168 replies to this topic

[Richard Kilgore]

Adventures in Gyokuro Brewing, Part II

Today I brewed using a spin on the yuuki-cha.com 2 Minutes Brewing method. Since the Gyokuro I am brewing is not organic I reduced the amount of leaf. and based on my impressions using the Beginners Brewing method (see above), I decided to use 4 g in 2 ounces of water for the first infusion. The water temp is lower this time, the lowest at which I have ever brewed any tea. The second and third infusion parameters I based on my limited past experience.

1: 2 min, 122 F - strong, vegetal in an unpleasant way to me, some faint background sweetness overpowered by the vegetal component. Astringency came on in the after taste.

2: 2 min, 122 F - sweet over vegetal, but the vegetal still not to my liking; this is not a sweet asparagus flavor, just veggie.

3: 1 min, 140 F in 3 ounces water - nicely sweet over a pleasantly vegetal flavor, very little astringency. Liked this infusion the best.

I should note again that the tea merchant sites that I have used as starting guidelines for brewing this Gyokuro can not be held responsible for any of my fledgling attempts. Different tea and I have altered their directions and made a lot of it up as I go along. (This is similar to the trials and tribulations of cookbook authors, especially pastry and baking authors, when readers change three parameters of a recipe and then complain that it didn't turn out like the picture in the book.)

I suspect that with Gyokuros, as with most new teas, other folks play around with their brewing parameters in various ways until they find something that pleases them. They just don't usually write about their flailing on the road to that perfect, sweet gyokuro.

Seems I frequently enjoy the later infusions better than the first one. How is it for the other Gyokuro sippers here? Any brewing tips?

At least one more brewing method yet to come.

[Richard Kilgore]

Adventures in Gyokuro Brewing, Part III

This evening I brewed using a modification of the yuuki-cha 3 Minute Brewing method. Again I used 4 g leaf instead of 6 g because this is a non-organic Gyokuro I am using, and 4 g is my best guess as to an appropriate amount. The first infusion starts out with an amazingly low temperature of 104 F. Yes, that's not a typo -- 104 F. For 3 minutes. The second and third infusions are just my best winging it guesses based on experience.

1: 180 sec, 104 F - sweetly vegetal and thick mouthfeel. Very nice and probably the nicest first infusion I have gotten out of this leaf so far.
2: 180 sec, 104 F - vegetal and sweet, but thinner. Not as interesting, blah. Wonder if I used more water than I thought I did?
3: 60 sec, 122 F - sweet, vegetal, thick and the infusion I liked best in this series.

Drinking Gyokuro at this 104 F brewing temperature must be an acquired taste. At this point it's just weird. Not hot, not warm, not iced, just floating somewhere out there in not quite warm temperature land. Not unpleasant, just really not-familiar territory.

I have a very little bit of this leaf left that I may play with intuitively, but the next step is ordering a proper houhin for Gyokuro brewing from Dan at kuuki-cha.com, as well as one of his good organic Gyokuros. I'll be able to report on this in two or three weeks.

Any and all tips from Gyokuro drinkers more than welcome.

Edited: to note that I did a fourth infusion at 127 F for 90 sec and it was delicious. And to add that there was no detectable astringency in any of the four infusions.

Edited by Richard Kilgore, 16 September 2009 - 11:08 PM.

[Richard Kilgore]

fooey brought up an interesting green tea brewing issue in another topic, and I have copied the post below.

I have not had this houjicha, but I looked at the link to the Republic of Tea page for it and don't know what they are thinking when they recommend up to 4 minutes steeping. Houjicha is one of the easiest Japanese green teas to brew with regard to temperature, but anything over 2 minutes for the first infusion is likely to produce a bitter cup. Anything from 175 F to 195 F or so usually will make for a good cup, so your 203 F was not the problem.

The Republic of Tea's Big Green Hojicha.

The Tea Companion recommends a 20-second steep at 203F, but instructions on the package say 2-4 minutes at that temp, so who knows?!

I did 170 F for 3 minutes and it was great bitter, so maybe I'll risk the off boil.

It's quite wonderful, very low in caffeine/theophylline (5mg/cup), and is relaxing and enjoyable. If it didn't say green tea on the label, I'd think it an oolong.

[fooey]

That was a typo, sorry.

