Some people may be particular about tea leaves and/or techniques to brew tea, but how many of you even care about how to store tea leaves right?

The storage of tea leaves is very important to prevent the cause of flavor deterioration.

What happens to tea leaves after opening?

It may be thought that the quality of tea leaves would hardly change because they are dry, but that’s totally wrong. It does deteriorate drastically as soon as the bag/package is opened.

Once tea leaves are exposed to the air, the aromas would change as the aromatic components volatilize. Also, moisture causes flavour deterioration because tea leaves are vulnerable to humidity.

Causes of flavor deterioration

Flavours and aromas of tea leaves would drastically deteriorate if tea leaves are not stored properly.

In short, they would be able to be kept well to the end if tea leaves are stored right.

The deterioration of tea leaves is mainly caused by these three; oxigen (oxidation), sunlight and moisture.

Oxigen (oxidation)

Oxigen causes the flavor deterioration as it oxidizes the compounds of tea such as catechin and vitamin C. It also affects the color of tea and tea leaves, which makes them look worse.

Therefore, it is important to make sure to seal the bag/package thoroughly as squeezing the air out from the bag/package before sealing.

Sunlight

UV rays and sunlight fade the pigment chlorophyll that makes tea leaves green, which changes the color of tea and tea leaves from green to brown.

Also, sun exposure may cause the sun-struck flavor on tea leaves as tea leaves have a characteristic to easily absorb odors from others.

Therefore, tea leaves should be stored either in a dark place with no sun exposure or a container that blocks sunlight.

Moisture

The oxidation of tea leaves would accelerate as tea leaves get more moist, which significantly affects the taste, colour and flavor of tea. So, leaving the bag/package of tea leaves is a big no-no.

Make sure to store tea leaves either in a dehumidified place or an air-tight container.

No refrigerated after opening?

Many people may refrigerate tea leaves after opening, that’s actually not good.

Refrigeration seems to be the best way to store tea leaves as it blocks sunlight, has no moisture and maintains a low temperature. However, refrigeration may cause tea leaves to absorb odors from other foods in the fridge, as mentioned before, tea leaves have a characteristic to easily absorb odors from others.

Besides, tea leaves may absorb moisture from the mist made in the fridge while the fridge opens and closes and that causes the temperature gap.

When taken out of the fridge, the freshness of tea leaves would also be deteriorated drastically as tea leaves absorb the moisture beads caused by the temperature gap.

Therefore, make sure to store tea leaves in a dark and dehumidified place like a cabinet instead of the fridge.

But it would be no problem storing unopened tea leaves in the fridge or freezer.

Suitable tools to store tea leaves.

Chadutsu (tea caddy)

Chadutsu (tea caddy) is the most suitable tool to store tea leaves.

It becomes air-tight as the body and lid are thoroughly sealed, which keeps tea leaves away from the air and moisture and blocks sunlight.

There are so many sizes of tea caddies, but we recommend the size for the amount of tea leaves that you can finish in a month. If the size is too big, the tea leaves would be exposed to the air in the caddy and that accelerates the deterioration.

Caddies made out of glass and plastic should be avoided because they let sunlight through.

Aluminum bag

Aluminum blocks the sunlight and moisture from the outside. You can store tea leaves in aluminum tea-leaf-storage bags that have lately been sold in stores.

There are also tea leaves sold in aluminum bags. If you purchase tea leaves in an aluminum bag, it can be stored as-is as long as it’s air-tight sealed.

Have you ever thought about the contents of the water that we usually drink?

In fact, there is compatibility between tea and water, and tea would taste significantly different according to the water to use.

In this article, we are going to introduce soft water and hard water that considerably affect the taste of tea.

Difference between soft water and hard water?

Water is mainly categorized in two types: soft water and hard water.

The scale that measures the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in water is called hardness.

The water whose hardness is lower than 120mg/l is soft water, higher than 120mg/l is hard water.

Water in Japan is mostly soft water.

The water we Japanese are used to is soft water.

Tap water is also soft water, and bottled mineral water sold in stores is mostly soft water as well.

Hard water in Japan is only available in some areas such as Nishinomiya, Kobe.

