HOW TO BREW SENCHA GREEN TEA - Masterclass
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- Опубліковано 30 жов 2020
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Sencha and other Japanese Green Tea can be harder to brew than other teas and it is important to approach brewing with some consideration.
These guidelines are my personal preferences but please let us know your way of brewing Sencha!
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Understanding Japanese Green Tea: • Understanding Japanese...
Finding the Best Matcha: • Finding the Best Match...
Japanese vs Chinese Green Tea: • Japanese vs. Chinese G...
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I use your gyokuro method and think it's amazing.
My mother's reaction when I instructed her and after she drank it was to the effect of:
"I didn't know tea could do that to you"
I have just followed your advice and now I am sipping the tea, it's great.
So 14 minutes room temp water, with pot preheat?
Thank you!!! Every one of your videos is a free course on tea knowledge. I have never learned so much about tea before. Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom. It is so much more joy to experience the world of tea if you know more. And just to add something - since I have received the cute teapets (the lovely fish and the adorable mouse on the money bag) my tea sessions are even more enjoyable (the fishy has already started to have a light tea patina - and I think it loves it...)
I'd been a happy drinker of big brand supermarket tea for over 40 years. I've had some looseleaf tea that family bought me, some I enjoyed. But, watching these videos and hearing your descriptions of the teas made me wonder what I was missing. I had to know, was 'good' tea really that good and worth more 'effort' and money? So I ordered a small assortment of teas from Mei Leaf. Now I can't even bring myself to brew some of the teas I'd 'enjoyed' for so long. Thank you, I really feel like the quality of my life has improved in a way. And, I'm going to need some more of that Souchong Liquor soon!
lol Don ruin you expertise about tea's and you thanking him xd
This is a really excellent guide to getting started with Japanese tea!
You can tell this guy appreciates tea very much and isn't just trying to sell you something.
U are wrong, that's precisely what the best salesman wants u to think, that they aren't trying to sell u something when they actually are
Outstanding content once again from Don! Was waiting for an in-depth guide on sencha. Can’t wait to try your steeping parameters!
I had a feeling you were gonna post and here you are!
Wow, perfect timing. I was just about to brew up some sencha and then I saw this on my feed
Don, thanks for continuing to post such great content! Much appreciated.
Nice job on the sencha brewing video. You confirmed my experience to a large degree and gave me some new places to explore. Totally agree with your observation that this style of tea has smaller margin of error than any other that I can think of. Being fully present in the session and carefully controlling the brewing variables pays great dividends.
One variable that you did not mention that I have found important is water quality/hardness. Our tap water is slightly hard and I find the sencha brewed with it is much dryer and loses some of the savory/brothy notes. Using bottled spring water makes a noticeable improvement in my experience.
Thanks again for inspiring and guiding us as we travel our own tea roads.
Love the Japanese tea content!
Every time I need to look up something tea-related (beginner here o/ ), your channel comes to the rescue! Thanks for making all of this content!
I was into tea about 10 years ago and got out of it for two main reasons. 1. I started working morning shift and switched to coffee, 2. My main supplier kept disappointing me with stale tea and I grew frustrated.
I just got back into tea. My first bout I was more into Chinese teas. This time I'm obsessed with Japanese tea. Anyways, I'm about 2 weeks in and I just followed along with this video brewing some sencha in my kyusu and it was the best cups of tea yet. Thanks for the video.
Don, I was ordering some sencha online yesterday and then when I went to UA-cam this video popped up in my feed - amazing! LOL I have since thrown away my tea bags (because nobody deserves bad tea) and am looking forward to learning about tea with you!
Awesome video, finally someone who appreciates quality sencha teas 👌
4,5g/100ml, 1st = 60C/60s; 2nd 65C/30s; 3rd 70C/45s; 4rd 75C/60s ; times include pouring times
I have never seen a tea come out that green. Looks fabulous
loved this
please do them for other teas as well
this was very informative
Wow, thanks for these tips! I have always shied away from Sencha because I never could get it right. Now I brewed some along with the video and it tasted like Sencha should taste.
