Gyokuro - Brewing tips and more

[blairswhitaker]

I like Ippodo's ratio. I break it down like this.

I prefer to brew 2oz of tea per serving or 60ml. for 60ml I use 7 grams of leaf, if their is a second person I want to serve a 60ml serving to I add 14 grams of leaf and a total of 120 ml of water. you can divide the amount you serve or increase it based on your preferences. a simple way to look at is to divide however much water you want to use in ml by 8 and you will get the amount of leaf needed. (water in ml) / 8 = ( amount of leaf).

as far as brewing goes I prefer these numbers.
1st steep 40c for 3min
2n steep 42c for 20sec
3rd steep 44c for 3min
4th steep 45c for 4min

this produces a very rich and succulent brew. quality gyo is important when going this intense.

[Suutej_Tsaj]

I think I've fallen in love. I don't know if I've done everything right (most likely not), but the result was amazing anyway.
I'm not a sommelier so I can't describe the taste, but its touch reminded me of a mou candy melting in my mouth. I was afraid it could have been a bit heavy because of the water, but it turned out just fine.
I used the three cups method to cool down the water. Talking about time, the first steeping lasted 1min and 40sec, while with the others I went up to two minutes each. I was able to make seven infusions before the tea started to lose its flavour.
Later I will post some of the pictures I've taken. They aren't high definition because I took them with my phone, but still meaningful.
A great first experience, nothing else to add.

[Chip]

GREAT!!! Hopefully you will have many more delicious sessions of Gyokuro.

BTW, did you mention any details about the Gyokuro such as where you got it, its "name?"

[Suutej_Tsaj]

I bought it from a teashop in Turin. The cashier said it came from Uji province, but couldn't provide me with further information. She was a bit surprised by the question "where does it come from?", too.
Anyway, here are the pictures from yesterday's session. Again, sorry for bad quality.

The first steeping. Any feedback on my teaware is highly appreciated:


A close-up:


The last steeping. I may have had too much at this point, but I could swear the leftovers were smiling at me:


A truly golden tip from O-Cha: tea leaves served with soy sauce. The chopsticks are a gift from a friend's journey to China:


P.s.: has the forum got a spoiler function to hide large images? I couldn't find one.

[Kevangogh]

It's nice to have teapots (shiboridashi or houhin) for gyokuro. However, this goes to show that you can make good green tea with more simple devices if you know exactly what you are doing. Likewise, you can have the best equipment and easily screw up a brew of gyokuro if you don't.

+1

[edkrueger]

Uji province

Uji isn't a province, its a city in Kyoto Prefecture. As far as tea goes, stuff from around Uji usually gets the lablel.

[Maneki Neko]

I usually brew my Gyokuro with either Fiji Water or Santa Vittoria mineral water. No idea if it tastes anything like professionally made Gyokuro, but at least I'm following the brewing instructions and I like what comes out of it

It's the first tea proper I am able to drink unsweetened. I think adding a sweetener is an insult to Gyokuro, although I've tried it once with a drop of stevia the first time I brewed

Sadly, the cost of the bottled water is something that's holding me back from enjoying Jade Dew more frequently. The tap water here in Melbourne is absolutely disgusting with the added chlorine and fluoride so that's no option. I'm vigorously opposed to adding stuff to the drinking water! I could rant against it for hours, but I'll spare you guys that
In Holland, where I grew up, we have very nice pure tap water.

For everyone who lives in a place where they mess with the tap water: how do you guys deal with it?

[Tead Off]

I usually brew my Gyokuro with either Fiji Water or Santa Vittoria mineral water. No idea if it tastes anything like professionally made Gyokuro, but at least I'm following the brewing instructions and I like what comes out of it

It's the first tea proper I am able to drink unsweetened. I think adding a sweetener is an insult to Gyokuro, although I've tried it once with a drop of stevia the first time I brewed

Sadly, the cost of the bottled water is something that's holding me back from enjoying Jade Dew more frequently. The tap water here in Melbourne is absolutely disgusting with the added chlorine and fluoride so that's no option. I'm vigorously opposed to adding stuff to the drinking water! I could rant against it for hours, but I'll spare you guys that
In Holland, where I grew up, we have very nice pure tap water.

For everyone who lives in a place where they mess with the tap water: how do you guys deal with it?

Get yourself and good water filtration system. I use a countertop Doulton which attached directly to the faucet and has a manual switching device to either run water for dishwashing directly out of the faucet, or diverting to the filter system having its own faucet. Never had a better tasting system ever and the water here in Bangkok is not fit to drink unfiltered.

[Maneki Neko]

Yeah, I've been looking at an AU$400 ceramic filter tank that also takes out the fluoride... That is important to me and not all filters do that job

But $400 is just bloody expensive

That tap-attached thing sounds convenient