Controlling the water temperature for Japanese tea

A tea lover from Slovakia asked me how to control the water temperature for sencha and gyokuro. He wants to cool down boiled water to the correct temperature with the tea wares by pouring the water from a cup to cup. And he wants to do it without using a thermometer. I understand that it is difficult to get the right temperature.
I know that many people in Japan don’t usually use a thermometer for tea preparing. I guess the people think so much accuracy is not necessity for just brewing tea, and can tell rough temperature by their experience. But, I use a thermometer almost every time I prepare tea. Because I’m doing a tea related business, and want to learn more about tea and the water temperature. I can say that you can drop about 10 degree C (18 F) by transporting hot water from a vessel to vessel. But it is just a very rough guide, and the results are very much depends on the situation, especially following the three elements.
1. Room temperature
2. Amount of water (servings)
3. Tea wares (size, figure or material)
So, I cannot give you one simple answer to this issue. But I can show you some examples on the next post, and I’ll give you a tip in the end. Have a good weekend!

Two important lessons for the tea ceremony 2

These are the pictures from the tatami room for the second tea gathering we joind.

The other lesson that our master told us for the tea ceremony was…

The second lesson: Behave depending on the time and situation
What we learn and practice in the lessons are just a basic. It is not always right just strictly to follow the procedures that you have learned and practiced. You have to think and behave depending on the time and situation in a tea ceremony. The attitude of improvisation is necessary, our master said.

Here is an example that I experienced in this tea ceremony regarding to a bow to the next guest to me.
We have learned and been practicing in the lessons, making a bow to the next guest, right after your tea is served. It has the meaning of “Excuse me for going before you “.
However, the situation was a little difficult in the actual tea ceremony. Several assistants worked in the ceremony. The assistants brought teas from the preparation room, and the teas were served at almost the same time to every guest. So, when I received my tea and bowed to the one of the assistants who brought my tea, I saw the next guest was almost receiving her tea from another assistant, and was going to bow to the assistant. Then I was supposed to bow to the next guest, but she was kind of busy for receiving her tea. Now, what? What would you do? Do you just bow to her as you learned? Here is the moment when the right attitude of improvisation is required.

Our master said that there is not only one answer, and I could have got through with a quick, brief bow to the next guest, or even could have skipped the bow. As our master said, it is not always right strictly to follow the procedure.

What I actually did was that I moved slowly and waited until the next guest was through with receiving her tea. Then I made the bow to her. I’m not sure if my improvisation behavior was smart and correct.

I kind of realized that we are practicing the temae over and over in the lessons for the attitude of improvisation in tea ceremonies, or for our daily behavior, and not just for remembering the procedure. This tea ceremony was very worth to me.

Two important lessons for the tea ceremony 1

The other tea gathering we joined was Omote-senke style in an ordinary tatami room. It was a large room (about 30-mat room), and indigo carpets were laid for the place where guests seat. There was a tobacco set to indicate the seat for the main guest (the picture on the right).

Our master told us two important things for this tea ceremony, and I actually experienced the lessons.

The first lesson: Don’t be the main guest
The main guest represents the all guests, and communicates with the host and the host’s assistant mainly. It is a very important and honored role. An experienced or senior person should play the main guest. Our master told us to not sit on the seat for the main guest, and don’t be the one.

I think our master is enough experienced, but even she hesitates to be the main guest. This is an episode when we waited for the ceremony at the waiting place. We were the first party waited there. Then, other guests came after, and encouraged us to be the main guest. They were elderly ladies and look very experienced. So, our master declined it at being polite. But they really insisted. We talked for a while passing up the main guest. I kind of saw the significance of humility for Japanese. Eventually, our master reluctantly played the main guest in this tea gathering. She did performed the role very well in style.

I’ll write about the second lesson in the next post! See you tomorrow!

The first tea gathering in Matsuo style

The first tea gathering we joined was Matsuo family tradition style in a proper tea room. It was an only proper tea room in the building. Other gatherings were held in ordinary tatami rooms or conference rooms. The tea room was not an outside individual tea house. It was on the third floor in the building, and had an alley leading to the room. The alley had a little waiting space. We waited there until our tea ceremony was ready. Twelve guests got in the tea room (*six-mat room). The room was not big or bright. It was kind of crowded. Another party joined in the same gathering was a group from a tea school, I believe. Most of them wore kimono and knew the manners for the guest. The ceremony began with a bow by all participants. As the host was preparing tea, a host’s assistant did greeting and had some conversations with guests. The assistant explained about the flowers, art, sweets and some other utensils used in this ceremony. In the meantime, the sweets were served, and the tea for the main guest was ready. Usually at most tea ceremonies, the host prepares the teas for only a couple of the primary guests. The teas for the rest of the guests are usually prepared in a preparation room, and assistants bring into the tea room and serve them. It is done as the same in this ceremony. An assistant came to me, and placed my bowl in front of me. I received it with a bow. I had the bowl of tea with the manner that I learned in the lessons. The tea was just okay. I loved the tea in our lessons better (^_^;) After **viewing the tea bowls used for the main and second guests, the ceremony was over. My impression was that the ceremony was rapid. It was much faster than I expected. I guess it is because most of participants were experienced, so the ceremony went very smooth and quick. The whole ceremony was done in 20-30 minutes. It was shorter than our temae at the lessons.

I could not notice any big difference between Matsuo (this tea ceremony) and Omote-senke (what I’m learning) in temae. I think I was kind of nervous, and busy following my procedure for a guest. I hope as I do more practice and have more experience, I will be more relaxed and enjoy tea ceremonies.