What a palate! So nice to watch, thank you!
*Don drinking the second infusion*: "Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots shots shots! Full tea body!"
Ups! Hahahaha
Thank you so much, your videos are amazing as always! I really wanted a video on Sencha because I live in Japan and Sencha is the most accessible tea to me, but I can never seem to brew it right!
What a thoughtful and informative presentation. I love this.
perfect timing I was just about to make sencha
Always interesting, thank you Don 😉
Great video for understanding better the Japanese green tea 🍵, thanks 😊
A good rule of thumb to time your tea is 10 slow, full breaths = 1 minute. (1 full breath - inhale/exhale)
Wow amazing information about green tea. Just what I was looking for.
gosh.. this guy no jokes... you truly love tea.... i can tell
Now I learned about Sencha and The Grey Goose Blues Band, thanks Don ;-)
Really enjoyed the passion with which you presented this video on brewing sencha. There's so much variability (leaf to water ratio, temperature, and time) but I agree on finding a starting point based on the favor profile one is looking for and experimenting from there. I felt you demonstrated the complexity of green tea and elevated it to that of wine and it's sommeliers.
Amazing review!!!!!! Bravo
THX! I go for this method: 1st brew by 70°C for 90 sec; 2nd brew by 75°C for 15 sec; 3rd brew 80°C for 30 sec and 4th brew by 90°C for 60 sec for all Senchas in order to get all the benefits. That's about 500ml in the early morning. The next 500ml would be a diffrent tea in the late afternoon or evening.
I enjoy that quality of sencha at 85c for about 35 sec. It has the vibrant youthful green that I love as well as a refreshingly forward amount of bold green tea flavor with a finish that is smooth enough for me personally. I will be sure to try your ratios and temps. Great vid!
Love the green. 😀
Yay new video!
So excited to taste this with the fractal very soon ;)
Awesome video.....this is my favorite green tea 😃
Sencha is the tea that leads me to this wonderful world of tea! I've never drink sencha that vibrant though, maybe one day
Edit: I immediately try this technique and now my cheap sencha just become elevated to a new level!
how did you brew it before?
@@JafuetTheSame it's actually also from the Meileaf website lol. Previously I followed the instructions for their fukamushi (4,5g/100mL, 75 degrees C, 45+10s, 6 brews). I think the brew is only good for the first two, and after that until the 6th brew it's just somewhat weak (and more of the vegetal note) and also thin like water. But previously I tried other technique (more traditional Japanese I think, with less leaves) and this Meileaf instructions are better, for me.
Compare that to the technique on the video, while only for 4 brews, it is thicker and the taste is quite consistent. So I definitely prefer this "updated" technique from Meileaf!
@@ayw481 6 brews? 😱 you were really squeezing the hell out of those leaves...in my experience over 70C is rather hot for sencha. i rarely go over 65C
@@JafuetTheSame Yess! Lol maybe that's why it didn't taste so good in later brews.
Is it too hot? I think some articles I've read told me to brew around 70-80. Maybe I'll try lowering it in my next brew, thanks!
The flicking back of the leaves is a top tip, especially if you like a lot of leaf. The few drops you get from it are properly luminous like kryptonite 🍵
wonderfully informative
Love this! also very handy overview at the end, which is actually in contrast with your instructions on the packaging of your sencha teas. Do you also have a similar video like this (that differs from your packaging) on other green teas? (or black/ooling)?
wooow, this was the right video at the right time. Thanks! I was just thinking about stepping up the game and wanted to see different opinion and you just gave it to me. I start with my Sencha at 60°C for 60-70 sec., second 60-65°C for 20sec., third 70°C for about a 60-70sec. I do fourth too about same time and 70°C, but now I tried this boost to 90°C and 60seconds -> wohooo extracted almost everything from that tea and will do it again! Maybe a bit lower temperature - around 80-85°C, but let's see how it's gonna be. 37minutes of the video flew like crazy. I fell like if I brew japanese tea for more than 70°C for the first brews I feel like leafs are burnt. Thanks for this videoooo!!! Greeting from Prague.