Compared to hard water, soft water contains less minerals like magnesium and calcium. However, those who are weak/fragile such as seniors and babies can drink soft water since the pressure that gives on your stomach is mild.

Besides, soft water has great characteristics: it allows laundry detergent and shampoo to lather well, doesn’t create soap scum easily, and is gentle on your hair and skin. Some people even bother to use soft water to do dishes in those countries whose tap water is hard water.

Water in Europe and the US is hard water.

Some people may get their hair dry and have a stomachache when visiting Europe and/or the US, that’s because of the calcium and magnesium contained in hard water.

But hard water does have benefits: It removes the unpleasant smell of cooking ingredients and makes scum come out easily, and the rich calcium and magnesium in hard water can prevent arteriosclerosis.

Suitable water to brew tea?

Soft water tastes light and smooth, whereas, hard water tastes heavy and slightly bitter.

Those who are used to soft water may feel odd when drinking hard water.

The suitable water to brew tea is soft water.

Water with high water hardness can hardly extract the tea ingredients and that would ruin the perfect balance of umami, bitterness and sweetness of tea.

Soft water, on the other hand, can extract the tea ingredients well without ruining the tea flavor itself.

Compared to teas brewed with soft water, teas with hard water tend to look cloudy because the minerals in the hard water get combined with thannine contained in the tea leaves.

Which tea do you think tastes better, loose leaf tea or bagged tea?

Many people may think that loose leaf tea tastes better, but is that true?

What is the difference between tea bags and loose leaf teas?

Tea bag is a portion served with measured tea leaves in a small tea bag, whereas loose tea is the tea served as is.

Loose leaf teas take more work to make, but you can adjust the weight of tea leaves to change the strengths of your tea according to your mood, and loose leaf teas are normally more reasonable than tea bags.

On the other hand, tea bags are easier to be made, cleaned afterward and carried.

There have lately been more households without teapots as they only have tea bags to make teas.

Tea bags and loose leaf teas are from the same tea leaves?

Some people think that bagged tea doesn’t taste as good as leaf tea, but that’s actually not true.

Same tea leaves are used to make tea bags and loose leaf teas.

In addition, there have lately been more tea bags designed to taste better as they are particular about the materials and shapes. Therefore, it is not true that bagged tea tastes less than loose leaf tea.

How to brew good bagged tea.

We are going to share how to make good bagged tea.

The good thing about tea bags is that you can make tea with no techniques, but you can make your bagged tea taste better by knowing some tips.

Pay attention to the temperature

Like loose leaf tea, you use hot water at 70-80 degrees celsius to make bagged tea. However, make sure to check the tea leaves to use as boiling water is more likely to create aromas in black tea and roasted teas like hojicha.

Do not dunk tea bag too much

Some people dunk their tea bag to diffuse more quickly / produce a stronger cup.

However, dunking the tea bag should be up to 4-5 times since crushing tea leaves by too much dunking may cause unpleasant flavours.

No pouring hot water directly on tea bag

With the same reason mentioned above (to avoid crushing tea leaves), gently pour hot water from the edge of the mug to avoid directly touching the tea bag.

Steep time is 2-3 minutes

Steep time varies according to the tea leaves. Check the direction shown on the package.

The feature of bagged tea is that you can easily drink it when you want to.

Although it surely tastes good simply by pouring hot water in, we recommend these tips for those who want to make their bagged tea taste better.

The highest quality green tea gyokuro is reputably called “King of green teas”. It is very valuable and rare, and some high-class gyokuro is even valued 20 times higher than the ordinary teas.

Although gyokuro is not so common to drink, if you have an opportunity, hope it is brewed in a genuine way to fully enjoy its goodness.

Taste and flavor of gyokuro

Gyokuro tastes less bitter, and smooth with strong sweetness and umami. It also has a characteristic aroma called “Oika” that’s only in gyokuro and smells like green seaweed. The taste of gyokuro is stunning and absolutely unforgettable.

Before brewing gyokuro

First of all, let’s see what you need to know to brew gyokuro.

Utensils

The tools to brew gyokuro are mostly the same as sencha’s, but we also introduce some good-to-have tools to use for the more genuine brewing.

