However, Japan has always been on the same page as China with their production of green tea. The methods are the same and the tea is just as good. If you couldn’t find any tea from China, then Japan has always been a viable alternative that would give you tea of almost identical quality. But that was before the huge earthquake Japan experienced and the crippling blow their nuclear power plant took in Fukushima.

Due to the radiation released from the damaged nuclear facility, Japanese officials have now sought to put a stop to the production of green tea from much of the country, including parts of three prefectures (Chiba, Kanagawa, and Tochigi) and from all of a fourth, Ibaraki.

Because radiation has been found over 400 kilometers away from the nuclear plant, Japan’s entire green tea industry threatens to dissolve. After tea leaves tested at over 581 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, the government officials asked five major tea-manufacturing plants to stop producing the product.

For now, it’s somewhat voluntary, because the Japanese have never been ones to need ordering around. Their culture is about respect and the asking is all it should take. However, if the plants continue to manufacture the tea, it is only a matter of time before they are forcibly shut down.

Implications of Japan’s Disaster on your Green Tea

To date, the Japanese have stopped producing green tea in the regions hit by the radiation. Although the levels of radiation are not lethal, they are still above the recommended dosage and thus are dangerous.

The best step for you as a consumer is to shop your tea from outside of a Japanese source. Some Japanese teas will have “China” somewhere in the name, or something alluding to China, in order to boost sales. But be very cautious about what you’re buying.

The odds of the average person having radiation-detection hardware in their home is extremely unlikely, and the sad fact of the matter is that countries cannot always catch contaminated goods being imported. Remember the whole Chinese lead-toy scare from a few years back?

For right now, avoid purchasing your tea from Japanese sources and go for tea from other parts of the world. Chinese tea is still the safest bet but remember to double-check the type of tea you’re purchasing to be sure.

It is hard to even grasp how long people have been using green tea to experience the health benefits—not to mention the great taste—of the plant. Four-thousand years – this is before Jesus, before Julius Caesar, before Ancient Greece. It was the Ancient Chinese who began using green tea and who experienced the benefits, and to this day it is still green tea from China that is considered the best in the world.

Green tea is able to help cure infections, fight against impaired immune function, lower cholesterol, assist in weight-loss, aid in cancer, and much, much more. The antioxidant qualities of green tea also make for a great cleanser, such as with a green tea facial steam.

Green Tea Facial Steam Recipe

Step One:

The first step in setting up a facial steam with green tea is to obviously purchase some good green tea. Go with a legitimate Chinese brand and not one of these mass-produced, made-for-brewing brands. It will probably cost a little more, but it is well worth it to receive the real green tea and not the imitation variety.

Step Two:

Get a medium-sized bowl that can handle heat, a pot to boil water in, and then set up a station with a towel, about ¼ cup of your green tea leaves, and add in some essential healing oils if you have any (optional, of course).

Step Three:

Boil two cups of water and add it to the bowl. Then take your green tea leaves and place them into the bowl and allow them to steep for at least 10 minutes. Leave the bowl covered up as to not allow the steam to escape or for the water to cool down that much.

Step Four:

After 10 minutes, lean over the bowl, about 9 to 12 inches away from the water, and cover your head with a towel. The steam will begin to cleanse your face and leave you feeling refreshed. Keep the steam going for at least 5 minutes and dry off with the towel after you’re finished.

This steam process will leave you feeling refreshed and will help to cleanse your skin. Whenever you need a quick facial steam, this green tea method will only take about 15 minutes to set up from start to finish.

You can even revitalize the old steam bowl with another cup of boiling water and get two to four steams out of each ¼ cup of green tea leaves.

Green tea is plentiful, relatively inexpensive, and you can find it at nearly every grocery store or health-food shop you visit, not to mention the thousands of online locations where green tea can be found. But is simply finding green tea enough?

In this article, we will discuss exactly how to find and prepare the best green tea. With so many varieties of green tea available, from commercial products to mom ‘n’ pop, small-time companies, it stands to reason that not all green tea is the same. And it’s true. If you are expecting great results from green tea, then you need to find the best green tea – and you have to be able to prepare it properly.

A Guide to Using Green Tea

Quality Tea

This is where it all starts. You need to find the best quality green tea you can if you actually want the full power of its punch. As a general rule, you should avoid those commercial brands. Big-Timer Inc probably makes some good-tasting, affordable green tea. But since they also make flavored teas, iced-teas, and every other type of tea out there, you just cannot be sure that you’re getting real quality with them.

Go with a Chinese brand. Make sure that the ingredients are 100% green tea. You can still buy it in bags and ready to be brewed, but you need to go for a quality product. This may cost you a dollar or two more per box, but the difference is well worth it. When you start with quality tea, the rest is made that much easier.

The Right Equipment

Simply having the best green tea isn’t enough if you are expecting to achieve the promised results. Many individuals feel like brewing green tea the same way they brew other teas, usually in a big metal kettle, will suffice. Well, this westerner way of brewing tea will not extract the tea in the same way.

You should seek out a green tea-specific spot, preferably from China or Japan. These are not necessarily expensive, and they are not one-trick ponies. You will find that these teapots actually brew stronger tea in a shorter amount of time, and you will begin using it for all your tea needs.

The tea needs room to expand, and these Chinese teapots will get the most out of your tea. Something to remember here: Even if you are buying pre-bagged tea, you should still take it out of the bags and use only the dried leaves in the pot.

If you follow these two simple steps, buying the right tea and brewing it correctly, then you will experience everything green tea has to offer you.