Sencha Brewing Question (temperature)

[ChenChen10]

I drink a lot of asamushi sencha which has a fairly low recommended brewing temperature (165F-175F). My question is whether the manufacturer's recommended brewing temperature is the temperature the water should be in the Kyusu or the temperature the water should be in the kettle right before it is poured?

[entropyembrace]

Hi ChenChen, welcome to tea chat

I think this should be taken as temperature in the kettle, but you should pre-heat your teapot with hot water before adding the leaves to minimize how much heat you lose when pouring

[ChenChen10]

Thanks for the reply, so the temperature the tea steeps at is somewhat lower than the recommended brewing temperature due to the heat loss when water is transferred.

[chingwa]

Well I think to be accurate, the recommended brewing temperature is "in the pot" temperature. Preheating just helps you normalize the temperature (and is always recommended). That being said, in many cases I find the recommended temps to usually be too high. 165-175 can be considered "default standard recommendation" for asamushi, or what I think of as the "lazy recommendation", so I wouldn't necessarily take it as gospel. I usually go 10 degrees lower... 155-160 as a standard parameter... and sometimes lower depending on the tea, but this may be just my personal preference.

@entropy - did I just contradict you?

[rdl]

ChenChen,
If you pre-heat the pot as suggested, by pouring from the kettle or a cooling cup, there will not be much heat loss. Even if you vary in between the 165-170F range, the taste won't be wildly different. But most important to remember is each tea and your taste will decide the water temperature and steeping time. These are just recommended suggestions as you wrote. If you are using a thermometer then you can be consistent and then change the time and/or temp as you like. If you go by intuition then no two steeps will be identical anyway.
Welcome to TC and good luck

[entropyembrace]

Well I think to be accurate, the recommended brewing temperature is "in the pot" temperature. Preheating just helps you normalize the temperature (and is always recommended). That being said, in many cases I find the recommended temps to usually be too high. 165-175 can be considered "default standard recommendation" for asamushi, or what I think of as the "lazy recommendation", so I wouldn't necessarily take it as gospel. I usually go 10 degrees lower... 155-160 as a standard parameter... and sometimes lower depending on the tea, but this may be just my personal preference.

@entropy - did I just contradict you?

Not actually, even in a preheated pot you'll probably be brewing about 10 degrees F lower than the temperature in the kettle.

Without preheating I'd expect up to 20 F drop in temperature.

[Tead Off]

Well I think to be accurate, the recommended brewing temperature is "in the pot" temperature. Preheating just helps you normalize the temperature (and is always recommended). That being said, in many cases I find the recommended temps to usually be too high. 165-175 can be considered "default standard recommendation" for asamushi, or what I think of as the "lazy recommendation", so I wouldn't necessarily take it as gospel. I usually go 10 degrees lower... 155-160 as a standard parameter... and sometimes lower depending on the tea, but this may be just my personal preference.

@entropy - did I just contradict you?

Not actually, even in a preheated pot you'll probably be brewing about 10 degrees F lower than the temperature in the kettle.

Without preheating I'd expect up to 20 F drop in temperature.

+1. But Sencha can be brewed within a range of temp successfully. Accuracy may only be an illusion.

[entropyembrace]

+1. But Sencha can be brewed within a range of temp successfully. Accuracy may only be an illusion.

That's true

A little bit hot and it's more astringent. Cooler temperature you'll get a milder, sweeter result.

Even brewing with melting ice works! it just takes a while.

But you can ruin by going too close to boiling.

Lately I've been brewing sencha by touch, holding my hand to the kettle to judge temperature.

[jayinhk]

My sencha technique is as follows:

Put tea into kyusu. Boil water. Wait for bubbles to stop. Pour water into glass pitcher for gongfu cha. Then pour water into yunomi. Pour into kyusu.

Works a treat and my tea is pretty much right where I want it! I can go a little hotter or cooler by starting off hotter or letting the water cool a little longer in the cup.

[ChenChen10]

Thank you all so much for the replies, very insightful. When I asked this question I was brewing Organic Kabusecha from O-Cha.com. I had been having good results trying to achieve the recommended brewing temperature of 175F in the Kyusu. This required me to use water that was 195F (I lose alot of heat in the transfer b/c I am only pouring 3oz steeps and my Kyusu is very thin.

This morning I tried using water in the kettle heated to to 175F which when poured into the Kyusu cooled to 158F. The result was a more mild and sweeter infusion, but very weak compared to 175F steep temp. I think I prefer somewhere in between. Using water with a kettle temperature of 185F (not sure what the temp in the kyusu was) gave the infusion the strength I wanted with still some of the nuanced flavor of the lower temperature infusion.

[NateHevens]

This is why I love my variable temperature tea kettle. While it may not be accurate to the decimal, I can still have really good temperature control with it...

I brew most of my senchas with water between 165 & 175 in the kettle, meaning around 155 & 165 in the pot. I love the flavor I get with most senchas in that range.