What you need for making Japanese tea

A Japanese-tea beginner asked me for an advice for basic tea wares to start preparing Japanese tea. He or she is looking for proper utensils for this. Today, I’ll introduce what you need and some tips to choose your first Japanese tea set.

Let me state an example scenario for a beginner. Suppose that you want to enjoy tea by yourself or with your partner. You may sometimes want to serve tea for guests. *As I wrote on the previous posts, I would like to recommend sencha for the first Japanese tea. So I think the tea wares for sencha will be good for the first tea set. It will be very ideal if the tea wares can be also applicable to other teas, in case you might want to explore more of the Japanese tea. So, here I will introduce a tea set mainly for individuals or couples and good for sencha brewing.


 Essential items

Teapot - Simple classic Japanese teapot; kyusu (side-handle type)
Size: around 200ml (7oz)
Strainer: mounted fine-mesh ceramic strainer
Production region: Tokoname
I would like to explain the details in a future post.


Tea cup × 2pcs - Regular sencha-cup
Size: about 70ml at practical use (not full capacity)
Material: toki (ceramic) or jiki (porcelain), but avoid thin porcelain
A bowl-shaped cup is called sencha-cup or kumidashi-cup. Cylinder-shaped cup is called yunomi-cup. Personally, I think that the sencha-cup is more sophisticated than the younomi cup, which would be better to use if you are serving tea for guests. Thin porcelain cups are usually regarded as a high-quality cup, but here we want a wide application as your first cups. Thin porcelain cups have a high thermal conductance, so they are not really good for hojicha, bancha, and genmaicha which is usually prepared in boiling water.

Saucer × 2pcs - Wooden round saucer
Japanese saucers do not come in the same design with a cup like that of the western tea sets. Wooden rounded saucers are often used for Japanese tea. The sound when you put a cup on a wooden saucer is different from the sound on a porcelain saucer. It is gentle and you will appreciate it. You can choose any design with your taste. We don’t always use saucers for casual tea at home, but now we are expecting a situation using this tea set for serving tea for guests, so it’s better to have one in your tea set.

 Other items

Tea caddy
Any light-proof and air-tight container is good. However if it is Japanese designed caddy, it will be better. Japanese caddy will enhance your tea set more.
Capacity: around 100g tea leaves


Tea spoon
You can estimate well the amount of leaves by using a same spoon always when you prepare tea.

Water cooler
High-quality Japanese tea is usually prepared with warm water. Even you need the warm water, you should always boil the water first, and then you let it cold to the desired temperature you want. Water cooler is best used in order to make the hot water, cool much faster

Waste-water receptacle
I personally don’t use a waste-water receptacle much. But it will be helpful to have a waste-water receptacle at the side of your table when you serve tea for guests. You don’t have to leave the table every time you want to throw waste-water and leaves away.

I’ll write more about this topic on the next post! Talk to you later!

*Previous posts about choosing Japanese tea
1. http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2010/11/choosing-japanese-tea.html
2. http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2010/11/choosing-japanese-tea-2.html
3. http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2010/12/choosing-japanese-tea-3.html
4. http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2010/12/choosing-japanese-tea-4.html

Koshikake-machiai, waiting bench in tearoom garden

When I went to the tea ceremony to Urakuen in Inuyama, I took some pictures around the tea room. A proper tea room (or I should say proper tea house) obtains some subsidiary facilities such as the way leading to the tearoom and waiting bench in the garden. The photo is the waiting bench, called koshikake-machiai. At a formal tea ceremony, guests wait at the bench in the garden until the ceremony is ready. The guests will be notified as soon as the ceremony is going to start by sound of the bell or sound of pouring fresh water into a stone basin.



Please imagine that you are waiting for a tea ceremony at the bench in a calm Japanese garden. Looking at your surroundings, you enjoy finding the wide variety color of green in moss and trees. Then you hear the sound of pouring fresh water into a stone basin from somewhere in the garden. By hearing such, you will realize how quiet the surrounding is. You can tell by the sound that notifies everyone the start of the ceremony how elegant it is. (^-^) You are about to leave the bench. The calm moment before the ceremony appears very nicely.

Nice looking bottle but …

The bottled green tea I bought today looked nice but actually the taste was so so.

zannen… 残念（;￣O￣）

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.

I brewed sencha with different temperature water

I wanted to show you an example of how the taste changes along water temperature. Today I actually brewed tea in different temperatures. I adjusted brewing time on each brewing to get the right density.