Hohin (teapot)

Hohin is a kyusu teapot with no handle. It is used when wanting to thoroughly extract umami from teas like gyokuro and high-end sencha.

No handles needed on the teapot when brewing gyokuro as it is thoroughly brewed at a low temperature and the teapot wouldn’t get hot.

Hohin is not generally available in households, but it is very common to have in the Uji area where a great amount of high-end teas are produced.

But, if you don’t have one, there would be no problem using a kyusu instead.

Yuzamashi (cooling pot)

Yuzamashi is used to cool boiling water. Since gyokuro is brewed and thoroughly extracted at a low temperature, hot water cooled in the yuzamashi is used to brew gyokuro.

If you don’t have a yuzamashi, pour boiling water in a kyusu and pour the water in yunomi, then pour it back in the kyusu....,and repeat a couple of times.

Yunomi (teacup)

Gyokuro is to enjoy small sips rather than gulps.

Therefore, we recommend using small yunomi tea cups.

If you don’t have one, there would absolutely be no problem using the general size yunomi tea cups or mugs.

Chasaji (teaspoon)

If you don’t have a chasaji, you can use a teaspoon or a measuring spoon instead.

The weight of tea leaves for one cup is measured about 3g which is also about one heaping teaspoon.

There are actually a variety of chasaji designs, which attracts so many chasaji collectors.

If you don’t have one yet, you may be interested in searching for your favorite. You would see so many cute ones you may fall in love with.

Using these tools is good enough to brew gyokuro, but we recommend using tetsubin (iron kettle) to brew gyokuro better.

Tetsubin is a tool to boil water and made out of iron. The water boiled in tetsubin would taste smooth as the iron from tetsubin dissolves in.

Also, since the water temperature plays an important role in brewing gyokuro, we recommend using a thermometer for those who want to be more careful about the temperature.

Water and temperature

There are soft water and hard water, and the suitability depends on the tea

Hard water contains more calcium and magnesium than soft water, which prevents bitterness and ruins the original taste balance in tea.

Soft water can extract the ingredients and flavors from tea leaves, and the most suitable type of water to brew Japanese teas like gyokuro is soft water.

There would be no problem with tap water to brew tea as tap water in Japan is mostly soft water.

The water temperature for gyokuro should be as warm as 50-60 degrees celsius that‘s about 20 degrees lower than sencha’s.

For those who want to go further about the tea-temperature relationship, check this out.

How to brew gyokuro

Here are the instructions to brew gyokuro below;

Pour water in hohin

Pour the boiling water in a hobin (teapot), then pour it in yunomis (teacups) to serve.

Cool the boiling water

Pour the water out of the yunomis into a yuzamashi t(cooling pot) ill the water temperature lowers to 50-60 degrees celsius.

If you want to cool quickly, pour the water back and forth between the yuzamashi (cooling pot) and yunomis (teacups)

Put tea leaves in hohin (kyusu teapot)

Put 3g of tea leaves per cup.

Gyokuro is the highest-class tea and the tea leaves are delicate. Make sure to gently scoop up the tea leaves so that they don’t get damaged..

Pour hot water in hohin and let it sit

Pour the cooled water out of the yuzamashi (cooling pot) into the hohin.

Wait for about 2-3 minutes while the tea leaves gradually open.

Pour tea around in yunomis

Pour the tea around in yunomis (teacups)to serve.

Shake the hohin (teapot) at the end to make sure to pour out till the very last drop.

Since the tea leaves have already opened from the first brew, use a little warmer water for the second brew.

You can enjoy the second brew with a different taste and flavor from the first one.

There may be few people having brewed oolong tea.

Many of you may not drink oolong tea hot but cold/iced.

Brewing oolong tea takes some work but it tastes nice and warm. Are you interested in brewing oolong tea now?

Taste and flavor of oolong tea

Oolong tea is characterized by its brown color, particular roasting aroma compared to green tea and black tea, and a little bit of bitterness.

With its refreshing aftertaste, it is more likely to be drunk after having heavy meals like Chinese food.

Before brewing oolong tea…

Oolong tea takes some work to brew and requires tools that are not so known.

