Don’t you think that it’s difficult to brew a good cup of tea?
There are some tips such as “amount of tea leaves”, “amount of hot water” and “temperature of hot water”.
Different teas have different tips, we introduce how to make a good cup of green tea here.
Please enjoy the tea after you get the hang of it!
How to make a good cup of “green tea” (for two)
Green tea has a fresh, “umami”, “sweetness”, and “bitterness”.
You should control water temperature and amount of tea leaves to enhance the three flavors with good balance.
1, Pour hot water
Pour boiling water into a teacup, and let it cool to 70~80 degrees.
The water temperature falls about 10 degrees every time you pour the water into another cup. For example, it is about 90 degrees when you pour the water into a teapot. And then it is about 80 degrees when you pour the water from the teapot into a teacup.
You pour the water into not your teapot, but your teacup, therefore you can cool the water down until a proper temperature and also warm up your teacup.
In addition, you can easily find a proper amount of water. That is killing two birds with one stone.
The amount of water for one person is about 60ml. The eight tenths of a cup is recommended.
The flavor changes depending on the water temperatures. When you use the hot water over 90 degrees, the tea is going to be more bitter but it is going to be melting sweetness and umami when you use the hot water of very low temperature.
The recommended temperature is 70~80 degrees that can bring the bitterness and umami in good balance.
2, Putting tea leaves
Next, put tea leaves in a teapot.
The rough standard would be 5g for two cups (2~3g for one person). Lightly 1 tea spoon is 2g.
(The amount of tea leaves differs depending on the grade of tea leaves.)
You can put a little more tea leaves than the standard because if you put more tea leaves the tea will taste better.
We recommend 4~5g for one person.
3, Pouring tea
Pour cooled water into your teapot and cover up.
You do not shake your teapot until the tea leaves open. It is for about 60 seconds.
After a while, pour the tea into your teacup.
It is important that you pour the tea little by little and evenly into some cups in order to serve equally strong.
It is called “mawashi sosogi” (pouring evenly and drawing a spiral pattern with your teapot)
It is the case you have two cups. You pour the tea into 1→2 little by little, and then reverse the process (2→1). Repeat the process until there is no tea left.
You do not pour it all at once. It is easy to serve equally when you pour it little by little into 3~4 times.
It is important that pour out the tea until “the last drop.”
The second extraction would be bitter, if you left the water in your teapot on the first extraction because tea ingredient comes out too much.
You need to pour out carefully until the last drop that has condensed umami.
Also, it is important to open the lid in order to prevent the tea leaves from steaming too much. Then, the second extraction would be still good.
On the second extraction, you use hotter water than the first.
We recommend the half of the first steaming time (about 30sec) because the tea leaves already opened.
Anybody can make it nice flavor just by finding tips of pouring.
The flavor changes depending on the water temperatures.
The recommended temperature is 70~80 degrees that can bring the bitterness and umami in good balance.
In the case you make several cups, you do not forget to pour the tea little by little and evenly into cups in order to serve equally strong.
You can make your own favorite tea just by understanding the basics.
You can enjoy the tea depending on your feelings. For example, “I want to enjoy the flavor and umami today”, “I like this vivid color of this tea..” and so on.