Sencha

Brewed well below boiling and poured out in rotation so every cup is the same strength.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 8 g sencha leaf
• 400 ml water

Method

1. NEVER BOILING WATER. Sencha brewed at 100C is bitter and astringent within seconds, because heat extracts the catechins far faster than the amino acids that make it sweet. 70 to 80C is the band, and a good leaf wants the lower end.
2. COOL IT BY POURING, which needs no thermometer. Boiling water poured into the empty cups and then from the cups into the pot loses roughly 10C per transfer, and warms the cups on the way.
3. Two transfers lands around 75C from boiling.
4. Leaf into the warmed pot, water poured gently down the side rather than onto the leaves.
5. 60 SECONDS for the first brew, and no stirring. Agitation forces out the bitterness that the gentle temperature was chosen to avoid.
6. POURED OUT IN ROTATION -- a little into each cup, then back along the row, repeating until the pot is empty. Filled one at a time, the first cup is weak and the last is strong, because the brew concentrates as it drains.
7. EMPTY THE POT COMPLETELY, down to the last drop. Liquid left on the leaves keeps extracting and the second brew is ruined before it starts.
8. SECOND BREW: hotter water, around 80C, and only 15 to 20 seconds. The leaves are already open and need far less time.
9. A third is possible at 85C for 30 seconds and is noticeably thinner.
10. If a brew comes out bitter, the water was too hot or it steeped too long -- in that order of likelihood.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes