Green Tea Forum

Ryan · Sensei Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 475

I've never been to a tea house in the first place. I am wondering how tea houses in Japan prepare and serve green tea. Considering sencha will certainly oversteep if left steeping even a tiny bit too long.

Do they have water dispensers at each table for the people to steep their own tea? Or do the people at the teahouse steep the tea for their customers and bring the cups to their tables?

If anyone has info on this I would be very interested.

lukeauge · Uh, Can I Add Sugar? Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 15

Actually, there aren't many "teahouses" in Japan. I remember I expected there to be one around every corner, but it's really more of a specialty thing. I'm sure Tokyo has one, Kyoto does, and Uji does. Even those mostly sell Matcha ice cream and treats. One place in Kyoto I went to did go through great lengths to serve Gyokuro. In Uji, there are plenty of Tea merchants who will gladly serve you a sample tea, but it's typically not a service shop. The only one is the Tsuen Tsuen that Kevin buys his Uji teas from. But, even there they only serve matcha and matcha sweets. And it's more about the Matcha sweets than matcha.

That being said, I've seen tea houses in America where they have to have an electric water heater, especially for Gyokuro. But most don't even attempt. Gyokuro is just too fussy and time consuming and not enough people appreciate it. I think you'd be lucky to find someone who can properly make sencha sadly.

Ironically, what I often found in Japanase "teahouses" was overpriced bagged english tea and good coffee. Go figure.

Luke