Zojirushi worthless? Can't brew a good pot of tea.

[PolyhymnianMuse]

Easy way to check if your zoji is heating properly...

Make some ramen, set it to boil and just pour over your noodles.

[Space Samurai]

For sencha I use a minimum of 5 grams to 7 oz of water, and sometimes will go as high as 6.5-7 grams. So I concour that your problem may well be that you aren't using enough leaf.

IMO, tetsubins aren't very good tea pots. If you want a "perfect pot of sencha," then I suggest using your tetsubin for less challenging teas and get an inexpensive clay pot, like a Tokoname. Something designed for green tea, which I don't think tetsubin are.

I think the folks at Teavana may have given you some bad advice. I'm not saying that they don't know more than the average American about tea, but I think they have a lot to learn before they are the experts they sell themselves as.

Tea in general and for sure sencha in particular is very challenging and takes time.

[PolyhymnianMuse]

I have never heard of using more than a teaspoon for 8 ounces of water. I thought that was the rule. Teavana and other places online said that is the standard. Teavana sold me a metal teaspoon and said to use 1 teaspoon for 1 cup of water. It sounds like Teavana may have sold me lies:shock:.

Sorry to say, but your probably right. Teavana doesnt really have a good reputation outside of introducing the western world to tea in shopping malls. one teaspoon per 6 ounces is an average place to start. It really comes to taste, but it deff seems like you need to use much more leaf.

The smallest cast iron teapot I could find is 16 ounces. The filter in the teapot is totally full to the top with leaves after it expands in the water. If I would put more tea in it, it would not have any more room to expand. The infuser is about the size of a Dixie cup.

Could you perhaps get rid of the infuser insert and brew directly in the pot? This might be another big problem you are having. I'm not a big fan of those infuser inserts in pots, if you need to filter anything try pouring the tea from the pot through the infuser.

If I want to make the perfect pot of sencha, what temperature should the water be and how many teaspoons should I use for 16 ounces of water?

As said before, 16 ounces is a large amount to brew at one time. Sencha is even more minimal when it comes to water amounts. General 4-8 oz is where a a cup of sencha comes in. Teaspoons are hard to exact as every tea has different volume, weight, etc. Someone else might be able to give you a more sure answer but i would try around 2 or three to start.

[Wesli]

1tsp / 100ml - 176°f

[scruffmcgruff]

You could just decant right into another container (a pitcher, measuring cup, another teapot, whatever), which you could then keep on a warmer. Still, I would suggest making small infusions and drinking them while hot; warming already-brewed-tea tends to muddle the flavor.

[PolyhymnianMuse]

You could just decant right into another container (a pitcher, measuring cup, another teapot, whatever), which you could then keep on a warmer. Still, I would suggest making small infusions and drinking them while hot; warming already-brewed-tea tends to muddle the flavor.

I totally second that. I realize that making a bunch of tea at once and just keeping it warm is convenient but its best to brew a cup as your going to drink it. This is where your cast iron would come in handy if you get another vessel for brewing. The problem you have with it would actually do a great benefit... cast iron takes a lot to heat up but it retains that heat for a very long time, which would be perfect for keeping your tea warm once already brewed.

If you really do want to make whole pots like that and than keep them warm, you would deff have to seperate the leaves out by decanting into another container. You could take the leaves out and put it right back in the pot to keep warm.

Glass is a good option as it holds up to heat well, very easy to clean. There are lots of good glass teapots out there, im sure some here can suggest one exactly like you are looking for.

[Wesli]

That would be 4.74 tsp per 16 ounces, correct? How long would I steep that? Does using over twice as much tea that I use make a different and better taste?

Just use around 4 and a half. Steep no longer than 1.5 minutes.

