Brewing greens: lid on or off?

[Kevangogh]

I don't know what her starting temp was but she poured from a Zojirushi. She first poured into the teapot. Then, into the cups. Then, she picks up the cups and says to hold them in your hands and they should be "a little warmer than your body temperature." No thermometers, etc. And it turned out perfect too. On the first infusion, she watches from above (no lid) and pours (with lid) when the leaves just start to open - I'd say it was only about a minute but could have been longer. In between brews, she leaves the lid on cocked to partially expose the leaves. The short brew time without the lid kind of surprised me. We ended up making 5 infusions, then ate the leaves with ponze sauce. This lady normally works in a tea facility on the outskirts of Uji and does the instructing as a sideline, but she's got teaching credentials. She invited me to go to the factory, may do that one of these days.

Picking up a lot of fine points living in Uji everyday. You can literally throw a rock from my apartment to the gyokuro field across the street. The weird thing about Uji is, unlike in Shizuoka where there are vast plains of tea fields, here it's mostly highly congested city with a tea plot stuff in between buildings. Seems like 90% of the fields here are for gyokuro as they are mostly covered.

[Chip]

I don't know what her starting temp was but she poured from a Zojirushi. She first poured into the teapot. Then, into the cups. Then, she picks up the cups and says to hold them in your hands and they should be "a little warmer than your body temperature." No thermometers, etc. And it turned out perfect too. On the first infusion, she watches from above (no lid) and pours (with lid) when the leaves just start to open - I'd say it was only about a minute but could have been longer. In between brews, she leaves the lid on cocked to partially expose the leaves. The short brew time without the lid kind of surprised me. We ended up making 5 infusions, then ate the leaves with ponze sauce. This lady normally works in a tea facility on the outskirts of Uji and does the instructing as a sideline, but she's got teaching credentials. She invited me to go to the factory, may do that one of these days.

Picking up a lot of fine points living in Uji everyday. You can literally throw a rock from my apartment to the gyokuro field across the street. The weird thing about Uji is, unlike in Shizuoka where there are vast plains of tea fields, here it's mostly highly congested city with a tea plot stuff in between buildings. Seems like 90% of the fields here are for gyokuro as they are mostly covered.

Thanks Kevin!

OK, so it is really not that much different in how the right temp is arrived at.

Of course, the observation of the leaves aspect is the most different part.

It is cool that they can teach an old dog (you), new tricks!

Please feel free to post photos from Uji!!!