Friday TeaDay 1/23/09 Specialized or generalized?

[kongni]

As chip has indicated, tea companies that specialize like Ocha tend to have high quality leaf. I tend to buy from places like OCha because I know I will get excellent Japanese green tea. However I also go for the companies with wider varieties like Tao of Tea and Arbor Teas every now and then...

Second steep sencha right now

Have a great Saturday tea day everyone!

[Chip]

Gyokuro Kame from O-Cha is really blowing my mind right now. Great stuff. I only brewed 1.5 ounces with 3 grams of leaf. WOW!!! So rich and indulgent.

What water temp did you use?

I ordered some of this a few days ago. Cant wait!!!!!!!

You will NOT be disappointed. Did you see the heavily visited gyokuro topic under Greea Tea? Lots of good info there. Click here

First of all keeping in mind it is premo leaf, I use 135* for the first steep, increasing temp gradually for successive steeps.

[Chip]

Chip - Ok, I'm not Cherylopal, but I brew Adagio's gyokuro in water that's barely warm, for several minutes. Japanese greens aren't my favorite, but I do like that one, especially on ice. I had it the other day and got the kettle too hot. So I put a couple of ice cubes on top of the leaves before adding the water (I like to toss in a few rosebuds, too).

I am very embarrassed to say how I brewed it but I will because even with my very sloppy methods it was soooo delish. I was at work with no real supplies yet. I microwaved my water in my microsafe mug and the temp was about 150-160F- I don't have a thermometer at work but know that 2 min 30 sec will heat the water in my mug to 175F. I put a guestimate of about a 1 tablespoon in a plastic infuser and brewed for about 3 min. My mug is about 10 ounces although yesterday when I was making this tea I thought the mug held more like 14. The director came in to chat and distracted my brewing!

I am going to try your methods with your water temps and amount of tea and time later this am. I'm at home where at least now I have a teapot, thermometer etc. and no boss to distract.

Thanks for the info. I had some trouble brewing this one to my liking, so currently I am cold brewing it for iced tea in a really nice blend, really nice cold brewed.

Cheryl, let me know how it turns out. I am curious how this would work for you since it did not seem to work for me, I will need to revisit it.

[Shelob]

Gyokuro Kame from O-Cha is really blowing my mind right now. Great stuff. I only brewed 1.5 ounces with 3 grams of leaf. WOW!!! So rich and indulgent.

What water temp did you use?

I ordered some of this a few days ago. Cant wait!!!!!!!

You will NOT be disappointed. Did you see the heavily visited gyokuro topic under Greea Tea? Lots of good info there. Click here

First of all keeping in mind it is premo leaf, I use 135* for the first steep, increasing temp gradually for successive steeps.

Chip, sounds like I better get my order in now, or be left out So, it's really that delish?

Thanks for the link, can hardly wait for the Sencha Fact Board to be completed

[Shelob]

Trey-- you hard boil the eggs, crack the shells, and then boil them a second time in tea :3 painting them would take forever ,' A' , !!!!!

Guess what I am gonna do this weekend? I think I will experiment w/natural food colors to see what I can create Hope to be able to post the results of my efforts.

Thanks again Ryo for sharing

[JP]

I will definitely be going with more specialized vendors in the coming year. With exceptions, it's the only way to get "the good stuff."

[cherylopal]

Chip - Ok, I'm not Cherylopal, but I brew Adagio's gyokuro in water that's barely warm, for several minutes. Japanese greens aren't my favorite, but I do like that one, especially on ice. I had it the other day and got the kettle too hot. So I put a couple of ice cubes on top of the leaves before adding the water (I like to toss in a few rosebuds, too).

I am very embarrassed to say how I brewed it but I will because even with my very sloppy methods it was soooo delish. I was at work with no real supplies yet. I microwaved my water in my microsafe mug and the temp was about 150-160F- I don't have a thermometer at work but know that 2 min 30 sec will heat the water in my mug to 175F. I put a guestimate of about a 1 tablespoon in a plastic infuser and brewed for about 3 min. My mug is about 10 ounces although yesterday when I was making this tea I thought the mug held more like 14. The director came in to chat and distracted my brewing!

I am going to try your methods with your water temps and amount of tea and time later this am. I'm at home where at least now I have a teapot, thermometer etc. and no boss to distract.

Thanks for the info. I had some trouble brewing this one to my liking, so currently I am cold brewing it for iced tea in a really nice blend, really nice cold brewed.

Cheryl, let me know how it turns out. I am curious how this would work for you since it did not seem to work for me, I will need to revisit it.

I've done two brewings and not so happy with them. I did one at 130F about 3 teaspoons of leaf in about 8 oz mug- good but weak- not as tasty as the crazy brew I did at work.

the other i tried the 135F 3g and 1.5 oz water- better flavor but I really think I need a scale- there was a *lot* of leaf for that amount of water.

so far not much luck. I'm going to order a scale in a few moments!

[Chip]

Thanks Cheryl. Interesting. I do need to revisit this gyokuro and try a bunch of different brewing parameters. The leaf smells quite good, but it has been enigmatic for me.

Good luck on the scale hunt. My scale has been acting funny.