Hi Sir Ivan. Just a question why do you prefer to soak your tea at lesser time during 2nd and 3rd infusion? Wouldn't that produce less taste of the tea?
I am learning so much. Thank you thank you thank you. :)))
Damn that color, you got some great tea there!
I remember trying my first sencha and was surprised how sweet it was without me adding sugar.
I had poured it in at 60 degrees and on the pack was 90 degrees.
That should have had quite an impact on the bitter notes remaining in the tea, at 70 degrees it was more pleasant and not only suitable for sweet hunger ;-).
so the less hot the water is, the less bitter it tastes?
@@soonsuicidal Not exactly, the time also plays a Rolex into that. Longer Brewing more bitter. Time and Temperature need to be adjusted when brewing the tea. More hot, shorter time. Less hot longer time. But i wouldnt exceed 2 min for Green tea
I am learning so much from your videos. Thank you. You may be interested to know tea is part of my migraine reduction system. I suffer from chronic cluster migraines on a near daily basis. Tea has become a central part of medication reduction and mitigation of intensity.
Amazing)) Thank you for sharing
Dear Don, thank you very much for this great and useful video! I have a point considering not only japanese greens, although it has come to my awareness when brewing Gyokuro: WATER. In my experience, water has an enormous influence on tea aroma and you write that yourself on the Mei Leaf website. I´ve tried filtered tap water and different bottled mineral waters, each of which gave me a vastly different experience in the cup. So here´s my question: which water do you use yourself or recommend in general, are there any parameters (besides avoiding hard water and pH between 6 and 7) that one should look for, e. g. a specific/ optimal mineral composition and TDS? Maybe this could be a topic for a future video ;-) .
According to the World Green Tea Association (Japan), brewing at 70 degrees C resolves amino acids for a richer taste and prevents resolving tannins which make the tea bitter. They recommend for higher grade Sencha which has high amino acid content to brew at 70 deg C for 2 minutes with more leaves but for standard grade Sencha to brew at 90 deg C for 1 minute with less leaves as lower grade Sencha has less amino acids so there will be no richness of taste and the higher temperature helps to resolve the tannin.
OMG Thanks thousand times
Don if you ever write a book about tea, it would be a masterpiece, and I would be the first one to buy it.
Also, why don't you upload the pictures onto your website? I screenshot them and save them into my tea knowledge notebook for quick reference.
And finally, do you have any tips on brewing sencha with the Gaiwan? I always create a huge mess, because the filter is to fine so it clogs and then trying to do it without one, way too much leave ends up in the cup(gongdaobei). Its even worse with a fukamushu style.
I have been red pilled; excellent video!
Watching this on a full moon Halloween night, after 8 infusions of Jade Star 3, and just starting the boiled leaves 9th. It feels like I'm in a tent with the Dune Freemen sharing secrets of the Spice balance. Hinting at the esoteric but never speaking it outright. For all things 2020, "Fear is the mind-killer".
I like my Sencha in 3 infusions, 5g/150ml kyusu.
1st- 75 degrees C/45 sec, 2nd- 85 degrees/30 secs, 3rd- 85 degrees/45 seconds
This is great - thanks a lot! However, your preferred method here is different from the brewing guide on your website for this tea, right? There it says for Gong Fu brewing: 70°c, 1st infusion 60s, +infusions +20s. This would mean you let it infuse longer with each subsequent infusion but here you decrease infusion time?
Thank you so much, the content is amazing! Pease make video about Kawayanagi tea brewing. Kawayanagi is less expensive alternative.
I brew 60, 15, 30, 60 seconds sometimes I skip the last infusion. But I am definitely gonna try this brew method.
Incredible Fractal find! I live in the same geography, about an hour and a half north. I've never been to that specific area, though I may have to now, it looks very interesting :)
Purple right?
@@Christian-ed5uc Yes!