In this article, we are going to introduce genuine ways to brew oolong tea and tools to use.

Utensils

You need a lot of utensils to brew oolong tea.

If you want to brew in a genuine way, you would need the utensils mentioned below, but, if you just want to brew at home, there would be no problem using your teapot and teacups to brew.

Chaban(Tea tray)

Oolong tea has a process of frequent pouring and dumping hot water.

Chaban is like a small tea tray that receives the dumped / overflowed water.

Chatsubo (Chinese teapot)

Chatsubo is a Chinese teapot designed to brew Chinese tea.

Chinese teapots are usually smaller than Japanese ones.

Also, there are alternate tools to be used such as; “Gaiwan”: a yunomi teacup to directly brew tea in with a lid on to steam, and “Hobyo”: a teapot with no handle that’s also used to brew high-end teas like Gyokuro in Japan.

Chahai (Chinese tea cup)

Chahai is a small Chinese teacup to drink Chinese tea.

As Chinese teas mostly taste strong, they are to enjoy small sips in a small teacup rather than gulps.

Chabune (Small tea tray)

Chabune is a tray to receive hot water when pouring onto the chatsubo (teapot) and chahais (teacups) to warm up.

Chakai (Tea server)

Chakai is a tool to diffuse evenly, which is like a tea server pot for English tea.

Chaka (Teaspoon)

Chaka is used to put tea leaves in a teapot. It is like a teaspoon, and other types of spoons can be used as well.

Chabasami (Tongs)

Chabasami is like tongs used to pick up chahais (tea cups).

For those who want to brew in a more genuine way, we recommend using a tetsubin that’s an iron pot to boil water because the pot makes the water taste smooth as the iron of the pot dissolves in water.

Water and temperature

Black tea and green tea can be affected by the types of water, whereas, oolong tea can hardly be affected by water unlike other teas. Therefore, it doesn’t matter using soft or hard water.

The best water temperature to brew oolong tea is 95-100 degrees celsius. Green tea would taste bitter when brewed at a higher temperature than it should be, while oolong tea can taste more aromatic when brewed at a high temperature.

If you want to know more about the tea temperature, here’s more below;

How to brew oolong tea

First of all, we are going to introduce the genuine way to brew oolong tea.

Warm the tea set

Place a chatsubo (teapot) and chahai (teacups) in the chabune (small tea tray) and pour hot water onto them to warm up.

Transfer to chaban

Transfer the warmed chahais (teacups) to the chaban (tea tray). The chahais will be picked up with the chabasami (tongs), instead of hands, and transferred one by one.

Put tea leaves into chatsubo

Put tea leaves into the chatsubo (teapot) till the bottom is covered.

Rinse tea leaves

Fill up the chatsubo with boiling water and pour in chakai (tea server) immediately.

Then pour the tea out of the chakai (tea server) into the chahais (teacups). Make sure to thoroughly pour the tea out of the chatsubo without leaving a single drop.

Since oolong tea leaves are hard and dry, the rinse softens the tea leaves and makes tea leaves easier to extract ingredients and aromas.

Fill up chatsubo with boiling water

Refill up the chatsubo (teapot) with boiling water. Pour in till it gets overflowed.

Skim off scum

There will be foam (scum) on the surface of the tea in the chatsubo, use its lid to skim off the foam then put the lid on.

Warm up chatsubo (teapot)

Pour the tea that was in the chahais (tea cups) into the chatsubo (teapot) to warm up.

Transfer the tea in chakai (tea server)

After about 1 minute, turn around the chatsubo (teapot) once to drain the water on the bottom and pour the tea in the chakai (tea server) to diffuse evenly.

At that time, make sure to pour the tea out thoroughly to the last drop.

Pour tea

Pour the tea out of the chakai (tea server) into the chahais (teacups) to finish. Enjoy the nice and hot tea.

These are the genuine instructions to brew oolong tea.

If you just want to brew oolong tea with what you have at home, brew with the same water temperature and weight of tea leaves. Pour only on the teapot and teacups to warm up. Then put tea leaves in the warmed teapot and pour boiling water in. Wait for 1 minute after pouring hot water in, then pour the tea in the teacups.

