Zinus Green Tea Review

In This Review
Performance Tests | Firmness | Support & Sleeping Positions | Design | Materials | Comparisons | FAQs

At NapLab, we put each mattress to the test.

We test 10 different factors that impact the performance, comfort, and value of the mattress. We then take the results of that test and compare to every mattress we’ve tested to date.

Check out the full performance table below to see how this mattress ranks:

Factor	Zinus Green Tea	Average
Overall Score	6.68	8.64
Price (Queen)	$249	$1,119 (Memory Foam only)
Cooling – Score	7.0	8.8
Sinkage – Depth	1.96″	2.16″
Sinkage – Feel	Minimal	Moderate
Motion Transfer – Score	8.3	8.2
Motion Transfer – Acceleration	8.83 m/s²	8.64 m/s²
Response Time – Score	5.9	8.9
Response Time – Mostly Recovered	0.8 sec.	0.4 sec.
Response Time – Fully Recovered	2.3 sec.	0.9 sec.
Bounce – Height	5.90″	9.69″
Bounce – Feel	Very Low	Moderate
Edge Support – Score	7.1	8.6
Edge Support – Sitting	4.50″	4.07″
Edge Support – Lying	Mediocre	Good
Sex – Score	6.8	8.5
Pressure Relief – Score	5.0	8.8
Comfort Layer Thickness	3.0″	4.2″
Mattress Thickness	11″	12.0″
Off-Gassing – Score	8.1	8.4
Off-Gassing – Smell	Strong	Strong
Off-Gassing – Days	7 days	6 days
Company – Score	6.5	8.7
Trial	100 nights	166 nights
Warranty	10 years	25% have lifetime warranties, average of other 75% of mattresses is 14 years

How is Zinus Green Tea Different?

The Zinus Green Tea mattress has a lower overall performance score than average, but also a lower price tag than average. That being said, I can’t (in good conscience) recommend this mattress to anyone.

The cheap price creates just that—a cheap, low-quality mattress.

Disadvantages

It has worse cooling than average, slow material response time, poor edge support, and low levels of bounce, which kills the sex score.

This mattress is only 11″ thick (and as thin as 8.5″ in some places). It has less comfort foam than average, which causes pressure relief issues. And likely more important than anything, this mattress sat in a warehouse, compressed in a box, for 144 days, nearly 5 months, before arriving at my door.

Being compressed in a box for this length of time can cause permanent damage to the foam and is likely a contributing factor as to why the mattress did not expand evenly.

Cooling performance is fair, but not more than that on the Zinus Green Tea mattress.

During our tests, I felt a moderate level of heat retention around my body. When we consider the foam type, foam quality, and design, it’s easy to see why.

• Baseline Temperature – the temperature of the mattress before anyone lies on it
• Maximum Temperature (0 minute) – the temperature of the mattress after lying on it for 15 minutes
• Ending Temperature (5 minute) – the temperature of the mattress after being lied upon and having no one on it for 5 minutes

All foam mattresses almost always retain more heat and sleep warmer compared to a hybrid or other coil mattresses, as there is simply more material that can retain heat.

In addition to the all-foam design, the foam quality itself just isn’t great. Less expensive, lower quality foams typically retain more heat compared to higher performance and higher quality foams.

Ultimately, this is a cheap mattress that uses cheap materials.

These materials just don’t perform as well as higher-end materials. The result is a mattress that leaves much to be desired with respect to cooling performance.

Heat Dissipation Over Time

The Zinus Green Tea has a minimal level of sinkage. In our tests, we measured a sinkage depth of 1.96”. This is 0.21” less sinkage than the average of 2.17”. The mattress creates a traditional memory foam feel.

The level of sinkage is documented in the image below.

There is a high degree of body contouring hug. In addition, the mattress has a slower material response (which we discuss more down below). This fact, combined with the more dramatic body contouring hug, creates a mattress surface that’s more difficult to move around on.

