Green Tea Forum

wrath186 · White Belt Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Posts: 21

I think I jumped into the deep end of the cup on brewing green tea. My palate just isn't sophisticated enough yet to pick up on subtle flavors that distinguish good quality tea from everything else out there. I checked this site before posting this thread, but couldn't find the answer I was looking for Now I am now more confused than ever regarding green teas.

Simply put I'm looking for two quality teas. A Gyokuro and a Sencha as they seem to be very different teas with different brewing techniques. I hope to narrow down what I like and don't like using these two as a reference points. I've checked out the O-Cha site extensively and if anyone has any suggestions what teas to start with from that site I would be greatly appreciative of any advice.

olivierco · Brown Belt Joined: 01 May 2007 Posts: 71 Location: France

Uji Karigane Gyokuro "Asa-Giri" is a nice tea to start with.
easy to brew, not too expensive.

For sencha Uji Sencha Miyabi is a great tea.

okimasa · Posted: Jun 28, 2008 12:13 am Post subject:

Probably my favourite sencha from O-cha is the Uji Sencha Miyabi Uji Sencha Miyabi

I haven't tried too many kinds of Gyokuro from O-cha, but I have tried the Uji Gyokuro Shou-Un. Uji Gyokuro Shou-Un It was good and the price was pretty much middle of the road.

wrath186 · White Belt Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Posts: 21

Ok great selection. I think I'll try a bit of each.

Many thanks for all the help. Very Happy

Oni · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 213

Don`t forget to buy appropriate teaware, otherwise you can`t brew good tea, the thickness of your kyusu and the material is as crucial as the water to tea ratio, and a yuzamashi is very helpful for learners to achieve with ease the right temp, P.S. try brewing sencha a little weaker the first time to accomodate with the taste, try 1.5 Tablespoon of leaf 7-8 gramm, to 300cc of water, 1 minute and you can adjust from there, and o-chas brewing instructions fail to mention subsecvent brewing instructions, so I`ll give it to you: for the second brew if you use deap steamed sencha use almost instant pour (no more 10 sec water on leaf) because the leaves have already opened and heated so they give off the good stuff very quickly, per a contrario, if you wait with fukamushi sencha`s second infusion it`ll get very bitter, and for normal sencha for the same reason wait only 20 seconds, third and last infusion for me what regards sencha teas, 30 seconds for fukamushi, 40-50 seconds with regular (uji finish) teas. For gyokuro only marukyu-komaen gives the extra instruction, when first brew is between 1.5-3 minutes of waiting, the second infusion time 30 seconds, (these as follow are my experiences) third 1 minute, forth 2 minutes, fifth 3 minutes. Remember every subsecvent infusion should be at a slightly higher temperature.

wrath186 · White Belt Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Posts: 21

Thanks for the advise. I went ahead and purchased a new pot from O-cha. A little better on than my sixteen dollar purchase.

Also, thanks for the information. I'm going to make up a flash card of that information so that I don't forget.