The instructions are pretty much the same as green tea’s, but using boiling water is the important tip to brew oolong tea.

Compared to green tea, there may not be many people brewing black tea.

Although bagged tea tastes good enough, leaf tea brewed on your own would taste exceptional.

Hope this article will encourage you to have a luxury tea time with good brewed tea.

Taste and flavor of black tea

Compared to green tea and oolong tea, the taste and flavor of black tea are elegant and gentle, and its color is dark red.

There are a variety of tastes of black tea, from unique and strong to light and universal, and the feature is that each taste of black tea is clearly distinguishable.

Before brewing black tea

If you are looking for the easiest way to brew black tea, it would be good enough if you have a tea strainer and a mug. Whereas, those who want to brew in a genuine way would need tools mentioned below;

Utensils

Now, we are going to introduce each one of the tools to use to brew tea.

Kettle

There would be no problem using a pot or kettle as long as the water can be boiled.

However, water matters when brewing black tea, as the water with rich oxygen makes black tea taste better.

Using a kettle that boils water quickly is recommended as boiling water in a short time can prevent water from losing oxygen.

Particularly, copper kettles have excellent conduction and are used by many English people when brewing black tea.

Teapot

The most important step to brew good black tea called “jumping” depends on the teapot.

Jumping is that tea leaves move up and down inside the teapot, which makes tea leaves open and extract the ingredients.

Therefore, we recommend round shaped teapots so that tea leaves can easily move up and down inside.

Teacup

Hope you’ll find your best teacup from many cute designs.

If you don’t have teacups, using a mug or yunomi teacup would be no problem.

Tea strainer

There are teapots with a strainer like kyusu teapots, but if not, you need a tea strainer. Make sure to choose a fine mesh tea strainer.

Good-to-have

Let us share “optional but good-to-have” tools for those who want to be more particular.

Tetsubin (Iron Kettle)

Tetsubin (Iron kettle) is a tool to boil water. This is made out of iron and can directly be heated. Then the water would taste smooth as the iron gets dissolved in it.

Tea server

We recommend tea servers when having 2-3 cups so that the tea doesn’t get too extracted. Particularly, it would look more elegant when serving guests.

Tea measuring spoon

It is literally a spoon to measure tea leaves. It’s also called “teaspoon”, “candy spoon” and “doseur”

If you don’t have a tea measuring spoon, you can use a teaspoon instead. It is about 1 teaspoon of tea leaves to make a cup.

Water and temperature

It is said that black tea can especially be affected by water, compared to other teas.

There are two types of water called “soft water” and “hard water”, and soft water is suitable for black tea. Tap water in japan is mostly soft water and it is specially suitable to brew black tea.

Hard water prevents tannin from extracting in tea, which makes tea taste less bitter. Whereas, soft water can extract the exact ingredients of tea leaves.

Besides, compared to green tea, water at a higher temperature that’s 90-100 degrees celsius is used to brew black tea.

How to brew black tea

We are going to share how to brew good black tea.

Boil water

Boil water till it gets bubbles.

Warm teapot and teacup

Pour the boiling water in the teapot and teacups to warm, then dump the water.

Put tea leaves in teapot

The weight of tea leaves is about 2.½ - 3g per cup. If you don’t have a tea measuring spoon, you can use a teaspoon that is probably a medium to heaping spoon per cup.

Pour water in

Pour boiling water in the teapot: approximately 150ml per cup. At that time, tea leaves will “jump” up and down, which makes good tea. But no need to pour hot water aggressively in to make tea leaves “jump”. Just pour in properly like you usually do.

Set proper time to steam tea leaves

As the duration varies according to tea leaves, check the duration shown on the package.

Make sure to time properly since inaccurate duration may cause insufficient extraction and/or unpleasant bitterness/astringency.

The duration is approximately 2.½ -3 minutes for small tea leaves and 4-5 minutes for big ones.

Pour tea in

Use a tea strainer to pour tea. Pour in around to make the tea strength evenly.

Have you ever heard of a tool called a "drip bag" that allows you to easily brew tea without using a teapot?

Drip bags are recommended for those who do not have a teapot or teapot, or for those who want to drink delicious tea outside the home, such as at the office or park.