I also live next to a fractal (not purple) can I can;t find the answer.. is killing me :))
THANK YOU! I just recently got into "good" tea. With Japanese greens, there seems to be a lot of variation in recommended brew times, ratios, and temperatures. A lot of the advice on the internet is way too prescriptive, and the package directions that importers in my area put on their teas are often just as confusing. It's hard to figure out what parameters affect what outcomes, and with what rationale.
I think I'll frame the chart at 17:23. I had always wondered if it was possible to have an enjoyable sencha session in the evening. Now I know I've probably just been brewing too hot.
80 degrees and below.Also it depends whether it is shincha sencha or sencha that has been packed for sometime.
Ok, i do 80 C and 2-10 min😄. I like strong, and my ”Tea high”
I've only just discovered this channel so maybe this is a dumb question but have you done a video on genmaicha?
Thanks Don, do you know of any Chinese greens that are purposely shade grown and steamed?
Have you tried ti go even lower with temperature? I have a lot of teas where the suggested temperature is around 40°C
Wow, Don - that's interesting.
min 35:40 This is what a real tea junkie looks like😂 Love it ❤
got the fractal!
silly question but i find Japanese green tea , stick to the Kyusu ( especially if u forget to clean it right after session) ...... boiling water & scrapping repeatedly , does eventually get most of it off ....any suggestions for a easier way
Do you drink darjeeling teas ? I noticed you don't really talk about darjeeling teas. Obviously you need to sample thousand of thousands different tea, i'm just curious.
Also interested. Personally I have tried gong fu styling darjeeling but find western style much better for it. Would be interested to hear Don's opinion as he is usually very anti western style..
@@lardycake Well would make sense seeing as westerners were really the ones starting tea production in that area. He seems to mostly focus china taiwan and japan so maybe doesnt deal in much indian tea.
@@moldveien1515 Some Darjeelings do pretty good brewed Gong Fu, I found that the only problem was that you can't always infuse them as many times
Super! Please write a book!!!
A quick question .. why are tea leaves hand rolled and sold with the name as Green tea pearls ? What happens when these leaves rolled ? Is there any effect on the flavour ?
I'm guessing by the looks of it, he HAS to be using 8-10 grams lol. That much shade grown sencha in one sitting for me would make my heart explode 😂
One of Don's most surprising statements ever on the Mei Leaf channel was his recent remark that he's caffeine-sensitive. It was just a short aside but it made my ears prick up. I would like to see Don elaborate on this, considering his prodigious drinking of very strong teas :-)
Can Sencha tea be put into a snap ball tea strainer?
Hello,
What is the teapot you using ?
I'd like to get a link where I will purchase teapot like this.
Thank you very much
It's a traditional Japanese teapot.
Just got my first bag and it says 4g per 200ml and the first cup did taste somewhat weak. I will try a stronger dose as per this video. =)
This is an insane amount of caffeine to drink in one sitting :)
Hello Don,
I have a problem while brewing Japanese broken leaves green teas such as Fukumuchika.
When I try to pour the tea, even after only a few seconds the broken leaves become very thick and muddy, so that it tends to clog the kyusu, so that it gets extremely hard to pour it. Do you have any recommendations to help me solve the problem?
Keep up with these great videos!
Maybe your kyusu is old style, with the ceramic filter? Mine has a large steel mesh filter that goes all the way to the top of the pot. You could also try pouring more slowly. I've had that clogging issue a couple times, but only with konacha and dust-like cheaper senchas. Fukamushi sencha in general isn't problematic for me, so maybe you're drinking a particularly dusty tea.
yep check out kyusu you are using if it is the metal sifter type or the clay sifter ingrainded into the kyusu itself. Smaller tea leaves are more better to use a metal sifter kyusu whereas bigger tea leaves can used the ingrained sifter on a clay kyusu.
This Guy Loves Tea
What Wrong with my own hand made sencha, have a strong aroma, but when iam brew , the aroma not strong and come out after 5 minute... its to long.. how i can fix my own sencha..,
isn't Yame a city in Fukuoka prefecture?
