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Have you ever heard of “susuri-cha”? Few people have, we guess?
In this article, we are going to introduce such a sophisticated tea drinking method: “susuri-cha”.
What is “susuri-cha”’?
“Susuri” means “sipping” in Japanese.
Susuri-cha is the green tea brewed in a lidded yunomi teacup by pouring hot water directly on tea leaves in a yunomi teacup, instead of brewing with a kyusu teapot.
You tilt your teacup and slide the lid a little to let only the tea out as the lid holds the tea leaves back, then you sip the tea coming out from the gap.
This is how it’s called “susuri-cha (sipping tea)”.
Since it’s quite a unique method to drink tea, few people may have tried this way. But, it is a tasteful way to drink tea: When you can only have a little sip at a time, that gives you a few different flavors of the tea to enjoy while the tea temperature and extraction time change.
Also, you can directly enjoy the sweetness and umami of the tea as it gets extracted with a small amount of water
Drinkable without lid.
You can drink susuri-cha without a lid.
Just pour a small amount of hot water on green tea leaves in a teacup, then sip little by little as you pout your lips so the tea leaves don’t come into your mouth.
It would taste the same as susuri-cha with a lid. Those who are interested should try!
Suitable tea leaves for susuri-cha.
Green tea leaves with strong umami that are gyokuro, kabuse-cha and high-end sencha would be suitable for susuri-cha since susuri-cha is to fully enjoy the sweetness and umami of green tea.
It is said that susuri-cha is the supreme method to drink gyokuro.
Hope susuri-cha will give you an opportunity to enjoy the well-extracted high-end green tea till the last drop.
How to enjoy susuri-cha with ice-brew tea.
Now, we are going to share how to enjoy susuri-cha with ice brew green tea.
Put green tea leaves in teacup
Put 4-5g of green tea leaves like gyokuro in a teacup. The tea would get well-extracted if the tea leaves are spreaded on the bottom.
Put ice in.
Susuri-cha is to enjoy small sips: Put a small amount of ice, probably about 20cc.
Wait till the ice melts.
When the ice has melted, slide the lid a little, tilt the teacup, and sip little by little from the gap.
Enjoy till the last drop
Hold the lid upside down, then drip the last drops left in the teacup onto the lid and sip them up.
Eat the tea leaves afterwards
Many people would toss the green tea leaves after brewing, but we recommend you eat the used tea leaves that are soft after extracted.
They would taste good with the nice flavor of tea when seasoned with salt, soy sauce or soy-vinegar sauce.