Here, we would like to introduce you to the drip bag and how to brew a delicious cup of tea using the drip bag.

What is a drip bag of tea?

A drip bag for tea is an extraction device that can be used over a teacup or cup, as shown in the photo.

Drip bags make it easy to brew delicious tea for those who do not have a teapot or teapot, or for those who brew tea outside the home, such as at the office or park.

You can even throw away the entire bag, so if you've ever found it a hassle to dispose of tea leaves in a kyusu, this is for you!

I usually experiment with various tools, but this is a very useful extraction device because it can easily brew tea of almost the same quality as that brewed in a kyusu.

What is the difference between a drip bag and a coffee bag?

When you hear the word "drip bag," you may think of that of coffee, but drip bags are very different for tea and coffee.

The biggest difference between a drip bag and a coffee drip bag is that the tea leaves are immersed in hot water.

Generally, when coffee is brewed by drip, hot water is poured over the beans and dropped down to the cup in a short time, called "permeation," whereas tea is brewed by "steeping," in which the entire tea leaves are left to soak in hot water for a period of time.

The "permeating" method, in which fresh hot water is continuously supplied, allows more of the ingredients to be extracted, but has the disadvantage of producing a strong bitterness and an imbalance of flavors.

However, when brewing tea by "soaking," the gradual diminishing of the extraction of the ingredients prevents over-extraction and makes it easier to brew tea with a balanced flavor.

This is why drip bags for tea are made deeper so that the tea leaves can soak up the hot water.

How to brew nice tea using drip bags

Depending on the brewing method, drip bags can brew tea that tastes better than tea bags and comparable to that of a teapot.

Here is how to brew a delicious cup of tea using a drip bag.

1) Put the drip bag over a cup and add 4g of tea leaves.

At this time, please be careful that the tea leaves are properly immersed in the hot water when you pour the hot water into the cup. If the cup is too deep, the water may not reach the tea leaves and the tea may not be extracted properly.

(2) Pour 120ml of water boiled at 60-80℃ slowly over the tea leaves.

(3) After about 2 minutes of extraction, leave the drip bag open and shake it in the hot water for 2 to 3 times.

The point is not to close the drip bag. Although the tea leaves touch each other to facilitate the extraction of the ingredients, it can also cause a tangy taste.

The drip bag should be shaken while the tea leaves are still open, so that the right amount of flavor can be extracted.

(4) Lift the drip bag and wait until the last drop falls out.

The remaining tea in the drip bag is full of the flavor of the tea leaves.

Hold the bag up and wait until the last drop of tea has fallen out.

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.

Do you throw away the tea leaves after brewing green tea?

In fact, tea leaves are not only delicious to drink, but can also be eaten afterwards.

Here we introduce a recipe for "Ohitashi (boiled green tea)" that allows you to take in the rich nutrients that remain dissolved in the tea leaves.

Used green tea leaves are edible?

It may be surprising to know that used green tea leaves are edible, but it’s quite common in those famous tea producing areas such as Kyoto and Shizuoka as the local people often eat them.

It doesn’t mean that used green tea leaves have no flavors or aromas left: The flavor of tea would gently fill in your mouth with a little bit of seasoning.

Especially used high-end sencha tea leaves like gyokuro are easy to eat as they have rich umami left with no bitterness.

Benefits of eating ohitashi tea leaf salad

Green tea leaves contain rich nutrients that are said to be good for your health. The nutrients have two types: “water-soluble” that dissolves in water and “fat-soluble” that dissolves in fats and oils , and about 70% of tea nutrients are fat-soluble.

Not all of the water-soluble nutrients, such as catechin, caffeine, theanine, and vitamin C, dissolve out of the hot water as well, leaving more than 70% of green tea's rich nutrients in the tea leaves.

For your information, the fat-soluble nutrients contained in green tea are β-carotene, vitamin E, chlorophyll, fiber and so on. Especially the vitamin E that is said to improve the circulation is contained 25 times more than spinach.

Therefore, the whole rich nutrients left in used green tea leaves would be ingested when you eat them.