I try 3 types every day-Indian Green Tea..second shot-Pu Erh Tea, and final shot-Sencha...
5:50 for temperatures
Gyokuro next :)
Some people said they'd already found all first 5 fractals while I only see 2 videos with #FractalSafari. Do you put more than 1 location in a video?
I think they've been guessing locations
Doesnt matter much if you get them now or in a months time since the last fractal question is what is needed for the grand price.
@@moldveien1515 I want to unlock them to buy some tea :>
Isn’t it Kabusecha?
We love Fukamushi
I got a wonderful Tokujo Sencha that's ready after 10 sec with 60 degrees on the first brew. I'd brew it at least 6 times until I up the temperature. I pity my girlfried with her morning coffee
Should Japanese tea have fine particulates on the bottom of the cup? Is this normal for Japanese tea?
Yep
where can i get a kyusu like that?? mei leaf should re stock!
Coming shortly
Hi, your videos have been very helpful to me and i thank you for that, i have one very important question and i hope you can answer it , what is the brewing method for the healthiest tea possible?, i drink green tea for its benefits ( especially catechins) and am ready to give up the taste for a healthier tea, so how much should i brew the tea, which temperature etc . please that's really important for me ,thanks in advance. keep up the good work
Boiling water will extract the maximum amount of catechins from green tea but it will also be incredibly bitter. It’s not something you would want to drink regularly. Instead, you can brew with slightly hotter water - start at 175-180 F - and then gradually increase the temperature on subsequent brews. You’ll get more of the antioxidants that way while still having a flavorful cup.
@@azayn2434 hi , thank you for taking time to answer me, i was using sahara brewing method from africa and the tea is very bitter and i can handle it , but i heared boiling water damages the tea leafs and lose benefits that's why i stoped and started using chinese brewing technique.
You can visit greentea dot net. You'll be surprised by the amount of info. It was written by a doc who studied it enough.
@@godhash Thanks mate, i'll check it out
Was this New York Yame from Kettl, by any chance?
1:03 I actually looove to brew my sencha for long and get this very bitter/earthy/strong taste 😅 But I know it’s not the best way to drink it
Gyokuro version ?
I’m new to the channel and I’m loving it but why is there a frog??
@eli Hartman 😆 thank you! I’m a little scared of frogs is all so I kept staring at it.
I like tea, but i don't look like i get a tea-gasm every time i drink it 😄
I wonder how it tastes in soup?
a new fractal is on my trailer))
Can we brew sencha by gaiwan?
a lot of leaves would escape into the finished liquid but i guess you still could, there are types called houhin, and shiboridashi and are the closest thing to a gaiwan for japanese greens
My tea master once brewed similar fukamushi green tea from Fukuoka for me. His method was really unique and it tastes like tea from heaven. Since then i have been brewing his method but only for fukamushi tea. Use 6 g of tea, pour small amount of water at room temp maybe 10 ml. Wait until the tea leaves extract and the liquid turns muddy then add cold water about 250 to 300 ml. Drink it cold. It is big wow. Then pour 250 to 300 ml of 90 deg C water and leave for about 1 minute. Then drink it hot. It is really good this way, too.
Today's halloween you don't have a Halloween tea
Going from 75 seconds for the first steep to 20 seconds for the second steep is pretty counter-intuitive. Is there a rule that I'm missing here?
Hey Jane, it is counterintuitive but you should try it out. Two things with Sencha teas: many of them have very fine tea leaf particles and the finer the tea particles the stronger the second brew is going to be because after the first brew the flavors and aromas are really just ready to explode by the second brew and are just dripping off the leaves and more then 20 seconds could turn it into a bitter cup. Also being that Senchas are steamed it also induces the flavor and Aroma to jump off the leaf by the second brew.
@@lowinthesky I didn't edit my comment but I tried this ever since I posted this and yes, it just works
Wow I’ve been doing it wrong all this time.