Gunpowder Green Tea substitute

Best substitute

Chun mee or other loose-leaf Chinese green tea

Use the same amount by weight, or about 25% more by volume as the gunpowder green tea you are replacing

Best for Moroccan mint tea

Different taste

The nearest thing on the shelf: the same style of pan-fired Chinese green tea, just not rolled into pellets.

Other gunpowder green tea substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Light Chinese oolong
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
A partially oxidised tea with more body and much more tolerance for hot water.
What changes
Best for
Moroccan mint tea, long steeps, re-steeping the same leaves, tea served very sweet
This is the pragmatic choice for Moroccan-style tea specifically, because the one thing gunpowder does that other green teas do not is survive boiling water and a long steep. Oolong does the same. The flavour is fuller, floral and rounder with far less bitterness, so the mint tea comes out smoother and less bracing, which some people prefer. It also stands up to a lot of sugar without disappearing.
3Japanese sencha
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Steamed Japanese green tea, fresh and vegetal rather than smoky.
What changes
Best for
plain green tea, gentle mint infusions, iced tea
Sencha is grassy, marine and sweet, so a mint tea made with it tastes fresh but distinctly Japanese and misses the smoky depth entirely. More importantly it is fragile: at boiling temperature or with a long steep it turns bitter and spinachy within a minute or two. Brew at 75 to 80C for no more than two minutes, then add the mint and sugar off the heat. Do not use the Moroccan method of boiling the pot.
4Hojicha (roasted Japanese green tea)
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Green tea leaves roasted until brown, giving a toasty, low-bitterness brew.
What changes
Best for
Moroccan-style mint tea, evening tea, anyone sensitive to caffeine or bitterness
An underrated option. The roasting makes it very forgiving of boiling water and long steeping, which is the practical problem with most green teas here, and the toasted character stands in reasonably for gunpowder's smokiness. The liquor is amber-brown rather than green-gold, so the tea looks wrong in a glass, and it tastes toasted rather than brisk. Naturally lower in caffeine.
5Supermarket green tea bags
Taste and texture differ
1 bag per cup, or 3 bags per 500ml pot
The most likely thing you actually have in the cupboard.
What changes
Best for
a quick single cup of mint tea, emergencies
Honest assessment: bagged tea is cut fine so it extracts in seconds, which makes it the worst possible match for the Moroccan method of steeping the pot for five minutes and pouring repeatedly. It goes astringent and papery fast. Steep for two to three minutes at about 80C, remove the bags completely, then add mint and sugar. You will get a perfectly pleasant mint tea with none of gunpowder's smoky body, and you cannot re-steep it.
6Fresh mint alone, with no tea
Taste and texture differ
Use A large handful of spearmint for every 500ml boiling water
The least-bad option if you have no green tea of any kind.
What changes
Best for
a caffeine-free hot drink, after dinner
Be clear with yourself about what this is: a mint infusion, not mint tea. Without the tea there is no astringency, no caffeine and no bitter backbone, which means the sugar tastes much more forward and the drink is refreshing rather than satisfying. Use noticeably more mint than you would with tea, and less sugar than the recipe suggests, since there is no bitterness for it to balance.

What is Gunpowder Green Tea?

Gunpowder Green Tea is Gunpowder green tea, known in Chinese as zhu cha or pearl tea, is a green tea whose leaves are rolled into tight little pellets, which gives a bold, smoky, briskly bitter brew and makes it the standard base for Moroccan mint tea.

Cooking tips

Gunpowder is one of the few green teas you can genuinely pour boiling water on, because the tight pellets release their flavour slowly. That is why Moroccan tea, which involves boiling and long steeping, is built on it, and why most substitutes need a cooler pot and a shorter steep.
Rinse the leaves before brewing. Pour a splash of boiling water over the pellets, swirl for a few seconds and pour it away, then brew properly. This washes off dust and takes the harshest bitterness off the top, and it is standard practice in Moroccan tea making.
Measure by weight, not by the spoon. The pellets are dense and expand several times over once they open, so a tablespoon of gunpowder is far more tea than a tablespoon of loose leaf. About 8 to 10 grams, roughly one heaped tablespoon, brews a 500ml Moroccan teapot.
In Moroccan mint tea the sugar and the mint go into the pot with the tea, not into the cup, and the tea is poured from a height into the glass to aerate it and build a little foam. If you substitute a delicate tea like sencha, add the mint and sugar after the steep instead, off the heat, so you are not extracting bitterness while everything sits together.
The same pellets will take two or three infusions, each a little lighter than the last, and Moroccan tradition treats those successive pots as distinct drinks. Bagged tea gives you exactly one, which is another reason loose leaf is worth the trouble.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use regular green tea for Moroccan mint tea?

Yes, with two adjustments. Use about a quarter more leaf, because open loose-leaf tea gives a lighter cup than gunpowder pellets, and bring the water off the boil to roughly 80C before pouring, because most green teas turn harsh at boiling temperature where gunpowder does not. Steep three to four minutes with the mint and sugar. The result is grassier and less smoky, but recognisably the same drink.

Is gunpowder tea actually smoky?

It has a distinct smoky, slightly toasted character, but it is not smoke-flavoured the way lapsang souchong is. The taste comes from the way the leaves are pan-fired and rolled, which concentrates them and gives a bold, brisk, faintly charred edge alongside the usual green tea grassiness. That bold quality is what lets it stand up to a lot of mint and sugar without vanishing.

Can I skip the tea and just use mint?

You can make a very pleasant mint infusion that way, and it is a decent caffeine-free option in the evening. It is not mint tea though. The green tea provides bitterness and astringency that balance the sugar and give the drink structure, so without it the result tastes sweet and one-dimensional. Use more mint than usual and less sugar to compensate.

How much gunpowder tea do I use per pot?

For a standard 500ml Moroccan teapot, about one heaped tablespoon, or 8 to 10 grams, along with a generous bunch of fresh spearmint and two to four tablespoons of sugar to taste. Because the pellets are so dense it always looks like too little tea and too much sugar, and it is not. Start at the lower end of the sugar and add more, since Moroccan tea is traditionally quite sweet.

Is gunpowder green tea high in caffeine?

It is on the higher side for a green tea, partly because the dense pellets mean people brew a strong pot and partly because it takes boiling water and long steeps, both of which extract more caffeine. It is still well below a comparable cup of coffee. If you want something gentler for the same use, roasted hojicha gives you a comparable body with noticeably less caffeine.

Related substitutes

More beverages substitutes

Gunpowder Green Tea substitute

Other gunpowder green tea substitutes

2Light Chinese oolong

3Japanese sencha

4Hojicha (roasted Japanese green tea)

5Supermarket green tea bags

6Fresh mint alone, with no tea