Flavorful-tea brewing

Yesterday, I wrote that my sencha was good at 80degC water and 60sec brewing. But it’s a textbook method (standard method), and kind of boring, don’t you think?

Actually, I often brew this tea with twice the amount of leaves (5g/0.18oz) and lower temperature water (60C/140F). I can bring out the rich umami and bitterness and I like it much better this way. As I take a sip of the tea, sweet green-tea flavor fills my mouth. It is rich and mellow. I can also taste rich bitterness but it’s never intense. The bitterness is rounded and also helps to accentuate the profound umami even more. The tea brewed with this method has a long lasting taste with a round flavor. The aftertaste fades away by leaving a faint sweetness in my mouth. With this brewing, I can get profound umami taste which you can’t get with just ordinary brewing. I think the large amount of leaves really matters in brewing an excellent tea. I guess this method depends on the preference of every person because this is for people who prefer rich tea with profound umami. I’m not sure if it works with your sencha, but why don’t you give a try of my recipe on your weekend?

** Flavorful-tea brewing **
Tea: 5grams (0.18oz) (sencha)
Water: 70ml (2.5oz), 60-65degC (140-149F)
Brewing Time: 60sec

I prefer a big amount of tea at my work. I usually brew three-times the amount of this recipe using a big cup (ippukuwan). 15grams (0.53oz) of tea and 210ml (7.4oz) water were used in the pictures below.

Pour boiling water into the teapot (210ml/7.4oz)


Pour all the water out from the teapot into the cup


Three scoops of leaves (15g/0.53oz for total) into the teapot
One scoop showed in this picture is about 5grams (0.18oz)


Meanwhile the water gets around 63C/145F
Today, the room temperature was 13C(55F) so water got cool easily.


Pour the water from the cup to the teapot


Wait for 60sec


Pour the tea into the cup


Enjoy the flavorful tea!



NOTE:
When you prepare green tea with low water temperature (lower than 70C/158F), you need to brew it for a longer time than usual. But here, I also use a lot of leaves. The low temperature and large amount of leaves used balance out each other. So, I can just brew it for a regular brewing time (60sec).
Despite the great taste of first brewing, it tends to get stronger on the second brewing due to the large amount of leaves. So I try not to leave it long on the second brewing and I immediately pour the tea to the cup.