Wildly varying parameters for sencha

[bongoman]

Hi there

I love my sencha but am still finding my way with it and find myself easily confused over good starting parameters.

As I browse the various vendor sites, I see suggestions ranging from 10g sencha to 7oz water (from Ippodo) brewed for 1 minute down to about 4g sencha for the same quantity water (O-cha) but brewed for up to 2 minutes.

I understand there are distinctions, especially for brewing times, to be made between deep, mid and light-steamed sencha.

Can anyone shed any light on useful starting points here? I suppose the obvious thing here is for me just to experiment on what works for me but still, is there any background information on the rationale behind these rather different parameters?

[Tead Off]

Personally, I like brewing sencha in a kyusu. My favorite one is about 130-140ml. I use about 5g of leaf as a general starting point. Water at 70C and brew for 1minute. 2nd brew anywhere from immediately to 20 sec, 3rd brew 10sec-30sec. From there, I can adjust. This is mostly for organic senchas but I don't find much variation for non-organic that I sometimes drink. Sometimes I will lower the water temp but rarely raise it. Hope this helps.

[bongoman]

Very helpful. Thanks. I think I'm skimping on the quantity of leaf I use.

I love a thick, flavorful brew and should probably bump up the amount of leaf in the pot.

[Chip]

... different sencha definitely will require differing amounts of leaf. I generally start out with a .75 grams leaf per ounce water ratio. This is somewhere close to the middle of the road for sencha for me. I then adjust up or down. I do not follow the wildly excessive recommendations coming from some vendors. There is a point of diminishing returns, and above this point is just wasting tea and money, IMHO.

General rule 1. My range for most sencha is .6 - 1 gram per ounce water, though there are exceptions.

General rule number 2, 30-60 seconds for most fukamushi. 1.5-2 minutes for asamushi. And the occasional chumushi, 75ish seconds.

General rule 3, temp. A lot of vendors assume you will or will not preheat depending on the vendor. 175* if you do not, and 160* +/- if you do preheat. If you like it more mild, then preheat and brew with cooler temp. If you like a lot of high points, more astringency and even some bitterness, then do not ... the higher initial temp will shock the leaves and release more intensity.

General rule 4, rules are made to be broken.

[olivierco]

Two years ago, I tried Ippodo's 10g for 210ml and I found out that I preferred my sencha with less leaves (about 6-7g for 200ml). I however gradually increased the leaf/water ratio and I am now using about 5g for 100ml for my light steamed sencha, most of the time in a houhin.