Green Tea Forum

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 115

Besides a free sample at Teavana which I am quite hesitant to call a first try, I have never had the pleasure of having gyokuro.

I was wondering to those who might know better whether I "must" go for the higher quality Fujitsubo or Gyoku-Hou for a first experience or whether I could adequately get a sense of this kind of tea with something like the Shou-Un or a karigane??

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

First try the casual way with higher quality tea ( 1,5 tablespoon to 200cc with 60 C water temp for 2 minutes) this will be sweet and light. After this try the traditional way, generally this is the mater of your personal taste there are no guidelines, here is how I do it: first you need a small capacity teaware, either a mame-kyusu (very rare to find), or houhin, japanese gaiwan (easier to find, I bought it especially for gyokuro from Horaido - just google this and you`ll find it), so the higher the quality the tea the more leaves you can use, with Kame no yowai (very high quality from gokoh plant) I use 2 Tablespoon of tea (leveled), I pour 120cc of tea to the houhin, after a while I transfer this to the yuzamashi, I wait a while, transfer to three cups, and I measure the temperature until it gets to 56 C, the I put it on the leaves and wait for 2 minutes, I pour it out back to the yuzamashi, pour until the last drop, and serve it, after that a little tap on the back of the teapot and put the lid only half on so that any steam can escape so that it does not brew your tea and they can dry waiting for the second infusion, which is with higher temp water 58 C and steeped for 30 sec, 3rd 60 C for 1 minute, 4th 63 C 2 minutes, 5th 65 C for 3 minutes.

okimasa · Posted: Aug 09, 2008 9:43 pm Post subject: Re: First Gyokuro Experience

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 115

Thanks for the help. I am just now sipping the sencond steep of my first ever pot of gyokuro (the Fujitsubo from Tsuen's). What a delightful tea experience my first taste of gyokuro has been. I brewed according to O-Cha and Oni's "casual way" and it was indeed light and very sweet as tea goes with an extremely complex flavor (I feel like it tastes a little different with each sip) and an incredible after taste that is almost better than the "initial taste" and stays on the tongue for a long while afterwards. I will have to try this traditional method sometime soon as well.

When brewing "casually" how long should one do 2nd and 3rd steeps? I just did a little over a minute for the second with about the same temp water (about 140F/60C) thinking that it might be like sencha with a bitterness if steeped too long for the 2nd. seems to have worked okay.

Chip · Posted: Aug 21, 2008 5:30 pm Post subject:

Cool, congrats GIG!

For a really good gyokuro, I enjoy it with a lot of leaf, up to 2 grams per ounce water. I brew even lower temps, then raising the temp 10-20 degrees per steep. Times, I use similar to sencha for 2-5 steeps. When I use this much leaf, I only do 2 ounce steeps, gyokuro can really give you a rush!

If I am going to brew larger steeps, I usually go with the 1 gram per ounce.

As much as I like gyokuro, I still only have it once every week or 2. Not sure why, well, I really love sencha.

britt · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 179

I've been drinking O-Cha's Kamegirushi over the course of the day. I shortened the infusion times from what I normally use. About one half tablespoon gyokuro or a bit more to about 1.5 ounces of much-cooled water for 2.5, 1.5, 2.5 minutes. The water for the third infusion was a little hotter than it was for the first two. This gave me three decent infusions. I usually do 3.5, 3.5 minutes and then toss it out and use fresh leaf to continue; I actually prefer this way.

After using the first method all day with the Kamegirushi, I tried doing the same with some Yame gyokuro I received from another vendor. It didn't work well at all. The first infusion was not very good. I think the other vendor's gyokuro needs much less leaf or it becomes bitter very quickly. I will adjust the amount of leaf the next time but so far I'm less than impressed when compared to the two O-Cha gyokuro's I've tried ( the second is the more expensive Tsuen, the name of which eludes me right now).