How various sizes of tea strainer mesh affects the taste of fukamushi-sencha

I did a test to find out how the mesh fineness affects the taste of futsu-sencha (regular steamed) on the previous blog. Today, I’ll do the same test with fukamushi-sencha (deep steamed).

Fukamushi-sencha leaves are usually finer than futsu-sencha so I assume the fineness of the mesh will have more impact on the taste. This is the fukamushi-sencha I used today which has pretty fine pieces.

Here are three teapots with different strainers.

Teapot A, Mounted stainless strainer (Finer than ceramic strainers)
Teapot B, Fine-mesh ceramic strainer
Teapot C, Regular-mesh ceramic strainer



*** Conditions ***
Tea: fukamushi-sencha, 2grams
Water: 70ml, 70degC
Brewing time: 30secnds


Based on the result, I think A and B are good for fukamushi-sencha.

I found fine grains of leaves on the bottom of A and slightly larger grains in B. I could not tell how big the pieces are in C because it was too murky. After leaving them a couple of minutes, I could check the grains and pieces of leaves more clearly at the bottom. C had more grains of leaves than A and B. It is not obvious in this photo but there are some larger pieces with C.

　　

I’ve tasted them. These are brewed with the same tea and condition so basically they all have similar flavors. However, as you see the difference in their color, the tastes were a little different among the three. B had the lightest flavor and C had a profound flavor and a little bitter. I don’t know why B was lighter than A. Could it be because of the material of the strainer and teapot? I couldn’t say which strainer is good or bad for the taste. It depends on your preference. But I personally prefer A and B. The grains on the bottom make the last sip muddy and bitter. I’m not so comfortable sipping a muddy and bitter sencha. A and B had less grains than C. To conclude, stainless or fine-mesh ceramic strainers are better for fukamushi-sencha.


I also tested the agitate-brewing method at the second brewing. Before pouring, I moved each teapot in a circular motion. Here are what I got from the brewing.

　　　

They are all too murky and I could not tell the size of the floating pieces. I left them for a couple minutes but they were still murky.



I took a sip of each tea. They were all too rough in texture and too bitter even with the finest stainless strainer. I don’t recommend moving or shaking a teapot when you prepare fukamushi-sencha.


If you want to know about futsu and fukamushi-snecha, please check out my three previous posts.
1.　http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2009/12/regular-sencha-vs-long-steamed-sencha-1.html
2. http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2009/12/regular-sencha-vs-long-deep-steamed.html
3. http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2009/12/regular-sencha-vs-long-deep-steamed_10.html

Tea scoop

At this week’s tea lesson, our master showed us a part of her tea scoop collection. Tea scoop is a utensil to scoop and move matcha from a tea container to a teabowl at a tea ceremony. The common tea scoop is made of bamboo with a knot at the middle. We only used the common type of tea scoops during the lesson which is composed of just two scoops from the right. The three from the left are higher-grade tea scoops which are used at some certain tea ceremonies. These tea scoops without a knot are called shin type. What our master has are made of wood, turtle shell or ivory.

Mesh fineness of tea strainers and the taste of sencha 2

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post.

Well, here is the result…


I did NOT find much difference. They are all clear in color and similar in taste. So, my assumption was not correct. When I did this test I didn’t move or shake the teapots before pouring. I gently poured tea into the cups. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get big difference among these three.


So, for the second brewing I moved the teapots in a circular motion to agitate the water and leaves.


Based the result, the difference was slightly more apparent than the first brewing. But the fineness of mesh didn’t affect the taste as obvious as I expected. I think this is because the tea was good futsu-sencha, so it didn’t have many fine pieces of leaves. The result would have been different with fukamushi-sencha. However, I found a slight difference among these teas through these two brewing. Without much surprise, fine pieces of leaves that slipped through the strainers were finer with the stainless strainer and bigger with that of the regular-mesh strainer. The color was the darkest with Teapot C and lightest with B. I don’t know why B got the lightest. Despite the color, C had the mildest taste. The milder taste was affected by the materials of the teapots, not by the finenesse of the strainer, I guess. I assume the rough-grained texture of the material had something to do with the taste.

What I can say today is that the impact to the taste is limited by the fineness of tea strainer, and I think you don't have to concern too much the fineness of strainer for futsu-sencha. I want to try this test with fukamushi-sencha next time. (^-^)

Mesh fineness of tea strainers and the taste of sencha 1

The other day, I did a test to check the relation between the taste and the material of tea strainer. >>> Do ceramic tea strainers brew better tea than stainless ones?