[Mary R]

The pots I use for sencha are about 9 oz capacity, and I hardly ever use less than 5 grams (approximately 1 tablespoon or THREE teaspoons) to brew that satisfactorily. As far as pre-heating goes...I usually use water that's around 190ºF to preheat a pot for senchas...unless it's a touchy sencha that prefers brewing temps around 150-160ºF...then I use something lower.

Use adequate leaf and let your pot preheat and you should be fine.

I do have a clay kyusu and I only use it to brew sencha. That's just my preference because I do have an awful lot of teaware. I think the tokoname clay used in my kyusu isn't so porous as to preclude an occasional foray into other greens--or other teas for that matter. You can find left-handed versions if you really like the side-handled aesthetic and functionality, but that might be harder to accomplish through an American vendor, say Teavana or Rishi. For special orders of Japanese ware, I like to go thorough a nice man by the name of Toru over at Artistic Nippon.

As I side note, I see that you like to brew a large amount of tea and hold it over a warmer to drink over the course of a couple hours. To be honest, I really only ever do this with some blacks and a couple oolongs. Greens get too bitter for my taste, and especially senchas. But that's just my opinion and preference.

[Geekgirl]

I finally was able to make tea in less than 4 minutes.

Congratulations!

I am starting to like the idea of using a Tokoname. The reason why I want the tea to be on the tea warmer is because I could not drink 16 ounces at once. I should be able to drink 6-10 ounces at a time then when I want more I can just add more hot water and make another infusion, right? I think that would work out.

Yes, that's exactly the use for kyusu. 6-8 ounces is ideal if you want to pour into a regular cup.

I have a few questions about this type of teapot. I believe they are clay, correct? Would I be able to use all types of green tea only in it, or are there some that I should not use because the flavor will get in the pot and spoil the flavors of sencha? How easy are they to clean? I am left handed and I noticed that all of the pots are meant to be used with the right hand. Do they make left handed teapots?

Good kyusu are clay, and mostly unglazed. You can brew any type of green tea in a kyusu, and even some of the green oolongs. Don't brew your flavored teas in it though, because those smells stick around.

All side-handle kyusu are right-handed, (Japanese tea ceremony doesn't really like lefties, and the kyusu don't either. Ha!) but you can buy rear-handle kyusu also. Artistic Nippon that has been mentioned here several times has a couple of rear-handle style tokoname kyusu that are very nice. They are both a bit large, but you don't have to fill them to the brim when you brew.

They are relatively easy to clean, although with fine clay screens, you might end up with a few little bits of tealeaf stuck in the screen sometimes. Don't worry about it though, it won't hurt anything.

Would I be able to use my green tea setting (175F) on my water heater without having the temperature problem? Would I need to use hotter water such as 195F or 208F to get the correct temperature? Do they make these types of pots with a glazed interior so I can use them with green teas along with other types of teas such as oolong?

I use the green tea setting on my zoji when I brew in glass or kyusu, preheat the pot of course. It works fine, although the temp does drop about 10degrees pretty quickly. Usually I use 195 for green tea, dispense into a small glass pitcher, then immediately pour into the pot: voila - 180 deg.

You can get a kyusu style with a glazed interior, but again, it is right-handed, so you would be just fine getting glass or a side or tophandle porcelain teapot in whichever style you prefer. Some of the glass pots have a very nice filter built into the spout for loose leaf brewing.

If you really want to learn tea, you might consider not worrying about the pot until you get used to loose-leaf brewing. Try using a pyrex measuring cup so you know exactly how much water you are using, and you can see the infusion in action. Just put a saucer on top of the measuring cup to help hold the heat in. After the tea has brewed, pour through a strainer into your cup, then tap the leaves back into the pyrex for your next infusion.

After you are familiar with that type of brewing, you might have a better idea of which kind of teapot will work best for your needs.

[Mary R]

No, you can find lefty friendly kyusu. They're not traditional for a couple reasons, but if you've got a guy in the know like Toru, you can find one of the 'rare' lefty ones. You'll pay a pretty penny for it, but it can be done.