Green tea is not, or very lightly, fermented during its processing. This type of tea is very popular in China and Japan, where it is deemed to have the most effective therapeutic properties such as preventing cancer due to the antioxidants it contains. There are hundreds of different varieties of green tea.
After picking, the tea leaves (from the Camellia sinensis) are first withered before being heated very quickly at high temperatures to destroy the enzymes that would otherwise promote fermentation. The leaves are then shaped with the use of rollers or by hand in the case of many specialized teas. They are then dried, and sometimes rolled, several times.
