Where to keep kyusu between multiple brewings?
I've finally bought a kyusu for tea-drinking at work. We have a coffee room where we have our coffee/tea together at nine o'clock and again at half past one in the afternoon (remember that I live in Finland where the coffee consumption is highest in the world and people take their coffee breaks very seriously). I usually drink one cup of sencha in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Now that I have a decent brewing vessel I could have proper sencha at work as well, but I wouldn't want to waste good sencha. If I do one brew in the morning I could probably use the same tea leaves in the afternoon, but where should I keep the kyusu+leaves in between the brewings (about 4.5 h)? In room temperature or in the fridge? I remember reading instructions for multiple brewings in gaiwan and it said that you can put the gaiwan in the fridge if you want to have a break between brewings. What concerns me is that doesn't kyusu/gaiwan break if you take it from the fridge (+4C/39F) and then pour hot water to it? Another thing: normally I would use water at 80C (176F) for secong brew of sencha. If the kyusu is refridgerated, should I use boiling water?
Nov 7th, '08, 08:47
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Congrats on your kyusu purchase!!!
Generally, you can leave it out for that length of time, not the ideal situation, albeit.
If you do refridgerate, a kyusu should certainly be able to take that change in temp if it was not defective to begin with. Keep in mind, they are fired at very high temps which will usually reveal a kyusu's fault if there is one.
I would pour hotter water over the leaf in a quick rinse possibly, like a few seconds. This would warm the leaf up again. Pour it off, might be drinkable. Then pour water in at the temp you normally would for a second steep of sencha (usually around 176*).
That is what I would do.

Generally, you can leave it out for that length of time, not the ideal situation, albeit.
If you do refridgerate, a kyusu should certainly be able to take that change in temp if it was not defective to begin with. Keep in mind, they are fired at very high temps which will usually reveal a kyusu's fault if there is one.
I would pour hotter water over the leaf in a quick rinse possibly, like a few seconds. This would warm the leaf up again. Pour it off, might be drinkable. Then pour water in at the temp you normally would for a second steep of sencha (usually around 176*).
That is what I would do.
blah blah blah SENCHA blah blah blah!!!