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Preparation of Green Tea from Japan
The water - has a great influence on the taste of the tea especially for tea of fine grades. Use drinking water that is preferably deficient in lime and free from chlorine orsoft table water.
The water temperatur - is highly important: the water should boil and cool down afterwards. If the water is too hot, the tea can not evolve its full flavour and becomes bitter. For cooling, the hot water is going to be filled into a forthcoming cup or into a bowl to cool down. The more premium the tea is, the lower the water temperature should be. For most of the teas it is recommended to keep the temperature between 55°C and 65°C, if you are using tea from the first harvest. If you are using tea from the second or third harvest or Brancha, a temperature between 65°C and 75°C is suited.
Steeping time - The more premium the tea is, the longer it is allowed to steep with the first infusion. Shoshun, for example, should steep 50-80 seconds, Brancha merely 30-40 seconds. A good average in steeping time of Japanese Green Tea is 50-60 seconds. With further infusions the tea only has to steep 15 seconds. With the last infusion lots of active components should be detached by swaying the teapot. The prepared tea should be emptied out by the last drop so that the leaves do not keep on steeping. It is important that the tea is always fresh-made and not being kept warm in a thermos flask or on a teapot-warmer.
The teapot - Tea leaves are supposed to swim freely in the teapot and preferably not being caged in a tea sock or a different appliance that detains the leaves to swim freely in the water. Since there are more infusions, the teapots and cups can be small.
The better the tea, the smaller the teapot. The smaller the teapot, the better the tea.
Dosage - There are no fixed rules. You can use one teaspoon for one cup – depending on taste. In Japan, people drink tea from the first harvest in small cups but pretty strong. This tea is intensively green and has a exquisite and fresh scent. The better the quality of the tea, the more infusions are possible from one portion. Therefore good teas are not necessarily expensive.
If you serve tea to several people fill the cups only half to fill them up in the reverse order. That makes the tea in every cup equally strong.
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japanese tea