*In Japan, a size of rooms is usually defined with a number of tatami mats. The dimensions of a tatami mat are about 90*180cm.
**At tea ceremony, premium tea bowls are used only for primary guests. Sometimes, the tea bowls are passed on to the rest of guest, and give them a chance to admire the bowls.

Seto citizens’ tea ceremony

It was a busy weekend. The most memorable event was a tea ceremony. The citizens’ tea ceremony was held at the cultural center in our town, Seto. Hiro and I went to the tea ceremony with our master. This is for the first time for Hiro, and my second time to join a tea ceremony, and we both were so excited. Some participants were wearing kimono and some were not. And some seemed experienced, and some didn’t. This is a reasonable, casual tea ceremony that anybody can attend. The Advance ticket was 800 yen for two drinks. At the cultural center, five – six rooms were prepared for the tea ceremonies. We could visit any two rooms with the ticket. I’ll write it more in the next blog. See you tomorrow!

We started using the brazier.

We have been practicing temae with the sunken hearth, which is for the winter style, basically used between December to April. (A picture for the sanken hearth is on the right.) Now it’s in May. So, we started to use a brazier instead of the sunken hearth in the lessons from this month. The positions of each utensil and your sitting direction are different between the winter and summer temae. I’ll always confuse the temae in the beginning of a new season (^-^;)

Gyokuro set at Sagano-yu

It’s a sunny, windy day here. Today, I want to talk about the gyokuro tea set that we had at a café, Sagano-yu in Kyoto. The tea set comes with tea leaves in teapot, hot water, an hourglass and a little dessert, and you blew the tea yourself. This type of teapot is called shiboridashi, which is a small teapot specialized for gyokuro. It doesn’t have a handle. So it's similar to houhin, but Shiboridashi does not have a mounted tea strainer. You pour the tea from the little aperture between the lid and body. The tea set was 800 yen. I think it is pretty expensive for one small shot of tea, but it's gyokuro. I waited for 3 minutes after poured hot water (about 40ml / 50 degrees C) into the teapot.

Hiro and I sheared the shot of gyokuro. It was nice, and we both loved it. The tealeaves after fist brewing looked like in the picture blow.

They provided another hot water for refill, second brewing. The flavor got weaker on the second brewing, but still had the distinctive umami of gyokuro. I tried the third brewing, but the nice umami was gone.

Sagano-yu, a café in Arashiyama, Koyoto

We had tea at a café in Arashiyama area in Kyoto, called Sagano-yu. The building was originally an old public bathhouse, and it was renovated into a café. So, you will find signs of the nostalgic aspect in the building. From our seat, we could see bamboo trees in the terrace. It was a nice, cool café with white-themed interior, and I loved them. We had a gyokuro tea set, matcha latte, and matcha parfait.

Sagano-yu webpage (Japanese) >>> http://www.sagano-yu.com/

Koryuji in Kyoto

On the Kyoto trip, we also visited a temple, Koryuji, which is located close to the Kyoto Studio Park. At the temple, brilliant green of trees was impressive. They have a very famous Maitraya statue, which is first designated as a national treasure of Japan. It was displayed in a hall with a comfortable dim illumination and nice air condition. The hall was almost like a museum. Some other Buddha statues were also displayed in the hall, and some people were calmly walking around and appreciating the statues. There was a space with tatami mats in front of the Maitraya. Some people sat and were meditating there. We did the same as well. Koryuji had a calm and peaceful time with Japanese national treasures and important cultural properties.


Picture of the Maitraya statue (Wikkipedia) >>> http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB:Maitreya_Koryuji.JPG

Kyoto Studio Park

We went to Kyoto on this spring vacation. It is about three hour drive from here. We visited Kyoto Studio Park, where actual period movies and TV dramas being filmed. Their outdoor set looks just like the Edo town. You will almost confuse being in a real ancient town. We joined a short tour for the outdoor sets, and enjoyed some events held in the park.

Kyoto Studio Park webpage >>> http://www.toei-eigamura.com/?c=2

Playing with a sword at a gift shop

The park was crowded

Back-alley in the town

Tea set for gyokuro

This is a tea set specialized for gyokuro, which Hiro’s grandfather used to use. The teapot is hohin type. It is a small teapot with no handle. A tea strainer is mounted on this teapot. The teapot holds about 100ml (3.5oz), and teacups hold about 20ml (0.7oz)/each. They are very small, aren’t they? Look at the picture on the right. This hohin teapot is only as big as a regular tea cup. This tea set includes a water cooler, which you just pour hot water into it, and cool the water. You don’t have to have this kind of specialize tea set. You can prepare gyokuro with a small kyusu (side or back handle teapot) and cups, but smaller will be better for gyokuro as you see here.

We have a spring holidays week in Japan! So, I’ll have a little break from this blog. See you in a week!

Gyokuro, Japanese premium green tea

Gyokuro is prepared with lower temperature and much smaller portion of water than sencha (the most common green tea) preparing. The magnificent allure of gyokuro is the abundant umami. The umami flavor is appreciated as the distinctive quality of Japanese tea, which doesn’t find much in English or oolong tea. English and oolong tea which prefer for their great aroma are prepared with boiling water to bring the aroma out. On the other hand, about 50 degree C water is used to infuse gyokuro for the best umami.
Gyokuro is produced with similar processes as sencha’s. The different process is a cover culture. The tea plants for gyokuro are covered to avoid direct sunshine for about twenty days after new shoots of leaves sprout. Young tea leaves naturally have a lot of umami (or Theanine, amino acids). Theanine change into bitterness (catechin) by the sunlight. Therefore, the covering makes tea leaves that a lot of umami remains in.


The picture is Uji-gyokuro from kyoto (50g 1050yen) that I bought at a Big tea store, Mikuniya-zengoro. Gyokuro look like Sencha tea leaves, don’t they?