How to use Japanese tea set ? | Kyusu, Yunomi

Water temperature is the key to the great-tasting green tea.

The taste of green tea depends on the amount of tea leaves and water, water temperature, and the time for extraction. The most important thing among these is the “water temperature”. Luxurious Sencha or Gyokuro tastes great when extracted slowly with low temperature.

On the other hand, Hojicha will be rich in aroma and taste good when extracted at high temperatures. Even if you follow these rules about temperature, you might not feel your green tea right or lacking something sometimes.

You should be careful with water temperature when you feel that way. The taste of green tea is determined mainly by catechin, amino acids and caffeine. The amounts of them which get dissolved in the tea depend on the temperature and time of extraction.

Catechin is hard to get dissolved and it needs high temperatures with a long extracting time. On the other hand, amino acids do not get influenced by temperature and it is easy to get extracted. Caffeine is also easy to extract with high temperature.

The following is the explanation of dissolvement of catechin, amino acids, and caffeine when only the amount of tea leaves and water, and extraction time are changed. For example, when it is 50 to 60℃, these three components will not much be dissolved. Therefore, the green tea will be thin and you can feel a little umami without bitterness nor tartness.

When you extract at a high temperature of 90℃ for 120 seconds, the three components will be fully extracted, and the green tea will be thick. Therefore, there will be a lot of caffeine and catechin and you will feel more tartness and bitterness.

Thus, it is said that extracting at 70℃ for 60 seconds creates the most balanced taste of green tea. Please find your ideal temperature at which your favorite taste of green tea is created by knowing characteristics of extracting tea.

When it is at low temperature, the tea will get thin, and when it is at high temperature, it will get thick. Please remember this rule in addition to adjusting the amount of leaves, water and the extracting time.

The Relationship Between The Three Components Of Green Tea And The Temperature

Catechin: Bitterness and tartness. Dissolved at more than 80℃.

Amino acids: Umami and sweetness. Easy to dissolve in water even at low temperatures.

Caffeine: Bitterness. Dissolved at high temperatures.

Make sure to measure the tea leaves before putting them into the teapot.

To make delicious green tea, the amount of tea leaves is also important as well as water temperature. The size and shape of a teaspoon can make a difference in the amount of leaves, and even if you use the same spoon all the time, different kinds of leaves have different weights.

Therefore, before you get used to it, it is better to measure the tea leaves before putting them into the teapot and extract at appropriate temperature in order to make delicious green tea.

Green tea can be drunk tastefully up to three times of infusion with the same leaves. The key is to make the water hotter and steam shorter each time. Good green tea can be made by matching the amount of water with the amount of leaves.

※By putting more leaves than usual, you can enjoy delicious tea with infusing the same leaves couple times.

For example, if it is luxurious green tea such as Gyokuro, you infuse first at 50 to 60℃ and steam the leaves slowly. The second infusion is at 70℃ and steams the leaves quickly. The third infusion is at 95℃ without any steaming.

If you follow these steps, you can enjoy umami without odd taste with your first cup. The second cup will have a balanced taste with umami and tartness. The third cup will have refreshing tartness.

The appropriate amount of green tea leaves is 4g and use 120ml of hot water at each boiling. You need 30ml of hot water per 1g of green tea leaves.

How to infuse and pour delicious green tea.

1. Pour hot water into Yunomi for the amount of people. (This is for cooling down the hot water and measuring the amount of hot water)

2. Put green tea leaves into the teapot. Please aim for around 2g per person at 60ml.

3. Pour the hot water in Yunomi teacups into the teapot slowly and wait for 1 minute until the tea leaves open. (Steam the tea leaves)

After around 1 minute, the leaves should open. Next, move the teapot around 3 to 5 times and pour the tea into each Yunomi evenly.

4. Thin green tea comes out first and then gradually gets thick, so pour the tea so that the thickness of each Yunomi is even.

When you pour the tea, please pour till the last drop in order not to leave any tea in the pot. In this way, you can enjoy the second and the third infusions. Please enjoy your everyday life with green tea.

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