Speaking of strainers, I’m also wondering how the fineness of the mesh affects the taste. I sometimes see mucky-green tea and sometimes very clear tea. I do not think it is just about futsu (regular steamed) or fukamushi (deep steamed) sencha. I believe the fineness of mesh has an impact to the color and taste of tea and wanted to check it out myself.



Here are three teapots with different strainers.
Teapot A, Mounted stainless strainer (Finer than ceramic strainers)
Teapot B, Fine-mesh ceramic strainer
Teapot C, Regular-mesh ceramic strainer




*** Conditions ***
Tea: sencha (regular steamed), 2grams
Water: 70ml, 75degC
Brewing time: 1 minute

Today I’m using futsu-sencha. Do you think the brewed teas will be very different by using these strainers? What do you think? I’ll tell you the result tomorrow.

Matcha cake

It was raining in the morning, but now it’s getting sunny. I’ve just had a Japanese confectionery and bowl of matcha. I feel that it’s gonna be a good day(*^。^*)



The other day, I got some cakes from a neighborhood pastry shop. There was a matcha flavored cake in them. I loved it. It was layered with some matcha sponge cake, mousse, cream and chocolate. It was very smooth and had rich flavor like high quality chocolate. Nowadays matcha flavored sweets are very popular. It is not only for Japanese confectioneries. I even see a lot of combinations of western sweets and the matcha flavor in Japan. I guess most of the chocolate flavored sweets can be substituted by matcha flavor for the bitterness. That’s why matcha flavor goes really well with western sweets as well. Are green tea flavored sweets popular in your country?

Rare teas at a buffet restaurant

This weekend I went downtown Nagoya to see a play. Before the play, I had lunch at a buffet restaurant called Sweets Paradise, which was specialized for sweets. They have some food menu but they also had a big selection of sweets. I had little salad and pasta, and then I had tons of sweets. I’m partial to sweets, and I was so happy ヽ(^。^)ノ They also had a big selection of tea. They were teabags. I didn’t try any of them. There were some rare teas which I have never seen, such as honey hojicha, plum green tea, white peach oolong, and corn medlar tea. I should have tried some, but I was so busy having cakes and cappuccinos. Ha ha ha….

Sweets Paradice webpage (Japanese) >>> http://www.sweets-paradise.jp/

After the play, we had dinner at Gambo and Oyster Bar. I had many different oyster dishes and wine. At the downtown, the Christmas illuminations were glittering beautifully.

Do ceramic tea strainers brew better tea than stainless ones?

Some people prefer teapots with a ceramic strainer rather than stainless one. They say that the irony taste gets mixed in the tea and they don't like that. I’ve heard about it and thought it might be true, but I wasn’t so concerned about it myself. I use both teapots with ceramic and stainless strainers at home. I thought it is time to check the fact of the matter myself (^-^)

Here are 6 teapots. Three of them (A, B and C) have the stainless strainer, and the other three (D, E and F) have ceramic or plastic.

A: Mounted stainless strainer



B: Removable stainless strainer



C: Mounted stainless strainer



D: Regular-mesh ceramic strainer



E: Fine-mesh ceramic strainer



F: Removal plastic strainer



I thought it may be easier to notice the irony taste in plain water rather than in tea. So before brewing the tea, I poured just hot water into each teapot and left them for a while and tasted it later with blindfold. Do you think I could tell the difference in taste between the water in each teapot?


Well… I smelled the water but I could not tell the difference. I took a sip and tasted the irony taste! The hot water in Teapot F had the worst flavor and thought it was the water with stainless one. The F is the teapot that I’ve used for the longest and brewed not only green tea but also English teas. I think it has some stains from the plastic strainer, and they affected the taste. I could not tell perfectly, but I think people can tell the irony taste in the water.



On the next step, I brewed sencha with these six teapots. I smelled the brewed teas first. You know what? I could not tell the difference with the water, but I could slightly notice the irony smell in the brewed teas. I don’t know why, but it is very interesting. For the taste, Tea pot F made it tricky to tell the difference, again. I could not tell them perfectly, but I could still tell most of them. Here I didn’t like the taste with the teapot “A” the most. “A” is a brand new teapot, so maybe that’s why. It was more difficult to tell the irony taste in tea than in water.