Recipe for ohitashi green tea leaf salad

There have been many recipes using used green tea leaves because of the recent people’s interest in health and wellness.

This time, we are going to introduce our simple and easy recipe for ohitashi tea-leaf salad.

Ingredients

• Used green tea leaves: moderate amount (as you like)
• Soy sauce: just a little (to taste)
• Bonito flakes: as you like (to garnish)

Directions

①Take the used green tea leaves out of the kyusu teapot and wrap them with paper towels to lightly dry.

②Place the used green tea leaves on a small plate then drip a couple of drops of soy sauce. Sprinkle bonito flakes on top to garnish if you like.

You can use ponzu or cold Japanese noodle dipping sauce instead of soy sauce. Also, you can add seasonings to change the taste such as sesame seeds, grated ginger, chili pepper and salt.

If you don’t like the bitterness of green tea leaves, use the used green tea leaves brewed a couple of times. They would taste light and less bitter.

As well as the ohitashi salad, there are more ways to eat used green tea leaves such as furikake rice seasoning, adding to fried rice and simmer to make tsukudani.

When the writer put used green tea leaves in chiffon cake batter to bake, the chiffon cake was like a Japanese dessert with mild green tea flavor.

Although English tea chiffon cakes are popular, we recommend trying green tea chiffon cakes as well if you can.

Cold green tea is really delicious on a hot summer day when you are thirsty.

The full-bodied, refreshing taste not only quenches your thirst but also refreshes your mood.

How much do you know about cold brew green tea / iced green tea?

What is cold / ice brew tea?

Cold brew green tea or iced green tea is literally making tea with water or ice instead of hot water.

The temperature of the water used to brew green tea changes the ingredients extracted, so even if the same tea leaves are used, the taste can be surprisingly different.

What is the difference between tea brewed with hot water and tea brewed with ice?

The lower the extraction temperature of green tea, the less catechins, which are the source of bitterness, are extracted, but amino acids, which are the source of sweetness and umami, are extracted unchanged.

In particular, the temperature of ice brewing is lower than that of cold brew, resulting in a deeper, full-bodied, richer flavor with more umami.

In addition, the color of cold brew and ice brew does not change much, so the water remains a beautiful green color even after a long time. Compared to green tea made with hot water, cold brew green tea contains much less caffeine, making it a good choice for a cup of tea before going to bed.

How to make cold brew green tea

There are a few ways to cold brew green tea, but we are going to introduce the standard one.

Prepare cold water

You can use tap water but it will be more better using tap water that’s once boiled and cooled, mineral water or filtered water.

Prepare tea bags

Put 10-15g of tea leaves in a bag to make 1 liter of green tea ( 1 tablespoon of green tea leaves is measured about 5g).

If you don’t have tea bags, you can put tea leaves directly in a teapot and use a tea strainer when pouring in.

Make green tea in a cold brew tea maker (teapot).

Put the tea bag in the cold brew tea maker (teapot) and pour the cold water in.

Leave it in the fridge and wait 3-6 hours, and voila!

How to ice brew green tea

You may have cold brewed green tea before, but few of you may have ice brewed green tea.

Ice brew tea tastes really good as it extracts more sweetness and umami than cold brew.

Here’s the recipe to make 1 liter.

Prepare ice

Prepare 1 liter of ice cubes

Put tea leaves in an cold brew tea maker (teapot)

Place 15-20g of tea leaves (about 3-4 tablespoons) on the bottom of the teapot. Spread the tea leaves out as much as you can so the tea ingredients can easily get extracted.

Put the ice in and wait till it melts

Place the ice on the tea leaves in the teapot and leave it till the ice melts. Rich umami ingredients will be extracted by taking time.

Shake gently before drinking

It’ll be ready when the ice melts, then shake the teapot gently before pouring in a glass.

The ingredients on the bottom can be diffused evenly by shaking, which makes the taste well-balanced and the color look better.

It would surely be no problem using a kyusu teapot instead of an ice brew tea maker.

Did you know that the sencha you usually drink can be made much tastier with a little effort and attention?

In this article, FETC, which drinks several hundred kinds of tea each year, will introduce you to the best way to brew sencha and deep steamed sencha teas.

