Top 5 Most-Viewed Styles of Green Tea on RateTea

This week, my top 5 post highlights the most often-viewed pages for styles (varieties) of green tea, on RateTea. This ranking is not what I would expect, although a few entries make sense. One thing that surprises me, however, is that the top four entries are all types of tea originating in Japan. Only one Chinese green tea makes the list, and it is not one of the most well-known ones, although I do think it is a rather interesting one.



The list:

• Matcha - This page being #1 actually makes sense to me. Matcha is something that Americans tend to be pretty interested in, but know little about. There are a lot of websites promoting the health benefits of matcha, but fewer more impartial resources on it. I've also heard the sentiment expressed frequently that people do not know where to buy good matcha, so it would make sense that they'd come to a site like RateTea to read about it. Ironically, it is one of the least-reviewed types of green tea on the site. I hope people at least enjoy the informational content. And I do hope that some people can go on the site and review some more matcha; I'm not a real matcha enthusiast so I'm unlikely to seek it out to review any time soon.


• Gyokuro - Gyokuro is a bit of a high-end specialty product. It gets a lot of views because it is linked to from the articles on L-theanine and matcha; gyokuro is one of the teas highest in theanine and is also the tea that the chemical was originally isolated from.


• Sencha - As it is the most common style of Japanese green tea available in America, it makes sense to me that sencha would make this list.


• Hojicha - One of the "least green" green teas, and also one of my favorites, this roasted green tea has a mellow flavor, but an aroma that I think of being more similar to coffee than any other green tea. I would not have predicted hojicha making this list, but I can see why it is on here, because it is a rather interesting type of tea.


• Anji Bai Cha - Anji bai cha, meaning "Anji white tea" produces a light-colored infusion, but is a green tea if viewed by production method. It is a bit of an esoteric tea, and it gets traffic mainly because it is linked to from the page of L-theanine, because it, together with Gyokuro, is one of the teas highest in theanine.

Lovers of Chinese green teas will be pleased to learn that the runners-up were gunpowder green tea and dragonwell (Lung Ching), followed by mao feng green tea. And, for what it's worth, it's a close race; matcha gets somewhere between two and three times as many views as mao feng. Overall, the different pages on green tea on RateTea seem to get roughly comparable amounts of attention.