What is up with this tea?
Yesterday I tried a suggested brewing parameter for Sencha (I’m considering this a sencha, since Yamamotoyama calls it a gyokuro ‘blend’ sencha) that is supposed to be more along the lines of Japanese tastes (stronger)…
So I did 4 tsp in 16oz water (one 8oz cup for me, one for my wife), at 160 for 1 minute. By the time it was done steeping, I could tell by the color it was going to be way too strong. In fact, it was SO bitter I dumped both cups out and re-steeped the leaves, hoping the 2nd time through it would be better. This time, it tasted like water!
So I dumped out the leaves too, put 2 tsp back in the pot, and covered them with ice. Unfortunately, had to wait for it to melt. But it’s much better today, just like last time I did shinobicha on this tea.
Either these are very sensitive leaves and you’ve got to be an expert to get it right, or it’s just not good quality tea. I’m going to try 2 more things to see if it improves… 2 tsp in 12 oz at 160 for 1min, and 2 tsp in 12 oz at 140 for 1.5 min.
