea will not have any taste!

	Before pouring the hot water into the teapot to mix with the tea leaves, it is important to let the temperature of the water cool down a little bit. The water should be around 70-80 degrees C before it is ready.
	How long do we leave it to brew before drinking? If you like your tea stronger, you can leave the tea a little longer to get more flavour out of the tea leaves. If you don't want very strong tea, you can pour yourself a cup after 2 minutes.
	After leaving the tea to brew, you can use a strainer to catch the leaves, like in the picture.
	If you still want more green tea, you can pour more water into the teapot and make up to two more pots from the tea leaves!