Grams In A Teaspoon

Made from leaves that have not been oxidized.


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Feb 28th, '13, 14:53
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Re: Grams In A Teaspoon

by Alex » Feb 28th, '13, 14:53

Just to add to the discussion, and clear up any confusion in this thread. Below is a picture of a typical western tea spoon

Image

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Feb 28th, '13, 14:56
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Re: Grams In A Teaspoon

by Alex » Feb 28th, '13, 14:56

Chip wrote:You beat me to it, Adam. :lol:

Using a .05 gram resolution digital scale, I weighed the little Sakura Sencha I have here from O-Cha using what I consider typical Western teaspoon (pretty old silver teaspoon that I actually use each time I measure tea).

level teaspoon 1.75 grams
rounded teaspoon 2.25 grams
Fairly heaping 2.75 grams

The scale is accurate as I also just weighed a dime to 2.3 grams.
That's quite interesting. I've never weighed my sencha. I must be just little lower then a gram per oz of water.

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Feb 28th, '13, 17:12
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Re: Grams In A Teaspoon

by Evan Draper » Feb 28th, '13, 17:12

Alex wrote:Just to add to the discussion, and clear up any confusion in this thread. Below is a picture of a typical western tea spoon
On behalf of my country, I wish to express our shame and hilarity.

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Feb 28th, '13, 18:02
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Re: Grams In A Teaspoon

by Chip » Feb 28th, '13, 18:02

Alex wrote:
Chip wrote:You beat me to it, Adam. :lol:

Using a .05 gram resolution digital scale, I weighed the little Sakura Sencha I have here from O-Cha using what I consider typical Western teaspoon (pretty old silver teaspoon that I actually use each time I measure tea).

level teaspoon 1.75 grams
rounded teaspoon 2.25 grams
Fairly heaping 2.75 grams

The scale is accurate as I also just weighed a dime to 2.3 grams.
That's quite interesting. I've never weighed my sencha. I must be just little lower then a gram per oz of water.
I believe this Sakura Sencha is not as dense as perhaps normal sencha because it is much like a Karigane. So, a teaspoon of asa would likely weigh a bit more and Fukamushi even more per teaspoon.

I guess I will weigh an asa and a fuka for my own peace of mind.

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Mar 5th, '13, 22:03
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Re: Grams In A Teaspoon

by Tead Off » Mar 5th, '13, 22:03

That's only in Texas, Alex. :D

Mar 16th, '13, 11:10
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Re: Grams In A Teaspoon

by beforewisdom » Mar 16th, '13, 11:10

Chip wrote: Using a .05 gram resolution digital scale, I weighed the little Sakura Sencha I have here from O-Cha using what I consider typical Western teaspoon (pretty old silver teaspoon that I actually use each time I measure tea).

level teaspoon 1.75 grams
rounded teaspoon 2.25 grams
Fairly heaping 2.75 grams

The scale is accurate as I also just weighed a dime to 2.3 grams.
I'll start with my conclusion: As usual, Chip's information is good.

I decided to do my own weighings with a new scale:

Enter my new scale:
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According to wiki.answers.com a U.S. Quarter weighs 5.67 grams. This is where my directly out of box new scale is started from:
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I had the intuition that shape matters. The Sakura Sencha green tea leaves are rolled into linear shapes and a round teaspoon may not fit as much as an oblong teaspoon. I did 3 weighings, one per each of these differently shaped teaspoons:
Image


I started off with the cheapo, battered, round, white plastic teaspoon I use at work, where I do most of my tea drinking:

Image

I got 1.72 grams per teaspoon:
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Next, I moved on to a round steel teaspoon with a wider bowl:

Image

I got 1.85 grams per teaspoon:
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Finally, I moved on to a steel teaspoon with an oblong shape bowl:
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I got the highest weight, with the widest teaspoon, at 1.93 grams per teaspoon:
Image

So, to make a cup ( 8 fluid ounces ) of Sankura Sencha Green Tea using 0.6 grams of tea leaves per 1 fluid ounce of water, I would need 4.8 grams of tea leaves.

Dividing that by the 1.72 grams per my cheapo plastic work teaspoon I get 2.79 teaspoons.

That sounds about right. Before I got the scale I found 3 cheapo plastic teaspoons to be slightly too strong and 2 of those teaspoons to be just about right.

I started off experimenting with 2 - 3 teaspoons per cup, because I had a reference point of where to start my trial and error process, thanks to Chip, and his quote of 1.75 grams per teaspoon above.

That was the original inspiration for all of this. Not being a gourmand, I had no idea what 0.6 grams of tea looked like.

I don't know why other people got figures of up to 5 grams of tea per teaspoon.

Some people mentioned using other types of green tea, so actually using Sakura Sencha might matter.

As I saw from my own weighings, the shape of the teaspoon seemed to matter. The rounder teaspoons held less weight, possibly because of the linear shape of the tea leaves, some of which were wider than the bowl of the spoon, so fewer leaves fit into the rounder teaspoons.

Lastly, age of the tea might matter. Older tea might have more or less water.


I found that the O-Cha tea pot I bought holds almost exactly 8 fluid ounces ( I used a measuring cup ), but they advertise it as holding "11 ounces".

The stuff I got from them is nice, I would buy from them again, but I think they could benefit from reviewing their posted measurements.

No offense or disrespect meant to anyone.
Last edited by beforewisdom on Mar 16th, '13, 12:46, edited 2 times in total.

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Mar 16th, '13, 11:49
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Re: Grams In A Teaspoon

by Kevangogh » Mar 16th, '13, 11:49

Hi,

I've got a copy of an email where we replied to you on February 28th, 2013 regarding this, I went into some detail and provided you with a photograph of the scale we use, which looks to be the same one you just purchased. I had measured out a teaspoon of Yutaka Midori and it showed 3.5 grams. I'm just saying this because this post gives the impression we don't respond to our customers.

We also changed out the indicated volume of that particular teapot a few weeks ago. We go by what the manufacturer quotes but sometimes it's not always correct.

Another thing to keep in mind, despite how many ounces a teapot may hold, you should be scaling this according to how much tea you will be using in your teacup(s). You might only make 6 ounces of tea in a teapot that holds 10 ounces.

In the end all of this experimenting around should help you to develop a sense and become good at brewing.

Mar 16th, '13, 12:44
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Re: Grams In A Teaspoon

by beforewisdom » Mar 16th, '13, 12:44

Kevangogh wrote:Hi,

I've got a copy of an email where we replied to you on February 28th, 2013 regarding this, I went into some detail and provided you with a photograph of the scale we use, which looks to be the same one you just purchased. I had measured out a teaspoon of Yutaka Midori and it showed 3.5 grams. I'm just saying this because this post gives the impression we don't respond to our customers.
My mistake. I thought it was a personal email from you to me instead of a response from O-Cha, as it was sent from a Gmail account and not an account with a o-cha.com email address.

I have edited that comment out of my post.
We also changed out the indicated volume of that particular teapot a few weeks ago. We go by what the manufacturer quotes but sometimes it's not always correct.
Thanks for being honest about that.
Another thing to keep in mind, despite how many ounces a teapot may hold, you should be scaling this according to how much tea you will be using in your teacup(s). You might only make 6 ounces of tea in a teapot that holds 10 ounces.
Thanks for the tip

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