I corrected the original post to say:

"I did 170 F for 3 minutes and it was great, so maybe I'll risk the off boil."

I'm not crazy enough to try for 4 minutes, though. :)

So what do you think? 2 minutes at 195 F?

[Richard Kilgore]

Right, even three minutes is too long.

My suggestion would be to try it for 2 minutes at 175, 195 and 205 first infusions and see what it's like at different temps. In a Tea Tasting & Discussion of a very fine and complex houjicha we found that it brewed well at a wide range of temps, displaying different interesting taste profiles. I have brewed another houjicha and it also works well at a wide range of temps.

So 2 minutes at 195 F is fine for a first infusion. You should be able to get a second and third infusion, too. You'll need to play with those a bit, but you could try 2: 195 F, 1 min; and 3: 195 F, 2 min.

Let us know the results of trying different brewing parameters, if you choose to experiment a little, and what works best for you.

[nakji]

I brewed up a genmaicha that I just received from a friend in Japan. An excellent toasted cup, I used boiled spring water from the kettle, as opposed to my lower-temp water from the machine, and infused for about thirty seconds. A lot of toasted flavour, which is what I like, and not a lot of tea flavour. The second infusion had a much more of the "green" taste, and a milder rice punch.

[Richard Kilgore]

Erin - it sounds like you prefer the roasted rice to dominate the green tea in a genmaicha. While I like that, I really enjoy a matcha genmaicha. Have you tried that?

[Richard Kilgore]

The 2009 gyokuros are being released by various tea merchants and I have two in from yuuki-cha. Anyone else here drinking any of the new gyokuros yet?

[Wholemeal Crank]

Boldly ordered a sampler and a bit of houjicha from denstea.com today.

[Richard Kilgore]

You're getting pretty wild with this tea-thing, don't you think, WmC?

BTW, for anyone else that orders a sampler, they include a hojicha sample.

The other tea I can heartily recommend to the astringency-challenged is the Kuki-cha Fukamushi from The Cultured Cup that we had in the recent Tea Tasting & Discussion here in this forum. It is still one of my favorite Japanese greens.

[Wholemeal Crank]

A little, yes!

Seriously, I'm pretty much done with the buying spree for teawares and teas for a while. I have I have a nice selection of puerh that will keep a while, have found several oolongs I'm really enjoying, but most others (the black, green, and white/yellow) are being purchased in smaller quantities, including a raft of 1 oz or less samplers that have been very helpful. So the tea collection *is* a bit over the top at the moment. But, the tea group at work is expanding a bit (I am sharing the daily brews with 2-4 people at work), so I'm often filling the 1-quart thermos twice a day. Also, I'm using a bit more leaf as my comfort with brewing the different teas increases. I'll be more selective about the ones I replace after they run out, having used this 'spree' to better explore the available spectrum. But I won't be bulk brewing gyokuro or dan cong oolong for the thermos! And some people are getting tea for christmas.

And hey, no calories!

[Richard Kilgore]

Adventures in Gyokuro Brewing, Part IV, prelude

The Banko houhin tea pot and two gyokuros arrived from yuuki-cha.com a week ago and I have had a chance to brew one with a tea friend early in the week and then both of them since then. I'll do detailed tasting notes later after another brewing session or two, but I can say that these are delicious, easy to brew gyokuros. Interestingly, the inexpensive Banko houhin brews tea liquor that is softer, rounder, less astringent, much less bitter and, I think, has better balanced, more integrated flavor than with my friend's glazed houhin or my small Gyokko Tokaname kyusu. But all were good.

More to come.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Is the banko glazed?

Just wondering how it might be affecting the flavor--different adsorption to the surface? Surface to volume ratios?

And on a related note, is there any reason not to use a gaiwan for brewing the Japanese green teas?

[Richard Kilgore]

Is the banko glazed?

Just wondering how it might be affecting the flavor--different adsorption to the surface? Surface to volume ratios?

Here's a link to the Banko, which is unglazed. It's the clay that does it, and the issue of the effects of various unglazed clays on tea is complex. Similar improvement with my larger Banko tea pot. The nice thing about the smaller houhin is that it's inexpensive and you can use it for other Japanese green teas, as well as for gyokuro.

And on a related note, is there any reason not to use a gaiwan for brewing the Japanese green teas?