Points to keep in mind when brewing sencha and deep steamed sencha

Compared to black tea and oolong tea, sencha offers a delicate aroma and a taste of umami and sweetness.

There are two things to keep in mind in order to enjoy its fresh and invigorating aroma and balance of bitterness, astringency, and umami.

These are the temperature of the water, the tea leaves, and the amount of hot water.

What is the temperature of the water used to brew Sencha?

The higher the temperature of the water, the stronger the astringent and bitter tastes are extracted from the tea.

This is because catechin, an astringent component, and caffeine, a bitter component, dissolve at higher temperatures, while amino acids such as theanine, a umami component, can be easily extracted at lower temperatures.

Therefore, at higher temperatures, the tea has a strong bitter taste, while at lower temperatures, the bitter taste is suppressed, and the tea is easy to taste umami and sweetness.

Recommended temperatures are around 50-70°C for gyokuro and high-grade teas, and 60-80°C for regular sencha, but it depends on the tea leaves and your preference, so please refer to this article for more details.

*Related Article: Relationship between tea flavor and temperature

There are two types of water, soft water and hard water, and the water suitable for Japanese teas such as Sencha is soft water.

Japanese tap water is soft water, so there is no problem using it as it is. However, if you use tap water, it is recommended to boil it once and let it cool down in order to remove chlorine from the water.

*Related Article: How does the taste of tea change between soft and hard water?

30ml of hot water per gram of tea leaves!

To brew a good cup of tea, the amount of tea leaves and hot water should not be too much or too little.

For sencha, the best amount is 30ml of hot water for every 1g of tea leaves.

Many mistakes in brewing tea are made by adding too much hot water for the tea leaves. Use a scale to measure accurately and be particular about the amount for a delicious cup.

Before Brewing Sencha and Deep Steamed Sencha

The following tools are required to brew a good cup of sencha

Tools to use

• Kyusu / Teapot
• Tea bowl / Tea cup
• Teaspoon
• Iron kettle or Kettle with temperature-control
• Yuzamashi

There are various types of kyusu (teapots) made of ceramic, glass, plastic, and other materials, and there are also differences in the shape of the mesh (tea strainer), which also affects the flavor of the tea brewed.

Although it may be difficult to find an iron kettle or a yuzamashi in your home, you can enjoy the taste of tea better when you use them.

How to brew sencha and deep steamed sencha

• Tea leaves: 4g
• Hot water: 120 ml (70°C)

The quantity is for one cup. It does not matter how much you brew, as long as you observe the 30 ml per 1 g of tea leaves.

This recipe is for a single cup of tea rather than to enjoy the second or third brewing of tea.

(1) Boil water

(2) Cool the water to 70 degrees.

(3) Measure 4g of tea leaves

(4) Pour 120ml of hot water into the kyusu / teapot and let it steep.

(5) Pour the tea into a teacup while turning it over by hand.

All that remains is to pour the tea into a teacup, but at this point, try brewing the tea by "Te-gaeshi" (turning the teapot back and forth by hand).

"Te-gaeshi" refers to the technique of brewing tea by shaking the kyusu with your wrist as shown in the picture below.

By doing this, the tea leaves rub against each other in the kyusu and more of the ingredients are extracted, allowing you to enjoy a richer flavor.

Hold the kyusu like this, grasping the handle with the palm of your hand and supporting the lid with your thumb to prevent it from shifting.

(6) Pour out every last drop.

The last drop left in the kyusu is a golden drop that has absorbed the full flavor of the tea.

Shake the kyusu gently two or three times vertically to pour out every last drop.

(7) Enjoy the aroma and flavor of tea

The deliciousness of sencha is its aroma and flavor.

Enjoy to your heart's content the aroma rising from the teacup, the flavor spreading to your tongue, the balance of astringency and bitterness that strengthens it, and finally, the aroma that smoothly escapes into your nose.

Can tea be eaten even the tea leaves left over after extraction?

In fact, tea leaves can be surprisingly tasty.

Please try "tea boiled" as well, which is a great way to take in all the rich nutrients that remain dissolved in the tea leaves.

Related Article: Tea doesn't end when it's brewed? How to Make Tea Ohitashi