To be comfortable on the Zinus you’ll need to love the dramatic wrapping of foams around the exact shape of your body. In addition, you’ll want to be satisfied with being more firmly held in place due to the nature of the foam hug.

The Zinus Green Tea has a low level of motion transfer. In our tests, we measured a total acceleration range of 8.83 m/s². This is 3.8% more motion transfer than the average of 8.51 m/s².

The level of motion transfer is also documented in the video below.

While the memory foam does no favors for cooling, it is a tremendous benefit to motion transfer. The memory foam top layer and all foam design absorb and greatly reduce motion transfer on the mattress.

In our motion transfer chart, which visualizes our accelerometer data, we see the highest motion peaks from 0 to 0.21 seconds. By 0.63 seconds motion returns to near-zero energy levels.

Both the motion peaks and motion duration are restrained and lower than average. Overall, motion transfer on the Zinus Green Tea is low.

Material responsiveness on the Zinus Green Tea is very slow. Both the mostly recovered time and the full material recovery were considerably slower than the average.

The level of responsiveness is documented in the video below.

In our tests, we measured a mostly recovered response time of 0.8 seconds. This is 0.39 seconds slower than average. Being slower than average certainly isn’t great, but 0.8 seconds is still reasonably quick.

That said, our tests of the full material recovery were quite slow at 2.3 seconds. This is 1.42 seconds slower than the average full material recovery speed of 0.88 seconds.

This makes the Green Tea the 8th slowest (full material recovery) responding mattress we’ve tested to date (195 mattress tested).

While many sleepers will find the 0.8 seconds to mostly recover is sufficient, many other sleepers will find the 2.3-second full recovery is simply uncomfortable. In my view, this is a case where those who love traditional memory foam won’t be bothered by the response, while many other sleepers will.

The Zinus Green Tea has a low level of bounce. In our tests, we measured a total bounce height of 5.90”. This is 3.67” less bounce than the average of 9.57”.

In general, I want to see bounce in the 8-12” range. At this range, we can experience the benefits of bounce, including ease of movement and sex performance, while minimizing negatives, namely motion transfer.

At 5.90” the Green Tea has very little bounce. This low bounce level makes it harder to move around on the mattress and absolutely inhibits sex performance. To be fair, it’s also the reason for the low level of motion transfer.

The level of bounce is also documented in the video below.

As with other performance criteria, bounce is an area where those who simply love the feel of memory foam may be able to forgive this shortcoming, while many other sleepers will find this level of bounce is simply insufficient for their needs.

Edge support on the Zinus Green Tea mattress leaves much to be desired. In our sitting edge support tests, we measured a 4.5” of edge sinkage compression. This is 0.40” more sinkage than the average of 4.10”.

The level of edge support while seated is documented in the images below.

While sitting directly on the edge I simply do not feel well supported. There is a collapse of materials. When sitting directly on the edge I felt like I had to hold more of my own weight with my core muscles to prevent the mattress from ejecting to me from the edge.

Lying edge support is fair at best. While the high degree of body contouring hug in the middle of the mattress can be desirable, when we experience that body hug at the edge of the mattress it creates a weakening of the edge support.

The level of edge support while lying is documented in the images below.

When lying on the absolute edge there simply isn’t enough material to both wrap and support the body. During our tests, I did not feel well supported when lying directly on the edge of the mattress.

The Zinus creates a notable degree of “mushiness” on the edge of the mattress. Overall, I found edge support to be quite disappointing. 

Sex performance on the Zinus Green Tea was quite disappointing, but not surprising. All foam mattresses often struggle to create enough bounce, which greatly inhibits sex performance. And that is exactly what we see with the Zinus.

The low level of bounce at 5.9” simply doesn’t return energy for those doing the dance without pants. When you couple this with only good edge support that reduces the “sexable surface” of the mattress you have a bed that fails to meet sex performance at multiple critical levels.

