Best way to brew green tea?

[Proinsias]

My way is definitely the best way.

I lean towards gong fu with most greens I drink, which tend to be full leaf as opposed to Japanese greens which demand a kyusu imho.

Getting to know a green tea I would start with lots of leaf and a low water temp. As I become more familiar with the tea I can start to push it too higher and higher temps to see where it gives out. With really hot water on green leaves a nice gentle pour down the side of the brewing vessel seems to help - don't attack the leaf with boiling water.
A gaiwan should be fine but I prefer a small glass jug as greens and whites aren't too demanding of high temps and enclosed spaces, it's one of the few teas I can enjoy watching dance around without being concerned I'm losing flavour.

A rough idea of my white/green setup. I use one of the small metal strainers on the jug:



Lots of leaf and short infusions usually give me a few stunning cups around steeps 3,4,5 & 6 and plenty more tea on either end which will still give an English brewed cup a run for it's money.

I also find I learn a lot more about the tea if I can brew it 20 times in the course of a few hours as opposed to once or twice.

The glass jug tends too cool down quite a bit quicker than a lidded gaiwan so if you happen to forget about a steep for 10mins all is not lost - decant, drink and boil up some fresh water.

[kymidwife]

I'm fairly new here, and fairly new to green tea... but over the last couple of months, I've seen a huge variety of methods described in how is the "best" way. There's tons of old posts on the subject here... and you will get lots of great advice from lots of seasoned brewers... but in the long run, I found what was best was to try all the methods and see what tasted the best to me. Everyone doesn't agree, and I had both good and bad luck following other peoples' methods. My tastebuds were the final judges. I am currently cold-brewing all my greens.

Good luck with your experimenting!

Sarah

[hop_goblin]

When brewing green tea, temperature will either make your tea or kill it. These means you have to take every effort to try to control heat. Green tea needs water that is not too hot, and a brewing vessle that will not retain excessive heat. For these reasons, never use boiling water or a pot that is retains heat such as yixing. I prefer to use a porceline gaiwan. Porceline does not efficiently retain heat and it allows you to move the tea around using the lid which further allows you to controld the heat.