** Conditions **
Tea: 2grams (average sencha)
Water: 60ml (2.1oz)

A: 90degC (194F), 40sec
B: 80degC (176F), 60sec
C: 70degC (158F), 90sec



A: Strong bitterness
Rich bitterness filled my mouth. I tasted umami but the presence of bitterness still prevailed. The bitterness continued to stay until the aftertaste. And as the taste of bitterness faded away, the sweetness remained in mouth as a cozy afterglow.

B: Good balance of umami and bitterness
It had a good body of rich umami and bitterness. I liked the nice harmony of the flavors. It had a simple but satisfying aftertaste.

C: Sweetness
It had a rush of light bitterness, but after that, sweetness filled my mouth. I guess the umami taste also gives off some sweetness. This tea was a little mild for me. I should have brewed a little longer, 120sec perhaps.

Overall, Tea gets bitter with high temperature water and milder with low temperature as I mentioned yesterday. I liked B best among the three. I think 80degC (176F) water and 60sec brewing are good for this tea.

Correct water temperature for sencha

Do you know why Japanese green tea, sencha is usually prepared with lower temperature (around 80degC / 176F) water? Oolong tea and English tea, usually prepared with high temperature water, are often appreciated due to their great aroma. The aroma can be brewed out by using high temperature water. Unfortunately, sencha doesn’t have a rich aroma like Oolong or English tea has, but it has umami or sweetness. That makes the Japanese tea fascinating.

Bitterness (tannin and caffeine) is extracted more when it's brewed over 80degC (176F). Under 60degC (140F), bitterness isn’t infused much and umami (amino acid) can be still extracted relatively. High-grade sencha which has a lot of umami should be prepared around 70degC (158F) water to bring out a great harmony of umami and bitterness. Around 80degC (176F) is good for average sencha. Low-grade sencha which doesn’t have much umami should be brewed around 90degC (194F) water in order to enjoy its aroma and refreshing flavor with the taste of bitterness.

I hope you will try different temperature brewing with your sencha and find out the best flavor for you. The standard brewing time for sencha is about 60 seconds. The substances infuse faster in higher temperature water and slower in lower temperature. So adjust the brewing time according to the temperature of water. Enjoy exploring Japanese tea ☆*:.。. o(≧▽≦)o .。.:*☆

Free tea at restaurants

The other day I went to Nagoya, the next city for a classical concert. I had my favorite lunch at Moriguchiya, a pickles shop again, which I have introduced before >>> Unique lunch at a Japanese pickles shop

The tea served at the restaurant was hojicha. I realize that this might be very unique culture of Japan. Tea served with meal at restaurants is usually for free. I don’t remember if I have mentioned about this topic before in this blog. The tea is usually reasonable tea, such as hojicha or bancha, or sometimes genmaicha. Refills are also for free. You can drink as much as you want … for free. Isn’t it great? I’m not talking about a special service at a few minority restaurants. Many restaurants in Japan serve free teas. I guess it is a kind of Japanese omotenashi, hospitality.

I’m not sure if free tea or free coffee is served at restaurants in other countries, but I haven’t heard about it. Maybe free wine in France? Well, I doubt it (^^;; I thought serving tea for free at restaurants is an interesting culture, and it tells how much we love green tea. Hojicha, bancha and genmaicha are very popular tea in Japan. I’m sure that if you visit Japan, you might have a chance to try any of them.

How the taste changes after several brewing

Today I would like to talk about how the taste of green tea changes as a result of several brewing. The following numbers express the difference between amino acid (umami) and tannin (bitterness) contents which are produced on each brewing. (deep-steamed sencha)
First brewing: 0.45
Second brewing: 0.28
Third brewing: 0.21
Fourth brewing: 0.17
Fifth brewing: 0.15
The abovementioned numbers are obtained by dividing the proportion of amino acid by the ratio of tannin (amino acid / tannin = n) as shown in the example below:
Example: First brewing - Amino acid 63mg, Tannin 140mg, 63/140 = 0.45
(The data is from Nihoncha adviser Kouza dai2kan)

Hence, you can find umami in the earlier brewing. You taste more bitterness and less umami in later-brewed tea. A lot of umami substance is extracted in the earlier brewing. Bitterness infuses constantly to the later brewing. By the third brewing 78% of umami and 43% of bitterness in the leaves extracted out. By the fifth brewing, 97% of umami and about 63% of bitterness is extracted from the leaves.

