My next try will be at even more leaf, 1.25:1 like you said, Chip. Temperature-wise, I think that 70° C (pretty much my standard) is fine.
When I upped the leaf to a 1:1 ratio I did notice an improvement so further going into this direction is probably a good idea.
However, this time around I didn't want so much caffeine so I went easy on the leaf and did 3 g : 5 oz, 70° C, 90 seconds and it actually turned out quite nice. Very mild though, obviously, but in a good way! I didn't get any of that one flavor (can't describe it, sorry) that I disliked about it before, so I'm happy.
I don't think it's much different from what I did with my first try for this tea so either I was slightly off on the temperature then or it was some other external factors.
I was planning on getting two tiny kyusu in order to do more experimentation with brewing parameters and side by side comparisons.
I feel like I might miss out on the sweet spot of some teas by only occasionally experimenting. Notes can't explain nuances like actually tasting the result of different brewing methods side by side. Maybe it's too scientific an approach but it'll be fun
I have had other Kabusecha before and brewed them like asamushi sencha and that pretty much always turned out fine. This is the first one that makes me try a little harder.Nenugal wrote:Is kabusecha generally considered difficult to get right? So far I've been lucky once out of 3 tries, my hit rate is usually better than that with both sencha and gyokuro...
