TeaChat

I am rather new to this site and was wondering the best way to brew green tea? I recently bought a gaiwan and am looking at some teapots on ebay. I would really appreciate some help on what would be best. Thanks!!

Make sure your water is under 180°f or else your tea will come out bitter. Make sure you dont steep for longer than 1.5 minutes or else your tea will come out bitter.

Theres been a zillion questions on proper brewing of green tea. The most recent of which can be found here:

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=3273

FataliTEA wrote:Make sure your water is under 180°f or else your tea will come out bitter. Make sure you dont steep for longer than 1.5 minutes or else your tea will come out bitter.

Theres been a zillion questions on proper brewing of green tea. The most recent of which can be found here:

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=3273

LOL...you are too too evil fatal...

tea-snob, the video is a joke.

But your question is a little too general. Are you asking about teaware, or how to brew? Either way, there are already many posts on the subject under green tea. Or you can clarify your question.

Heh, yeah, sorry.

Well snob, different pots are better for different kind of tea. And different kinds of tea need different brewing parameters. A little more specificity can't hurt

Sorry bout that...after I posted I realized that you probably wouldn't know what I was looking for...I wanted to know about brewing vessles.

Sorry

You've got it handled for Chinese green teas. Theres no better way to make them than with a gaiwan.
Japanese greens, however, enjoy different brewing vessels called kyuusu. Kyuusu simply means Japanese tea pot, but most times kyuusu are also found as side handled teapots. The most revered of these teapots are made in Tokoname, Japan. Something to think about when ordering kyuusu is what kind of sasame(filter used to keep the tea leaves in the pot) is employed. You can find steel ones, and clay ones. I believe I speak for mostly everyone when I say that the clay sasame are more preferable. They seem to be more traditional, and with a clay sasame, theres no worrying that steel is messing with the flavors of your tea. If you're looking for a really nice one, you might want to look into Tokoname ware. http://www.ArtisticNippon.com has a good selection of really nice-looking pots. If you still want a Tokoname teapot, but would rather experiment with an entry level one, then http://www.Rishi-Tea.com has a couple good ones.
Of course, this is all considering you want to drink Japanese greens.
May GOD bless your soul if you don't.

I must add that side-handled kyuusu are not very popular as everyday vessels in Japan - at least in the four or five housholds I visited. Honestly, as long as the leaves have enough room to circulate, you're good. The Adagio jumbo mug with infuser is good, but requires a little stirring every now and then... for everyday sencha, you don't really need anything special.

That said, a gaiwan would not work well, since it is best suited for larger or full-leaf teas - also, most gaiwans cool too quickly and are too small for real Japanese green drinking. I have a few, but they really are much too small for me, the largest being only about 5 oz.

At the moment, I tend to view higher priced kyuusu as fancy tea-collector apparatus, but not necessary and rarely used in Japan. If you want to brew Japanese green tea, you could start with disposable fill-them-yourself teabags and any ceramic teapot, or get one with a large infuser (teaballs and the like just won't work).

Likewise, you could just put the leaves and water in any teapot, and pour the water through a hand-held strainer as you pour the cups. Whatever you prefer. If you like fancy teaware, likewise, have fun with it.

...this is blasphemy.

And correct...

I get the feeling anything with an infuser (not a filter/strainer) is going to be less than ideal, but aside from that I'm in agreement with you, Michael_C.

Quite correct. The best pot I have for Japanese greens is the goofy-looking puffer fish. I have to use a filter, and it works just fine.

FataliTEA wrote:...this is blasphemy.

Sniff, he's all grown up.

From what I've seen, Michael is right. No you don't have to buy an artisan pot to enjoy good results. Tea is a much more common every day thing there, so think of it like coffee. The majority of us drink coffee, but that doesn't mean we all have coffee grinders in our homes. I imagine the same thing applies in Japan. If you go into the average home, you're not going to find artisanal pots and the freshest shincha.

But you'll find it in mine, cos that shiznet's good.

The problem with brewing out of "just about anything" is that you need to take into account what the materials of the brewing vessel do to taste. For example, I don't steep and drink with glass anymore because I've found that my tokoname rounds out the tastes much better. I also don't like metal in my teapot because.. well, I guess I'm just paranoid. Praise for clay sasame!

I second Fatal on the fear of metal...it just CAN'T be good for your tea, even if it just effects the taste and not your lifespan.

Oh, and my 2 cents on the brewing question: Sencha might be difficult to pour cleanly from the Gaiwan unless you employ a third party strainer to keep the tiny leaves out of your cup. Chinese greens work better in the ol' Gaiwan. Also, I use the Kikumaru from Rishi for sencha (thanks Space), and it works AWESOME.

http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/product. ... =11&page=1

-Ian

It's more than just the hassle of having to strain sencha leaves out.
Gaiwan-brewed sencha tastes nowhere near as good as sencha brewed out of a thin, round tokoname.

...Chinese tea...Chinese style pot/brewing device...

...Japanese tea...Japanese style teapot...

All other teas...whatever...

I almost ruined my first tokoname kyusu with a sasame screen by using it for almost anything including Chinese greens and oolongs. It got so coated with tea stains that would flake off at inopportune times like when I was pouring tea. (not to mention imparting all the different tea flavors into the pot) Bleh!!! So...Japanese green only in my kyusu from now on.

My electric kettle is stainless steel, so I am not bothered by the little bit of stainless steel in my kyusu. The Japanese make a science of those screens, so I am not going to obsess about them.