You can enjoy the change of the taste on each brewing. That is one of the charms of Japanese tea. You enjoy umami in the green tea flavor on the early brewing. As you brew the tea some more, umami is gone and you can enjoy the refreshing taste with bitterness on the late brewing. Have fun!

Several brewing

People sometimes ask how many times you can brew the same leaves. For the most of Japanese tea, you can brew for a couple of times. But actually it depends on the type of tea and individual leaves. You can brew about three times for sencha, kabusecha and gyokuro. Kukicha doesn’t last as many brewing as sencha. I only brew twice for one type of gyokuro I have which doesn’t taste good after a couple brewings, but I enjoy another kind of gyokuro which I can brew up to five times. It depends on the leaves. You can tell by its aroma if the leaves still can be brewed. If they don’t have much aroma left, they may not give good tea any more.




Also it depends on occasions. If you want to enjoy good flavor of tea on your tea time or when you serve tea to guests, maybe twice to three-time brewing is better. You want to use fresh leaves anytime when you have guests. You can brew three to four times for your daily tea. Sometimes I brew even up to five times on my casual tea, ha ha (^^;;

When you brew deep-steamed sencha for five times, about 80% of the flavor is infused during the first to third brewing. The details are 37% on first brewing, 25% on the second and 17% on the third. (The data is from Nihoncha adviser Kouza dai2kan) So the first brewing usually has the richest and best flavor. The flavor gets paler as the number of brewing goes on. I hope you enjoy the change of taste. I’ll write about how the taste changes over several brewing on the next post.

Batabatacha-tea from Toyama prefecture

I tried another local tea from Toyama prefecture called batabatacha at the tea workshop. Batabatacha is served when you invite neighbors to your house on ceremonial occasions. It is black tea (Post-fermented tea) which is originates from China. It is also whisked like botebotecha which I introduce yesterday, but you don’t put the toppings in the tea. You just have pickles and light meal as snacks with the tea. I was expecting a very distinctive taste of black tea, but it wasn’t so bad. I though the tea got milder after whisking.

The tea brewed tea is dark brown. A double whisk is used for this tea


Whisk the tea by moving the whisk to right and left, not back and forth like matcha or botebotecha.


We had some pickles with the tea.


Video from the tea workshop (Japanese)
Sorry, the sound is not clear

Botebotecha-tea from Izumo area

Let me introduce another local tea that I tried in the tea workshop. It is from Izumo area called botebotecha, which is bancha with foam on its surface and is enjoyed with some toppings such as rice, beans and pickles. The foam is made by whisking bancha with a whisk. There are various stories regarding the origins of botebotecha. One of the stories is that matcha was the tea for high society in the old days, and people imitated matcha and came up with botebotecha.

You pour brewed bancha in a tea bowl.


The whisk is coarser and longer than the whisk for matcha.


You put a little bit of salt on the tip of the whisk. It will help to make the foam.


You whisk the bancha by moving the whisk back and forth until it gets foamy.


You put some toppings in the tea. I added rice, beans and some pickles but they are under the foam so you can’t see them in the picture.

You move the tea bowl in circular motion to mix and pour down the toppings with tea into your mouth. I tasted a little salty flavor in the rice with tea. I thought it was more like a light meal rather than tea. I like that the sweetness of beans added a nice accentt in the taste. I quite like botebotecha.


Video from the tea workshop 106sec (Japanese)
Sorry, the sound is not clear.

Ofukucha-tea

Ofukucha is not a name for a type of Japanese tea. It is sencha with pickled plum and dried kelp (seaweed) in it. It is enjoyed as a lucky-charm tea in Kyoto or some other areas on New Year’s days. I have not seen it in my region, but I was able to try it buring the tea workshop.



Ofukucha is originated from the tea served about a century ago. When the epidemic was spreading in Kyoto, a monk served the tea with pickled plum and dried kelp to the people. It is also said that the Emperor at that time had the tea as well. Ofukucha is appreciated at New Year’s nowadays as a lucky and healthy charm tea. This is the oldest story regarding the tea for people in Japan, but nobody knows whether this is true or not.


At the workshop, we put a pickled plum and dried kelp in a cup and poured brewed sencha. The tea looked nice with colorful hue. The taste was sencha with a slight salty flavor of the plum and kelp added. After drinking the sencha, the plum and kelp were left in the cup.


We refilled the cup with the second brewed sencha. This time, I broke the plum in the tea, and gave the tea more flavor of the plum. The kelp also released more flavor on the second serving. I liked the second serving better, because it has stronger flavors of plum which is sour and umami of kelp.