In conclusion, you can say that ceramic strainers can brew better tea than stainless ones. Maybe, I’ll use ceramic-strainer teapots when I brew expensive tea, but I’ll keep using my teapots with metal strainer for daily tea. I think it is not a big deal.
There are some advantages of stainless strainers. They are usually reasonable and the mesh is finer than ceramic ones. Stainless-strainer teapots are actually sold many in Japan, and a lot of people are using them. I don’t want you to be paranoid too much about it. Brewing tea should be fun and easy (^-^) Right?

Flowers of the day, Sep 27 –Dec 8

Here in Japan, you see some Christmas illuminations around the town now. And also you will find some The New Year items sold at supermarkets. Happy holidays to you all!
Today I’ll upload some photos for the flowers displayed at our tea lessons.


Sep 27













Oct 6

Oct 13












Oct 18













Oct 20












Nov 3












Nov 10












Nov 17












Nov 29












Dec 1













Dec 8

Kisoji, my favorite restaurant in my town

The other day we went to Kisoji for lunch, my favorite restaurant in my town. It is a restaurant chain, but it offers good quality of foods and services. The waitresses are serving in kimono. Their lunch menus are nice Japanese dish sets. Each dish set we ordered cost 1,500yen. I think they are reasonable for these many dish sets.

This is what I ordered, sashimi set
Some sashimi, tempura, some other dishes, rice and soup













Hiro and my father had sukiyaki set
Have you tried sukiyaki? Beef and some vegetables are cooked with soy sauce based sweet sauce. You eat them by dipping raw egg. Yum(^-^)











My mother had Kisoji set.














Hojicha was served with meal

Sencha was served with dessert
Dessert was ice-cream. They had few choices for the flavor. I had matcha ice cream
(^-^)

Some flowers are display at the hallways


I like their service. They have omotenashi-spirit, hospitality. For example, when you get in the room, they arrange the shoes you take off. They also provided a napkin to cover my wife’s bag for preventing spatters of meal. I think the flowers in the hallways are part of their omotenashi. Those services are not that huge, but small cares to customers. I like that

EMS (Express Mail Service) to the US is back in service

This is a notification from my online-shop, Everyone's Tea

To all our customers based in the US,

EMS (Express Mail Service) to the US is back in service now. We are going to use EMS for deliveries to the US again. According to Japan Post, the customs clearance in the U.S.A is still strict with security. The clearance may take longer than usual. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Everyone's Tea
http://www.everyonestea.com/

Choosing Japanese Tea 4

These are the few suggestions for choosing Japanese tea for beginners.

 Try sencha first
 What grade to choose
 Two major types of sencha
 Good leaves and bad leaves
 Reliable tea shops


I talked about the fist four tips in the past three days. I recommended you to try some futsu-sencha and fukamushi-sencha of nice middle grade, which should have profound color and uniform thin spindle-shaped tea leaves. The last tip is …

 Reliable tea shops
I strongly recommend you to buy green tea from reliable tea shops. I think it is pretty important. If you don’t, you might end up buying poor quality tea. I sometimes hear some supermarkets or tea shops overseas don’t know how to handle green tea.
In Japan, some tea shops have some sample leaves to show customers. Some of them even offer free tastings. You want to buy from those who are knowledgeable and can give you some advice. You might not have a good Japanese tea shop in your town and have to buy on the internet but still dealing with good shops is important. I’m not an expert on buying tea online, so I can’t tell you any particular online shops. I have done a quick research for Japanese online shops before. Check out my past blog; Japanese green-tea online shops >>> http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2010/02/japanese-green-tea-online-shops.html



In conclusion for choosing Japanese tea, I recommend you to try some futsu-sencha and fukamushi-sencha of nice middle grade for first tea. Good sencha leaves should have profound color and uniform thin spindle-shaped leaves and buy them at reliable tea shops. Then you will know what Japanese green tea is like and the basics of Japanese tea. You could try some other types of Japanese tea for the next step. You could try anything you like, could be much high-grade sencha, tamaryokucha, gyokuro or kukicha. You will notice the profoundness of Japanese tea as you explore. Enjoy!

On the previous post about “Choosing Japanese tea”, I mentioned about the prices of sencha. They were Japanese domestic price so the prices in your country or importing to your country may be a little expensive than what I have mentioned.