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Japanese Tea Steeping Guide: Steeping Japanese tea, particularly Japanese Green Tea, is a bit more finnicky than steeping most Chinese Green Tea. Paying careful attention to detail when steeping Japanese tea will make a big difference in the overall experience available in each tea. Until you develop your own tastes & preferences with respect to leaf-to-water ratio, steeping temperature etc, we strongly recommend following the following guidelines when first steeping a new Japanese tea. Detailed recommendations based on our preferences are given on each product page, but this page is meant to be a general guideline for steeping most Japanese teas you might encounter from us or other sources. To eliminate the guesswork from steeping Japanese teas, we highly recommend you purchase the following equipment from your local kitchen or baking supply shop: 1. Instant read thermometer with display up to 220°F (fractional degree display recommended)
2. Digital Scale with weight measure in grams & ounces (accurate to 0.1 gram)
Guidelines* for Steeping Sencha, Kabusecha,
Bancha, Kukicha & Hojicha All of our Japanese green teas are obtained from sources specializing in the highest quality teas. In our opinion, the best quality Japanese green tea yields a tea liquor with more inherent sweetness and complexity of flavor along with much less bitterness and astringency than lower quality leaves. High quality Sencha, Kabusecha and Gyokuro make their amazing sweetness more readily apparent by using a higher leaf-to-water ratio than lower quality green teas.
Steeping Guidelines
| Asamushi
(Light Steamed)
Sencha
| Fukamushi
(Deep Steamed)
Sencha
| Kabusecha
| Bancha/Kukicha/
Hojicha
| Leaf-to-Water Ratio (g/oz)**
| 1 gram/1 oz
| 1 gram/1 oz
| 1 gram/1 oz
| 0.5-1 gram/1 oz
| Water Temperature
| 140-160°F | 150-175°F | 140-160°F | 175-195°F | Time - Steep 1
| 2 Minutes
| 1 Minute
| 1-2 Minutes
| 1-2 Minutes
| Time - Steep 2
| Flash*** - 30 Sec.
| Flash - 30 Sec.
| Flash - 30 Sec.
| 2-3 Minutes
| Time - Steep 3+
| 2-3 Minutes
| 2-3 Minutes
| 2-3 Minutes
| 3-4 Minutes
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*This table provides general guidelines only. Please adjust these recommendations according to your tastes & preferences.
**To determine the amount of tea to use, you will need to know the volume of the teapot you intend to use. Example: If you are using an 8 oz teapot and the recommended leaf to water ratio is 1 g/1 oz, you would use 8 grams of leaf.
***A "Flash" steep refers to a "pour through" steeping, where you simply add water at the correct temperature and immediately decant into your serving pitcher or cups.
Common Japanese Tea Steeping Problems
- Tea has some unwanted astringency - Try reducing the water temp. It could also be that you infused the tea too long, so try reducing steeping time.
- Tea isn't as full bodied as you'd like
- Try increasing the leaf. It could just be the tea is light by
nature, though.
- 2nd+ infusions turn out astringent -
Be sure to leave the lid off your teapot between infusions to avoid overheating the leaves. Be sure to drain the
teapot fully between infusions.
Lesser quality Japanese Green tea will have much less
apparent sweetness with more bitterness/astringency in the cup, so less
leaf is used when steeping lower quality tea in order to avoid an overly
bitter but still palatable cup of tea. If you
wish to use these steeping guidelines for more mass produced type
Japanese Green Tea, our recommendation is to reduce the leaf-to-water
ratio by 1/2 and adjust the amount of leaf to your taste. Gyokuro Steeping Guidelines:
Gyokuro should be treated in an even more delicate manner during steeping than other types of Japanese green tea because of its vivid & sweet but delicate flavor profile. Because it is a costly luxury that is not easy to come by, Gyokuro is generally served in small, intensely flavored servings of about 2 oz per person per steeping. The following three steeping methods can yield surprisingly different results, and we recommend experimenting with variations on all three until you arrive at your preferred method.
Method 1:
-Note: If you are new to Gyokuro, we strongly recommend starting with this lower leaf-to-water ratio method until you get accustomed to the intensity of flavor found in high quality Gyokuro.
- Leaf-to-Water Ratio: 1-2 grams per oz of water used (For one serving: 3-6 grams of tea/3 oz water; add 3 grams of leaf & 3 oz water for each additional serving)
- Water Temperature: 140°F
- Steeping Time: 1 Minute
- Yields a lower intensity, mellow & sweet infusion
Method 2:
-Note: serving size recommendation is 2 oz water per serving instead of the 3 oz recommended in Method 1
- Leaf-to-Water Ratio: 2-3 grams per oz of water used (For one serving: 4-6 grams of tea/2 oz water; add 2-3 grams of leaf & 2 oz water for each additional serving)
- Water Temperature: 120-125°F
- Steeping Time: 2 Minutes
- Yields a medium intensity, full flavored & pronounced grassy-sweet infusion
Method 3:
- Leaf-to-Water Ratio: 2-3 grams per oz of water used (For one serving: 4-6 grams of tea/2 oz water; add 2-3 grams of leaf & 2 oz water for each additional serving)
- Water Temperature: 105°F
- Steeping Time: 3 Minutes
- Yields an intense, mouth-coating, rich, full flavored & sweet infusion
Second, third and subsequent infusions:
- Second steeping: Flash-30 seconds
- Third and subsequent steepings: same amount of time as first steeping - 1 minute longer than first steeping
- For each of the 3 methods detailed above, raise the temperature by 5-7°F for each subsequent steeping.
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