Brewing a large amount of sencha...

[Dresden]

Here is the situation...

I want to fill a thermos of sencha to bring with me to <insert random event>. How would I do this?

Should I brew a large amount of leaf for 1 steep?

Should I use a smaller amount and just mix the resulting steeps together to make the volume I am looking for?

Thoughts?
Mike

[silverneedles]

Did all those, when i did chinese green/black used a pot and then first infusion so that it filled at least half the thermos then 2nd infusion fill to top. (amount of leaf-water-temps depending on how i wanted it to taste)

What i do now is throw leaf in a bottle, pour water and refill when water gets low. strain thru teeth, yes sencha is finer, but still most of the time it works as the leaf settles down and doesnt move much/ from time to time you get a couple bits of leaf.
yeah leaf can get overinfused, but water temps are low and it doesnt get to be unpleasant (at least not to the level that i consider unpleasant)
anyway, brewed tea without additive(to stabilize chemical interactions) changes flavor over couple hours, tho sencha seems less to do so compared to chinese green/black.

[beachape]

If I were you I would experiment. Try it a bunch of different ways and decide which way tastes best. You'll get different results from different teas.

Don't use high priced stuff though because no matter how you play it, tea in a thermos just doesn't taste as good. Make sure your water isn't too hot when it goes in the thermos because it will keep cooking in there (even if you strained all the leaves, the tea itself gets funny if it is too hot for too long).

[debunix]

brewed tea without additive(to stabilize chemical interactions) changes flavor over couple hours, tho sencha seems less to do so compared to chinese green/black.

+1

I do a lot of thermos filling, sometimes to hold for 3-4 hours, sometimes for 6-10 hours.

For the shorter time, I will do green or white teas, in addition to oolongs, blacks, and puerhs, especially the shus; for the longer time, I avoid whites and greens, because so much of the delicacy is lost with the long holding time and ongoing oxidation. I do use some of my nicer teas, but would not abuse my dan congs this way.

I brew up relatively large amount of tea in small pot or gaiwan and do multiple infusions until I fill the thermos, trying to be sure each infusion is more or less drinkable by itself. If I overdo one, I do the next shorter, but try to avoid the 'brew it all long and dilute to taste' because that doesn't always seem to work.

FWIW, have never tried this with sencha, because to my taste, the sencha starts to turn from gorgeous to not so nice within 20 minutes after infusing.

[teaisme]

I agree with silver needles idea of not brewing with water temp you would usually use to hot brew sencha , because like debunix said if you plan to not drink very soon the color will change and flavor will weaken/be altered

for sencha a lukewarm brewing with the leaves actually in the thermos seems to be the way to go for me (though I basically stopped brewing sencha in a thermos that I plan to drink in a couple hours)

Instead I find I get much better results and no worries when I store blacks, green anxi oolongs, and wuyi's in a thermos. High mt. taiwan oolongs, whites, and chinese greens all don't seem to do as well. They are ok though if you brew with leaf in thermos but I prefer to brew then pour into thermos. Also how much the tea moves/shakes alters the taste a lot.

A good line of thermos are the Tiger Sahara ones. Come in many sizes but I would go for the tumblers/mugs and not the sports bottles. The one I have is the MMP-A030. http://www.usa.tiger-corporation.com/pr ... ategory/28

These ones have very good heat retention if you prewarm, still steaming hot after 5 hrs. The best thing though is that the lid does not leech that silicon taste that most other thermos do. Much better then other tea vendors thermoses I have tried. Also is basically leak proof and not hard to thoroughly clean. Durable stainless steel, PP lid, silicon lining. I've dropped it from pretty high a couple times already.

[Oni]

I really recomend cold brewing that sencha, if by any chance you brew hot sencha and put it in a thermos, it will start oxidizing after 20 minutes, your tea will be brown and bitter in an hour, sencha really doesn`t support long time thermos storage, but if it is cold brewed, you can get a large amount of great tea, just try putting 5 to 10 grams to 700 ml to 1200 ml water, try doing it with a lot of ice cubes (those are the low fat alternatives to ice cream - ice cube), I tried all the ice brewing methods with japanese teas, the best is when you brew it with ice, or you use a houhin and try shinobi-cha method, you can drink small amounts of tea while reading or watching a movie. P.S. Just remember that hot sencha needs to be consumed fresh, and ice brewed sencha can last a whole day (but brew max for 6 hours, no longer, after that shake and remove the leaves).

[debunix]

Cold sencha would be so sad.

Could you cold brew up some superconcentrated sencha, keep cold in one thermos, then dilute at the time of drinking with hot water from another thermos? Thinking this might make sencha & some other more delicate teas portable to take to my satellite offices....

[Dresden]

I've brewed in cup (grandpa style) many times while camping and with several teas.... I don't know if I'd want to try that with sencha.

Could you cold brew up some superconcentrated sencha, keep cold in one thermos, then dilute at the time of drinking with hot water from another thermos? Thinking this might make sencha & some other more delicate teas portable to take to my satellite offices....

This to me is a fascinating idea. I think I may actually explore this.

[LauraW]

Cold sencha would be so sad.

Could you cold brew up some superconcentrated sencha, keep cold in one thermos, then dilute at the time of drinking with hot water from another thermos? Thinking this might make sencha & some other more delicate teas portable to take to my satellite offices....

That actually sounds like a great idea... if it gets tried, let us know how it works!

[Oni]

You actually can brew iced tea to be super concentrated, but even if you mix it with hot water it won`t be as if the leaves were in there too, and there is no coffein in cold brewed sencha, and there are tea elements that only come out in hot water.

[debunix]

Worth a try, to see if the elements that I like do come out in cold brewing.

[silverneedles]

there is no coffein in cold brewed sencha

really