I’ve been really into green tea lately, and not just for the taste. I mean, it’s got that earthy, slightly bitter flavor that I love, but there’s more to it. I got curious about the whole pH thing with green tea, so I decided to do a little experiment of my own.
So, first, I grabbed a bunch of different green tea bags from my pantry. I had some sencha, some jasmine green tea, and even a bit of matcha powder. Basically, a good variety to test out.
Next, I needed some way to measure the pH. I found this cool little digital pH meter online. It was pretty cheap, and it looked easy enough to use. Once it arrived, I calibrated it according to the instructions—dunking it in some special solutions and all that. Seemed simple.
Now for the brewing. I boiled some water and let it cool down a bit. I heard that using boiling water straight up can make green tea bitter, and I didn’t want that to mess with my pH readings. Then I steeped each type of tea separately, following the instructions on the packages. Mostly it was like, two to three minutes per tea bag.
After each tea was brewed and cooled down a little, I took my trusty pH meter and dipped it in. I made sure to rinse it with distilled water between each test to avoid any cross-contamination. And here’s what I found:
- Sencha: The pH was usually around 6.0, sometimes a bit higher, like 6.3.
- Jasmine Green Tea: This one was pretty similar to the sencha, hovering around 5.8 to 6.2.
- Matcha: Now, this was a little different. Since you’re actually consuming the whole leaf with matcha, the pH was a bit lower, closer to 5.5 or 5.7.
It was pretty interesting to see the numbers change depending on the type of tea. I also noticed that the longer I steeped the tea, the more acidic it became. When I let a sencha bag sit for like five minutes, the pH dropped closer to 5.5.
So, yeah, that’s what I did. I’m no scientist, but it was a fun little experiment. It definitely made me appreciate my daily cup of green tea even more, knowing that it’s not just tasty but also has this whole other dimension to it with its pH levels. I might try testing other brands next or maybe even loose leaf tea. There’s so much to explore!
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