Sex Factor	Factor Weight	Score	Rating
Bounce	65%	6.2	Low
Edge Support	20%	8.1	Good
Noise	5%	10	Minimal
Pressure Relief	5%	5.0	Poor
Cooling	5%	7.0	Fair

What Makes A Mattress Good For Sex?

The best mattresses for sex have high bounce, good edge support, quiet materials, and good pressure relief and cooling.

These 5 factors make up the NapLab sex performance score.

Pressure relief on the Zinus Green Tea mattress is poor at best. During our tests, I felt a moderate to significant level of pressure building around my back and upper body. Beyond that, the mattress just doesn’t feel comfortable and is weirdly hard in certain spots.

In looking at the foams on the mattress it makes sense. These foams look and feel fairly low quality. There is only 3.0” of comfort foam, which is notably less than the 4.2” average comfort layer thickness based on all of our mattress tests to date.

In addition, the foams aren’t anywhere close to the thickness they are supposed to be.

The Green Tea is designed to be a 12” mattress. However, it was only 11” at the thickest, with many parts of the mattress being closer to 10” and some portions as thin as 8.5”.

According to the law tag, this mattress was manufactured in August 2023. I ordered this Zinus on January 11, 2024, it arrived on January 16, 2024, and I unboxed it on January 22, 2024.

This means the mattress likely spent at least 144 days in the box before arriving.

That is a huge number of days for a mattress to be compressed and almost certainly led to the foams being permanently damaged, which is likely contributing to the poor pressure relief performance we experienced. Overall, this is a severely disappointing performance from Zinus.

Off-gassing on the Zinus Green Tea mattress is good.

It was strong right out of the box and the mattress smelled for 7 days before fully off-gassing.

The average off-gassing period of all mattresses tested to date is 5 days so Zinus is just slightly beyond the average.

Zinus offers a 100-night trial period and a 10-year warranty. It has free shipping and free returns as well.

For reference, the average trial period is 163 nights and the average warranty is 14 years (excluding 25% of mattresses that offer lifetime warranties).

Company Factor	Factor Weight	Score	Data
Trial Period	15%	8.0	100 nights
Warranty	10%	8.0	10 years
Shipping	5%	10	$0
Returns	20%	10	$0
Trust	50%	4.0	Terrible
Country of Origin	0%		Indonesia

How Do We Determine Company Score?

The company score takes a look at factors that may influence your experience with the mattress.

Factors include length of the trial period, warranty, shipping / return costs, and country of origin.

The Zinus Green Tea mattress has a medium-firm feel with a firmness rating of 6 out of 10.

This firmness would generally be suitable for a wide range of sleepers, but given the other issues with this mattress, it’s not as simple as that for Zinus.

Support for the Zinus Green Tea is poor. During our tests, I did not feel well supported. Instead, there were significant pressure points and weirdly hard spots on the mattress.

The same foam quality and foam damage issues that impacted pressure relief are also impacting support. It seems highly likely that this mattress sat in a box for nearly 5 months at the factory and/or Amazon warehouse before finally being shipped to us.

The results are foams that have been notably damaged, resulting in support, comfort, and pressure relief issues.

It’s possible that a Zinus Green Tea that didn’t have to make an oceanic voyage to arrive in the USA would perform better.

However, given the fact the mattress is made in Indonesia it seems improbable to think that any Zinus could be delivered from factory to warehouse to customer quick enough to avoid significant damage to the foams, which leads to the poor support performance.

Overall, I’m extremely disappointed in the level of support provided by this mattress. 

Check out the table below to see the sleeper weights and sleeping positions that would be best suited for this mattress.

Sleeper Weight	Stomach Sleepers	Side Sleepers	Back Sleepers
Under 150 lbs.	No	No	No
150-250 lbs.	No	No	No
250-300 lbs.	No	No	No

Design

The Zinus Green Tea mattress is an 11″ memory foam mattress with a medium-firm feel (6 out of 10 on the firmness scale).