You can use a gaiwan or a mug with infuser or a western tea pot for most Japanese green teas. I brewed sencha in mugs and western teapots for several years and thought it tasted great. A gaiwan is a little tricky since the leaves are small and it is more difficult to hold them back with the lid. But a kyusu is the best pot to use for all Japanese leaf teas, except gyokuro. A small (4 ounce) kyusu like my Gyokko Tokaname will work well for gyokuro due to the fine 360 degree stainless steel screen, but a houhin or tiny shiboridashi are the traditional and better options.

The roasted Japanese green teas do not do good things to an unglazed pot you're also going to use to brew delicate senchas and gyokuros. It's best to brew houjicha and genmaicha in a glazed brewing vessel and save the unglazed for the others. I think the Banko houhin is a very good inexpensive option for brewing all the unroasted leaf Japanese green teas. But not powdered matcha, that's another topic altogether.

[Alessia]

Hi everyone :)

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with "unconventional" brewing of Japanese teas.
A few days ago, I went to an international exhibition of natural products, where I bought some grade 1 matcha tea from this producer. There were a couple of Japanese people there (I later learnt that one of them was the general manager of Jona) who were giving sample tastings of their products. To cut a story short, they were "brewing" matcha in cold water (and I mean fridge-cold) - a chashaku shot in a teapot with water, a quick whisk with a chasen and they were done. I tasted it, and it was very good. I was impressed. The color was amazing, and the fact that it dissolved completely in cold water was a bit of a surprise. I had only had matcha at tea-tasting events and tea cerimonies and for some reason I thought it only dissolved with heat. So, the man suggested brewing some to carry around during the day, and that's what I've been doing since: I fill my one-liter bottle with water, a couple of chashaku shots (I haven't been very precise and haven't weighed the exact amount), I give everything a good shake and I'm good to go. This also solves the various problems I have with brewing tea at work. the only thing I noticed with this "method" is that the tea tends to deposit in the bottom of the bottle, so I need to shake it every time I pour a cup (a glass, actually - I like to drink cold tea in a glass rather than a cup). It keeps well, but the color tends to be a tiny bit off at the end of the day, the taste is still good, but not as "vibrant" as it is when I first make it.
The gentleman also suggested doing the same thing with gyokuro - he said 12-15 min brewing should do it.

Does anybody have any experience or comment to that? I would gladly accept any suggestion :)

Edited by Alessia, 07 October 2009 - 08:13 AM.

[Richard Kilgore]

Adventures in Gyokuro Brewing, Part IV

I have been enjoying brewing and drinking two gyokuros from yuuki-cha.com. Here are some notes on brewing the Gyokuro Karigane, which is stems and gyokuro leaves and about half the cost of the other gyokuro I'll report on next. I have brewed using the yuuki-cha three methods and so far enjoy the "2 minute" version the best, and that's what I used today.

Brewed in a Banko houhin teapot with Britta filtered tap water.

6 grams Gyokuro Karigane

First infusion: 2 minutes, 2 ounces water at 122 F

Second infusion: 30 seconds, 2 ounces water at 122 F

Third infusion: 90 seconds, 2 ounces water at 122 F

Fourth infusion: 2 minutes, 2 ounces water at 122 F

Fifth infusion: 3 minutes, 2 ounces water at 122 F.

The first three infusions were similar, with more astringency on the first and a pleasant vegetal flavor for all three. The fourth infusion drew out the sweetness in the leaf and the fourth was ceamy, but thinner with a vegetal note and less sweetness. I liked the fourth infusion the best.

[Richard Kilgore]

I went back to the gyokuro-like sencha that gave me so much trouble initially, Organic Gokujo Sencha, and brewed it in my new Banko houhin instead of the Tokoname pot I used before. This was a much more pleasant result, and the difference was not subtle. It was still rather astringent on the first infusion and had an edgy vegetal flavor that I am not looking for, but also revealed sweetness and umami in subsequent infusions. The Banko houhin is really good at smoothing and rounding off the rough edges of teas.

[Richard Kilgore]

Adventures in Gyokuro Brewing, Part IV - Cont'd

Back to the gyokuro today.

Brewed the Organic Asahina Gyokuro Tsuyuhikari, also from yuuki-cha.com, in the Banko houhin. Again using the "2 minute method".

Brewed in a Banko houhin teapot with Britta filtered tap water.

