I have a 1/4 pound bag of Wakamidori Sencha from Holy Mountain. The leaf looks a lot like grass clippings and there is quite a bit of powder. Is that how it is supposed to be?
I have a very fine mesh strainer, but quite a bit of sediment gets through. The liquor is a greenish-yellow color (not the most appealing color) and quite cloudy. As I get to the bottom of the pot, it gets quite a bit darker.
It has an unusual taste and it smells a little like a field or a freshly cut lawn. There is also some odd after taste.
I steeped it at 2.5 g/cup (180 ml) at 170 degrees for 2:00 minutes.
I am going to try it at half that strength and see what happens.
This is probably not one I will buy again unless I find a better way to prepare it.
You might want to try it using (at least) the original amount of leaf but with shorter steeps. Try a first steep of maybe 15 or 30 seconds and a second steep that's virtually instantaneous. You might actually like the second steep better. If this tea is really good, you might get a good third steep, too.
I was indifferent the first few times I had it. Then, several years later, I craved the flavor intensely for no particular reason. I got two from Harney and Sons, and now they rank among my favorite teas ever (Kagoshima sencha and an ichiban sencha (a Shizuoka fukamushi cha)).
In fact, I think I'll have some Right Now. Thanks!
You might try it rather cooler - say 140F. Some people are astonished at the difference. To me, 170F will turn most Japanese greens into stewed spinach: not just loss of many of the delicate and appealing flavor elements, but the addition of unpleasant new ones.
Once water that hot has been added, re-steeping cooler won't help. Conversely, one can always increase temperature as the delicate components are extracted through multiple steeps.
I tend to start most teas rather cooler than is common practice, and never use boiling water for anything except red tea or later steeps of Pu-erh. With Japanese and some Chinese greens, my guideline is that water too hot for a finger-dip is too hot for early brews. Some co-tasters find this objectionable; others have been delighted by the base flavors and nuances thus revealed.
FWIW, I've found that better Japanese greens are usually excellent from the start. Lesser grades typically make a bitter, slightly acrid (but not unpleasant) first steep, and then deliver two to four very smooth, well-balanced steeps that decline in intensity but not quality until little remains. Some Japanese with whom I've worked over there either throw out the first steep as a rinse, or politely offer it to others. I've also noticed that they tend to keep adding fresh bags to a single-cup kyusu until it's getting crowded. I haven't asked, but I'm guessing that this keeps caffeine levels high while averaging smoothness.
Actually, that's a good way to describe it. I was searching for an adequate term.
By "original", do you mean the same amount of leaf as I used above?
So,
Steep for 15-30 seconds?
Steep a second time as short as possible?
I'm using a glass teapot without an infuser. When the time is up. I pour it through a fine mesh strainer into a cup or thermos, depending on how much I'm making.
I think 10-15 seconds is about the shortest infusion I can manage, buy the time I pour the hot water, replace the teapot, get the strainer, and pour into the cup.
I was also going to try 2:00 minutes at less strength, just to see if I like it at any strength.
Ah, right; thanks for mentioning this. Brewing the tea cooler will make it sweeter and less astringent. If there's still a bit of summer left wherever you are, you might try brewing the tea at room temperature for maybe ten minutes. The tea will have so little astringency its texture will be creamy.
Hi Square Peg, All those things you mentioned are just the stuff I like about this tea, that sounds like this shincha Fukamushi this season and the tea was almost thick and quite a lovely shade of green. But I used 1 standard red plastic teaspoon from tea g (cannot remember but it is a "tea" spoon. I use 200 ml water 160 degrees. Short infusions . Ahh it does smelll like a freshly cut lawnbut in a very good way. I remember brewing it alot, like 3 times at least but the supply was much too low for how much I loved this one...( I shoud have bought more) Jenn
I just tried a pot at 140F for 15 seconds per various suggestions and got 3 very good steepings and a 4th that was OK. It was quite good. I think I need to fiddle with the parameters a bit, but this may be a good tea. When this bag is finished, I think I'll spring for a really good top grade sencha and see how that goes.
. When this bag is finished, I think I'll spring for a really
I snipped, Hello again square peg, I have recently (in the last few years) have come to love sencha and I agree it can be tricky to brew. SOme very kind and knowledgeable people told me about schincha, which is the first picking of the tiny shaded leaves of the season.. SO this spring I splurged and bought some from 2 Japanese tea companies. I did tinker with it and found it to be a most decent and hardly not astringent as the later picked sencha. Now I plan to get some every year if I can afford to. I picked up the fukamushi at hibikian cause I wasn't sure what to get so I bought several varieties of their spring early greens.. I really really liked that one alot. All these early Japanese greens are very much well almost like the sea, But very nicely, fragrant and green and like a nice green meadow freshly cut. I found like you, lower temps and faster brewings seem to bring out the flavors I like best. Jenn
I just tried a pot using water from the cold water tap, which was about 65F. Thinking this might be a bit cooler than "room temperature", and remembering comments about making "sun tea", which is allowed to sit in the sun for hours, I let this pot brew for 30 minutes.
The result was quite interesting. It definitely had something of a "creamy" texture, as you predicted, and absolutely no astringency. I think there were some flavors that I don't recall from the pots I brewed at 140F and certainly not at 170F.
But it seemed a bit on the strong side, for me. Did I brew it too long? I have tried this tea several different ways. The best so far was 15-30 seconds at 140F. This brew was not bad, but definitely not as good as those.
Maybe I'll try it at something like 100F for 30-60 seconds. I'd like to see if I can get that "creamy" texture with the mild sweetness I got at 140F.
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