Materials

Three layers make up the Zinus Green Tea mattress. From top to bottom, these layers include:

• 3.0″ memory foam
• 2.0″ support foam
• 6.0″ support foam

The Cover

The cover of the Zinus Green Tea memory foam mattress is a thin, knit material that is elastic and breathable.

The Comfort Layer

Beneath the cover is the comfort layer that includes two layers of foam. The top foam layer is a 3.0″ memory foam (green foam).

Directly below the memory foam is a transitional layer (yellow foam).

Zinus calls this “Comfort Foam” on their product page, but it is incredibly similar to the support foam, so much so that I didn’t even notice that it was a separate layer in my initial tests.

However, upon a closer look, it’s clear there is a separate foam layer. Nevertheless, it looks nearly identical to the support foam layer that it sits on.

The Support Layer

The support foam is the bottom layer of the mattress and is designed as a high-density support layer.

How Thick Is The Mattress?

Total mattress thickness and foam thickness vary significantly depending on exactly what we measure on the mattress.

The mattress curves up significantly at the corners and at the edges

On the top right corner of the mattress the support foam only measured 5.5” with the comfort layer measuring 3.0”, giving us a total profile height of just 8.5” at the corner. Well short of the 12” profile we’re supposed to have.

Along the edges we have around 1.0” of foam curvature. When measured closer to the middle / center of the mattress we have a thickness of 8.0” of support foam. But along many of the edges, it’s closer to just 7.0”.

All of these issues really speak to the foam quality. This is an extremely basic foam. Furthermore, the build quality of the mattress in general leaves much to be desired.

To see these sorts of massive curvatures in the foam and foam height that is nowhere near the designed 12” total height is less-than-great.

Product Evolution

Zinus has been in business since 1979, but they didn’t start with mattresses. The company originally manufactured outdoor tents and expanded into online mattresses in 2014 with the development of a machine that could vacuum roll compressed mattresses into a box.

The Green Tea mattress has been around for many years, but it wasn’t until 2022 that the mattress found itself in the middle of a class action lawsuit with allegations of leaking fiberglass causing health problems for sleepers.

The fiberglass was later removed from the mattress and seemingly replaced with PAN (polyacrylonitrile) based carbon, an agent that is slow to burn when used as a fire retardant.

According to Fisher Scientific, polyacrylonitrile may cause the following potential health effects:

Eye: May cause eye irritation.

Skin: May cause skin irritation. May be metabolized to cyanide which in turn acts by inhibiting cytochrome oxidase impairing cellular respiration.

Ingestion: May cause irritation of the digestive tract. The toxicological properties of this substance have not been fully investigated. Metabolism may release cyanide, which may result in headache, dizziness, weakness, collapse, unconsciousness and possible death. Ingestion may result in symptoms similar to cyanide poisoning which is characterized by asphyxiation.

Inhalation: May cause respiratory tract irritation. The toxicological properties of this substance have not been fully investigated. May be metabolized to cyanide which in turns act by inhibiting cytochrome oxidase impairing cellular respiration. Inhalation may result in symptoms similar to cyanide poisoning which include tachypnea, hyperpnea (abnormally rapid or deep breathing), and dyspnea (labored breathing) followed rapidly by respiratory depression. Pulmonary edema may occur.

Chronic: May be metabolized to cyanide which in turn acts by inhibiting cytochrome oxidase impairing cellular respiration. Potential cancer hazard.

While it’s great to see Zinus moved away from Fiberglass for their fire barrier, the fact that the mattress now utilizes polyacrylonitrile doesn’t seem great either.

Other Mattresses to Consider

Not sure if the Zinus Green Tea is the right pick for you? Check out these three other top-rated memory foam mattresses for alternatives you may want to consider.

Frequently Asked Questions

Still have questions? Check out some of the top FAQs on the Zinus Green Tea mattress below and get the answers you’re looking for.