6 grams Organic Asahina Gyokuro Tsuyuhikari

First infusion: 2 minutes, 2 ounces water at 122 F

Second infusion: 30 seconds, 2 ounces water at 122 F

Third infusion: 90 seconds, 2 ounces water at 122 F

Fourth infusion: 2 minutes, 2 ounces water at 122 F

Fifth infusion: 3 minutes, 2 ounces water at 122 F.

First and second infusions showed a little astringency, vegetal-whiff-of-the-sea and creamy umami with sweetness on the finish, better balance on the second. Vegetal over umami with less astringency and sweetness on the third. Astringency and sweetness over faint vegetal and creamy umami notes in the fourth infusion, still pleasant and sweeter as it cools. The fourth infusion - thinner, of course, but vegetal-sea, umami and sweetness still present, with astringency in the finish.

This is altogether a different gyokuro than the others I have discussed up-topic. While I like the Karigane, this is definitely "more better".

[Wholemeal Crank]

Really seeing a difference between the grades now?

[Richard Kilgore]

Hi everyone :)

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with "unconventional" brewing of Japanese teas.
A few days ago, I went to an international exhibition of natural products, where I bought some grade 1 matcha tea from this producer. There were a couple of Japanese people there (I later learnt that one of them was the general manager of Jona) who were giving sample tastings of their products. To cut a story short, they were "brewing" matcha in cold water (and I mean fridge-cold) - a chashaku shot in a teapot with water, a quick whisk with a chasen and they were done. I tasted it, and it was very good. I was impressed. The color was amazing, and the fact that it dissolved completely in cold water was a bit of a surprise. I had only had matcha at tea-tasting events and tea cerimonies and for some reason I thought it only dissolved with heat. So, the man suggested brewing some to carry around during the day, and that's what I've been doing since: I fill my one-liter bottle with water, a couple of chashaku shots (I haven't been very precise and haven't weighed the exact amount), I give everything a good shake and I'm good to go. This also solves the various problems I have with brewing tea at work. the only thing I noticed with this "method" is that the tea tends to deposit in the bottom of the bottle, so I need to shake it every time I pour a cup (a glass, actually - I like to drink cold tea in a glass rather than a cup). It keeps well, but the color tends to be a tiny bit off at the end of the day, the taste is still good, but not as "vibrant" as it is when I first make it.
The gentleman also suggested doing the same thing with gyokuro - he said 12-15 min brewing should do it.

Does anybody have any experience or comment to that? I would gladly accept any suggestion :)

Interesting, Alessia. Never heard of this technique before. I may not be following this accurately, but it sounds like you are saying the matcha initially dissolved in cold water, but then deposits in the bottom eventually, correct?

I'll try this when I order matcha next month, and also try it with gyokuro in the next week or so.

[Richard Kilgore]

Really seeing a difference between the grades now?

That's an interesting question and one I considered going in to exploring senchas and gyokuros. As I have tried a few of each, read more and picked the brains of tea people in Japan, it has become clearer that we can look at it as a matter of levels of quality, but it's really more complex -- organic vs non-organic, one green tea growing region compared to another, and even somewhat different styles from farm to farm within a region. Then add to that the effects of different clays used in the kyusu teapots...and maybe even the clay the teacup is made of. The final result - the aroma and taste - is formed by many factors.

I'll post an in-process summary soon to sketch this out in more detail, but I am sure I am just scratching the surface. Fortunately, going further will require more tasty field research.

[Richard Kilgore]

As a follow up to my last post where I mentioned that even the clay of the teacup may effect the taste of the tea: yesterday I was doing more gyokuro exploration and discovered that the yunomi I got on sale from a chain tea store was negatively impacting the tea. I poured the Organic Asahina Gyokuro Tsuyuhikari gyokuro from yuuki-cha.com out of the Banko and into the chain store yunomi or a relatively neutral fine porcelain tea cup and the difference was not at all subtle. I may have to re-order this gyokuro, as well as using the Organic Gyokuro Karigane, to continue some of my testing of the effects of brewing and drinking vessels using various materials and methods.

[Wholemeal Crank]

After a particularly pleasing few cups to start the day, I am going to have to add some japanese green teas to my regular tea rotations. The roasted Bancha houjicha was not nearly as interesting as the sencha teabag in my sampler from denstea.com. I detected almost no bitterness, lots of sweet, and the liquor had a wonderful body. From what I'd been reading, I was expecting something more like a dragonwell, but this was much more to my taste, with hardly any bitterness.

