Gyokruo Green Tea - Brewing Tips
Click the Cup to See Our Catalog of Gyokuro
A few important things to consider when brewing the perfect cup of gyokuro
Gyokuro is brewed a bit differenly from the sencha green tea you normally encounter. If brewed like sencha, it will taste completely different than it should. The brewing temperature, brew time, and proportion of tea to water are quite different. Knowing this up front makes a world of difference.
Water quality: Good quality water is essential for making the perfect cup. This does *not* necessarily mean absolutely pure water with no minerals, but rather something a bit better than tap water. Minerals in the water can actually enhance the flavor of green teas.
Water temperature: This is where most mistakes are made. The proper brewing temperature for gyokuro is between 122 F ~ 140 F ( 50C ~ 60C) degrees. This is quite a bit lower than sencha. Will 10 degrees make a difference? Yes! The problem is, if you pour a moderately hot gyokuro into cold cups, your finished tea will be lukewarm. This is why it is very important to pre-heating both your teacups and teapot. A good proceedure is to pour boiled water that has been given a few minutes to cool off a bit directly into the teapot first, allowing it to sit for a minute or two. From there into the teacups, with the remaing hot water tossed. After everything has warmed up (cups and teapot) and at the same time the water has cooled down to around 130 F ( 55 C), we then add the leaves into the teapot followed by the hot water remaining in the cups. You can also pour back and forth from one container to another, or simply wait. Use a thermometer and practice until you perfect your technique!
Proportion of tea to water: Another area where mistakes are often made. The proper proportion is 1 gram loose leaf dry weight per each ounce (30ml) of water. This may seem like a lot of leaf, but provided you have the correct brew time and temperature, it is not. Since gyokuro is expensive, we can appreciate your concern. However, you can make quite a few cups of tea with this by re-brewing with the same leaves numerous times.
Brew time: Two minutes is about right. Will 30 seconds make a difference? Yes! Do not stir, shake, or mix the tea while it's brewing. You can swirl it around a bit as you are pouring it out, however.
Allowing the green tea leaves room to expand: Not to be overlooked! Japanese green tea is compact, and it needs room to expand. This is especially so with gyokuro. Tea balls do not work well! You'll be much better off using either a teapot that was designed with green tea in mind. Here is an example of a perfect houhin gyokuro teapot, perfect because it can brew small batches at a time.
Here are two very fresh, high quality gyokuro green teas you may want to consider: Uji "Gyoku-Hou" Gyokuro and Uji Gyokuro "Shou-un" make excellent choices when you want to brew the ultimate cup of green tea.
Also be sure to check out our pages on...
O-Cha.com
22 Kajimachi, Taira
Iwaki-city, Fukushima
970-8026 JAPAN
