Sencha Brewing Question

[TeaFanatic]

Quick question here, I'm pretty new to high quality japanese greens, and I've been looking around at the various Japanese tea vendors (O-Cha, Ippodo, Dens, Yuuki-Cha), and finding a lot of conflicting instructions on how many grams of tea to use per ounce of water. I know that each tea is different and so would have different recommended instructions, but the variance is quite large. In particular on many of their senchas, Yuuki-Cha recommends 6 grams of sencha for 2 oz of water. That seems like a very large amount of tea for such a small steep. I guess I'm just used to my chinese teas which all pretty consistently use 2-3 grams for an 8 ounce cup.

Anyway, I just wanted to get some feedback on how much sencha most people use to brew a normal steeping.

[Chip]

For most sencha of high quality, I personally use .6 to 1 gram leaf per ounce of water. Pretty common around here actually.

That Yuuki-Cha amount has gotta be a mistake????? That is an insane amount.

[Tead Off]

For most sencha of high quality, I personally use .6 to 1 gram leaf per ounce of water. Pretty common around here actually.

That Yuuki-Cha amount has gotta be a mistake????? That is an insane amount.

I just took a peek at Yuuki-cha's recommendation. It is 1g per 1oz water.

[iannon]

perhaps you were looking at the gyokuro? a lot of them will suggest close to that ratio for Gyo

[Oni]

1 gram per 1 oz, is like 7 grams to 210 ml, that is a good amount for lightsteamed sencha.

[olivierco]

Some sellers give an even higher leaf/water ratio. Ippodo (light steamed sencha) gives 10g for 210ml which is 1.4g per oz.

[TeaFanatic]

I think that I was looking at gyokuro for the 6 gram/2 oz ratio, sorry for the confusion there. So most people use .6 gram-1 gram per oz of water for their sencha?

[Chip]

Well, it is pretty common to those who like to use this ratio method of figuring out their leaf needs.

Sencha is like drugs, I used to be around .5-.75 grams per ounce. So far this Spring, I am virtually right at 1.0 for virtually every shincha I have had.

[TeaFanatic]

And how many steepings do you typically make at 1.0 grams per oz of water?

[Chip]

... at least 5, but that is a personal thing. By the 5th steep, it tastes like sweet teawater, very pleasant, but not at all like sencha.

Many people stop at 2-3.

Maybe I am also too cheap, but when I smell the wet leaves in the pot, I smell flavor, so I brew.

[fnord]

i've been experimenting with my brewing parameters quite a lot these days.
if i like my sencha a bit weaker i use arround 2,5g and 4oz water and brew 1-1,5 minutes at 70C-80C,but usually i use 1g per ounce 70C and 1 minute,depends a bit on the tea.

that are my "drinking" parameters,if i want to "sip" i use much more tea,i would say something arround 3-4g for 2oz water at 50C- 60C.

that was all for "asamushi",for deeper steamed teas i prefer 2-3g ,70C and 4 oz water.

so to each his own,there are many ways to brew a good cup of tea and for me it also depends on the time ,my mood...

[chingwa]

This says everything you need to know....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54iG6deEaW0

[Seeker]

I am left curious about weight vs volume of tea in terms of measuring.

I typically eye-ball it - sort of trust my intuition and experience over the years on the amount of tea per amount of water for a given tea - and this may change as a tea 'ages' (becomes a month or so older).

So - I can't imagine that y'all are actually weighing your tea, or are you?

It seems much more realistic that you measure it out by volume.

I'm curious to know - how do you actually arrive at an accurate 1g or 2g, etc? Do you actually weigh it on a scale, then see what the volume is, and take it from there for future infusing so you don't have to get out the scale every time? Do you keep a scale handy in your tea area? Please do tell.

[Seeker]

Chingwa,

I watched the video, but sadly I don't speak or understand japanese.

Is it a comedy piece - seemed like it could be?

That was a lot of gyokuro or sencha that went into that pot! And then there was the chasen examination.

[Tead Off]

I am left curious about weight vs volume of tea in terms of measuring.

I typically eye-ball it - sort of trust my intuition and experience over the years on the amount of tea per amount of water for a given tea - and this may change as a tea 'ages' (becomes a month or so older).

So - I can't imagine that y'all are actually weighing your tea, or are you?

It seems much more realistic that you measure it out by volume.

I'm curious to know - how do you actually arrive at an accurate 1g or 2g, etc? Do you actually weigh it on a scale, then see what the volume is, and take it from there for future infusing so you don't have to get out the scale every time? Do you keep a scale handy in your tea area? Please do tell.

Interestingly, I never weighed tea or measured temp in my life until recently. I stuck to only a few teas that I liked and saw the amount that the tea shop owner would use where I bought the tea. Common sense would adjust tea or temp as needed. But, now, I drink more teas and the cost adds up. Some are quite expensive. I have more pots and their capacities differ. Since it's so simple to take my gram scale out and weigh the tea, I have done this routinely, lately. This started with my drinking of Japanese greens. I can see that at some point, I will be able to eyeball the amounts and abandon the scale. The temp thing is more tricky as I find the Japanese teas much more sensitive to temp variations than Chinese teas. So, my digital thermometer has become a regular fixture in my tea tools container.