[Wholemeal Crank]

A little later, brewing some loose-leaf sencha fuka-midori, 2 grams in a 100mL gaiwan for 1 minute, it looked like dragonwell and brewed like it too--nutty, astringent, bitter, little of the sweetness that was so overwhelming from the teabag version. A second cup brewed for 30 seconds and diluted to about 5 ounces with water of the same temperature was much better, but now I get how tricky this is to do just right.

Not sure if the first bagged sencha was a different tea, or just beginner's luck. Plus the bag packaging doesn't list the grams of tea, and it's broken up, so different infusion performance shouldn't be surprising.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Try, try, again....

1 gram of the sencha fuka-midori in the 100mL gaiwan, with 160 degree water for 30 seconds, was much better. Still, more astringency/bitterness than in the bagged tea. Will be very curious to see whether this is the same mix of tea as in the bagged version or not--have sent an e-mail to inquire.

[Richard Kilgore]

A safe ratio as a starting point for sencha is often considered to be about .6 g to an ounce, so I have to think it is astringency rather than bitterness with only 1 g to about 3 1/2 ounces of water. The first infusion is going to be more astringent and often times the sweetness emerges on infusion 2 or 3 for me. I think I have some of my sample of this tea and I know I did not brew the tea bag, so I'll do that tomorrow.

[Wholemeal Crank]

First ever gyokuro today, gyokuro kin from my first order from denstea.com.

1 gram of leaf to 160 degree water, about 6 ounces in my little glass teapot, steeped 40", 60", about 90".

40"--sweet, mellow, almost no astringency or bitterness, also little aroma.

60"--similar, but can detect a little astringency, still very light aroma.

90"--losing the thick sweet sensation, this should be the last infusion--still quite nice, however.

This is a wonderful way to start the day.

[Richard Kilgore]

I notice that Den's recommends 2 minutes for the first infusion of this gyrokuro, and that's pretty typical, so why such a short first infusion?

[Wholemeal Crank]

Wanted to be sure I didn't end up with bitterness, figured too short was better than too long for the first infusion. And it was so nice that I went on from there.

[Alessia]

Hi everyone :)

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with "unconventional" brewing of Japanese teas.
A few days ago, I went to an international exhibition of natural products, where I bought some grade 1 matcha tea from this producer. There were a couple of Japanese people there (I later learnt that one of them was the general manager of Jona) who were giving sample tastings of their products. To cut a story short, they were "brewing" matcha in cold water (and I mean fridge-cold) - a chashaku shot in a teapot with water, a quick whisk with a chasen and they were done. I tasted it, and it was very good. I was impressed. The color was amazing, and the fact that it dissolved completely in cold water was a bit of a surprise. I had only had matcha at tea-tasting events and tea cerimonies and for some reason I thought it only dissolved with heat. So, the man suggested brewing some to carry around during the day, and that's what I've been doing since: I fill my one-liter bottle with water, a couple of chashaku shots (I haven't been very precise and haven't weighed the exact amount), I give everything a good shake and I'm good to go. This also solves the various problems I have with brewing tea at work. the only thing I noticed with this "method" is that the tea tends to deposit in the bottom of the bottle, so I need to shake it every time I pour a cup (a glass, actually - I like to drink cold tea in a glass rather than a cup). It keeps well, but the color tends to be a tiny bit off at the end of the day, the taste is still good, but not as "vibrant" as it is when I first make it.
The gentleman also suggested doing the same thing with gyokuro - he said 12-15 min brewing should do it.

Does anybody have any experience or comment to that? I would gladly accept any suggestion :)

Interesting, Alessia. Never heard of this technique before. I may not be following this accurately, but it sounds like you are saying the matcha initially dissolved in cold water, but then deposits in the bottom eventually, correct?

I'll try this when I order matcha next month, and also try it with gyokuro in the next week or so.

Richard, well, most of the matcha dissolves and stays that way, I guess just a little fraction of it deposits in the bottom after a while - but keep in mind that I prepare a "big batch", so to speak.
I tried some gyokuro in cold water, but I have to adjust brewing times. Let me know if you're going to try it.
:)