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Hushfield
Brown Belt
Joined: 30 May 2008
Posts: 49
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 Posted: Jun 09, 2008 5:03 pm Post subject: Making stronger tea |
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I have followed the general guidelines for brewing sencha I found on this and other sites (1 teaspoon / 8-12 oz water, brew between 1-1,5 minutes), and when I follow these I make a cup of tea that is to my taste somewhat 'watery'. Could this be because I bought very cheap sencha? Now I want to make it taste a little more tea-ish and I see two options:
- adding more leaf
- brewing longer
Is there a difference in how these methods affect taste, and is there one method that you consider better than the other?
thanks in advance,
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Kevangogh
Forum God
Joined: 19 Jul 2005
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Location: Japan
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| Posted: Jun 09, 2008 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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It varies a lot depending on the tea itself. One sencha can be quite different from another. Some you can get away with more leaf, other's you cannot. You can vary time a little, you can vary temperature a bit, but don't vary any one of those very much, especially at the same time.
If you get an old, stale, or low grade green tea, it won't matter what you do with it - it wont turn out good. |
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britt
2nd Degree Black Belt
Joined: 22 Oct 2007
Posts: 175
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| Posted: Jun 09, 2008 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Kevangogh wrote: | | It varies a lot depending on the tea itself. One sencha can be quite different from another. Some you can get away with more leaf, other's you cannot. |
I use the same general method, amount of leaf, and brewing times on Kirameki, Miyabi, Fukamashi, and Midori. However, on Hatsumi this hasn't worked as well. On that one I actually use a bit less leaf and extend the first infusion to two minutes, as well as using hotter water for the first infusion and much cooler water for the second. This "tames" the second infusion quite a bit, which had been very strong looking and cloudy, almost muddy, although it actually tasted fine. Now with Hatsumi I get all three infusions looking and tasting similar; deep, dark green on all three, although the second is still somewhat stronger. |
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britt
2nd Degree Black Belt
Joined: 22 Oct 2007
Posts: 175
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| Posted: Jun 09, 2008 8:07 pm Post subject: Re: Making stronger tea |
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| Hushfield wrote: | I have followed the general guidelines for brewing sencha I found on this and other sites (1 teaspoon / 8-12 oz water, brew between 1-1,5 minutes), and when I follow these I make a cup of tea that is to my taste somewhat 'watery'. Could this be because I bought very cheap sencha? Now I want to make it taste a little more tea-ish and I see two options:
- adding more leaf
- brewing longer
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I teaspoon to 8-12 ounces of water seems really low to me. I use about one teaspoon for each 6 ounces. I think the 'watery' taste is normal for the amount of leaf you're using. Some actually prefer that; I like sencha a bit stronger. |
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Oni
2nd Degree Black Belt
Joined: 15 Mar 2008
Posts: 187
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| Posted: Jun 10, 2008 1:31 am Post subject: |
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| Puor boiling water in kyusu 200 cc, imediately pour to yuzamashi, use one and a half tablespoon of tea 7-8 gram, and pour back from yuzamashi to kyusu, wait 1 minute for normal sencha and 40 sec with fukamushi, (10 sec is pouring dont count in pourin you see on the watch that time is up than pour) please try this method especially with y. midori it is wonderful and you`ll be surpised. |
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Hushfield
Brown Belt
Joined: 30 May 2008
Posts: 49
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| Posted: Jun 11, 2008 1:28 am Post subject: Re: Making stronger tea |
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| britt wrote: | | I teaspoon to 8-12 ounces of water seems really low to me. I use about one teaspoon for each 6 ounces. I think the 'watery' taste is normal for the amount of leaf you're using. Some actually prefer that; I like sencha a bit stronger. |
Thank you very much. I tried adding １ spoon ／ ６ oz and especially the second infusion tasted a lot better． Well, better, I liked it more． I think the real problem is that I don't really know what a good cup of tea is supposed to taste like. Of course one might just as well argue that the good cup of tea is the one you like. I guess a lot of the fun in tea is finding out your preferences and then trying out what other people like to compare tastes.
So next on the try-list is the method you provided Oni, thanks for the detailed instructions. |
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britt
2nd Degree Black Belt
Joined: 22 Oct 2007
Posts: 175
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| Posted: Jun 11, 2008 10:26 am Post subject: Re: Making stronger tea |
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| Hushfield wrote: | | ...and when I follow these I make a cup of tea that is to my taste somewhat 'watery'. Could this be because I bought very cheap sencha? |
I never thought to ask before which sencha you are using? You mentioned "very cheap" sencha in the original post.
Sencha bought in Asian markets tends to vary a lot, but much of it is anything but watery. They can actually be quite bitter unless they're so old there's nothing left in them.
Some cheap sencha actually tastes pretty good for the money. However, none of these IMO can compare with the high quality sencha found at O-Cha and a few other online shops.
In all honesty, I started drinking Asian market sencha and although I did like it, I knew I could do much, much better. Nothing in my brewing method could turn cheap sencha into anything else.
I was lucky to stumble across O-Cha, and I've been buying Japanese tea here ever since. The improvement over what I had been drinking is beyond description. If I rate an O-Cha sencha four stars relative to my favorite, the Yutaka Midori, the other sencha would still likely be five stars compared to anyone elses.
Another thing you might try if you still find sencha to be too weak is Houji Cha or Genmai Cha. They both have a unique and more robust flavor, the first from roasting and the second from the addition of roasted brown rice. |
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Hushfield
Brown Belt
Joined: 30 May 2008
Posts: 49
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| Posted: Jun 11, 2008 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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In fact genmaicha is the first tea I drank since getting into green tea, really like the rice krispiness, but I'm surprised how much I like the grassy aroma of sencha. (I'm going all "ooh, sencha" whenever my neighbours mow their lawn)
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you what kind of sencha I have, because it's not written on the package, and I bought the tea in a shop a good 1200 kilometres from here. I read somewhere on these boards that there are five types/flavours of sencha? Google didn't really help me out in finding anything about this, probably because I'm looking in the wrong place. What would those be? |
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