Backlog from this afternoon:
Man, I’m having a really hard time with steeping these teas from Yunomi.us. The recommended steep parameters on their site are so different from anything else I have in my cupboard that I really don’t know how to brew them properly.
Take this tea. The site says to use 2 tsp of leaf, which they say is 8 grams. But I used 3 tsp of leaf, and it was still only about half of the 10-gram sample package I was given (so 5 grams). Do I follow the weight or the volume?
In this case, I stuck with the volume, because otherwise there would have been absolutely no room left for water in my gaiwan. I don’t have a kyusu, so I figured that gaiwan steeping would be the closest thing.
On top of that, they said that for the first steep, I needed to use 3 oz of water and steep for 2 minutes. My eyes are wide with surprise – so much tea, so much time, and so little water? Wouldn’t the tea be irredeemably bitter?
I used my gaiwan anyway. Yup, this is quite grassy and bitter and umami. Which was surprising, because the dry leaf smelled so sweet and hay-like. The leaf it self was a deep emerald green, and short and small like grass clippings. Now that I’ve had this tea, I realize that one of my favourite greens, Shincha Kuro by Capital Tea Ltd, is also a gyokuro. (I should have guessed, but that was one of the first really good teas that got me started on this journey, but I digress.)
I steeped this 4 times: 2 minutes, 30s/30s/30s. The first steep was using 55C water, the later steeps using approx 80C water. By the 4th steep, the tea was still quite grassy and astringent. I really wonder if I’m doing this right.
The next time I try this, I think I’m going to follow the steeping parameters outlined for my Shincha Kuro and see if that changes anything. Withholding a rating for now.
Flavors: Grass
