Japanese Tea Drinking

Japanese tea usually indicates green tea. There are many kinds of green tea: gyokuro, sencha, macha, genmaicha, bancha, and more. To brew tasty green tea, water temperature is important. Change the temperature depending on the kind of green tea you are drinking.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: 10

Here's How:

1. Cool boiling water in a kyusu tea pot or tea cups to the proper temperature.
2. Put green tea leaves in an empty kyushu tea pot.
3. Pour hot water over tea leaves.
4. Cover the lid and wait for a while before serving.
5. Serve green tea into individual yunomi tea cups.
6. When serving green tea, make sure not to leave any tea (liquid) in the tea pot.
7. You may brew green tea a few times from the same tea leaves.

Tips:

1. When brewing sencha green tea, use 160F degree hot water and brew about one minute in a tea pot.
2. To brew gyokuro green tea, use 110F degree hot water and brew about two minutes.
3. To brew hojicha, genmaicha, and bancha, use boiling water and brew just 15-20 seconds.
4. To drink macha green tea, shift 1 tsp of maccha green tea powder in a large tea cup and add 1/4 cup of 160F degree hot water in it, then stir quickly with a bamboo tea whisk.
5. Pouring hot sencha green tea over some ice in a cup makes iced green tea.

What You Need:

• To brew green tea, using a Japanese teapot called kyusu is the best.
• Tea cups called yunomi which has no handles.
• Green tea leaves
• Hot water