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Sanguinary Novel posted:So I bought some matcha to try from a local tea shop thinking "It's just like making powdered hot chocolate! A mesh tea filter that has very small holes also works for sifting/removing clumps. A real maccha whisk is actually pretty much required to make maccha correctly. A cooking whisk has the incorrect thickness and will not be able to create a smooth froth/texture with no holes. Basically, when maccha is made properly the normal way it contains a very flat neon green froth on the top with no large bubbles (an almost similar texture to steamed milk in a latte). The texture is extremely important. There is another way of making maccha that doesn't involve frothing, but I don't recommend trying thick maccha unless you know what you're going for and have really really high quality maccha. aldantefax posted:You'd be surprised! The tea part of genmaicha is pretty temperature sensitive - in my experiences I use 174F. You can feel free to adjust the quantity of leaf and steep time back up to three minutes if you like, too. Genmaicha is generally not temperature sensitive but can be oversteeped. Best is boiling water, 30 seconds. Alternatively, if you are lazy like me and use a water heater, Try 1 minute, 85-90 degrees C. I forgot, best way is to increase leaf (2-3 tbsp) and decrease water to about a cup. ntan1 fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Feb 21, 2013 |
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Feb 21, 2013 08:44
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 11:08 |
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It's green tea harvest season! This year I'm limiting my sample selection to the following: Maiko Shincha Sencha Kinari Tsuen Ujibashi San no Ma Yutaka Midori (o-cha.com selected) Ippodo's Shincha Marukyuu Koyamaen Gold Depending on time/whether I feel like it, I might also add Sugimoto and Den's tea onto the list for sampling.
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May 7, 2013 04:02
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Archer2338 posted:Loved the Sencha and finished my sampler pack... Now I want to try the genmaicha (I love toasted rice, so this should be awesome), but I'm not sure about the directions. I'm a daily drinker of Sencha. Sencha can be picky sometimes. For all of my standard lightly steamed sencha, I do a 1 ounce to .8 gram ratio to start, and raise if necessary. Depending on the mix, the temperature for brewing various between 65C to 80C. Typically, with an 80C brew, the first steep will be about 40 seconds, and with a 65C brew, the first steep will be 1:30. If you want, you can also try Shincha (new harvest tea) which is still on sale. The difference is that the leaves are much more fresh and flavorful over the normal year, as they do not send the leaf into storage. Check o-cha.com as a brief starter. Genmaicha: pretty much a standard 1 minute brew for loose leaf tea, and I often literally brew this one hot, at 85C. Genmaicha is very much not picky, and never uses the best part of the green tea leaf.
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May 29, 2013 22:40
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Wedemeyer posted:I'm in the Bay Area, CA so maybe it is the humidity. I checked the other tea, also in a crappy teavana tin, and that one seemed ok. Not clumpy, though I can't tell if the apple slices are supposed to be crunchy freeze dried or just dehydrated. The tea leaves were dry and snapped instead of bending so I think that one's alright. Either way they're both going in a better container. I live in the bay area and there is no humidity here. It likely has to do with where you stored the tea (was it in a closet right above a stove, for example). Other things to think of: is the tea old? There are some types of tea which very much do not last long.
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Jun 1, 2013 01:51
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Enfys posted:I still can't figure out if I like sencha or not, or if I am doing weird things making it sometimes, or what. The first couple of times I made it, I really didn't like it. Then I decided to try it again, and it was absolutely fantastic. It seems like it's a total hit or miss tea for me - either I can't stand the taste, or it is perfectly lovely, and I have no idea what it is as I'm keeping the water temperature and brewing time the same Loose Leaf? Sencha is one of the harder teas to make. This is why I'm really really picky about the specific pot I use for Sencha and times/ratios. Here's the best way to make Sencha You want about 1-2 tbsp of leaf. It depends on the specific area the leaf comes from, but 1.5 is usually my starting point (translates to about 8grams of loose leaf). You want about 210ml of water (close to half a cup). Preheat the tea vessel. Meanwhile, take boiling water and put it into a cup. Wait 10 seconds, then poor it into another cup. You can save time by using the tea vessel as the first cup you pour the water into (This will bring the temperature of water down to 68C-75C, if you want to measure it out). Put tea leaf in the empty tea vessel now. Pour the water over. Wait 1-1:30, depending on taste (1:30 is pretty bitter, 1:00 is mellow). Pour all of the tea out quickly at this point. Remember, with loose leaf Sencha, you want a fine mesh filter for the tea as you're pouring  .
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Jun 24, 2013 01:03
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You really need a whisk. Oh, and good matcha is very expensive.
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Jun 30, 2013 07:04
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Placid Marmot posted:They may be "thoughts" about the importance of water, but they should perhaps not be seen as recommendations, given the level of pseudoscience and self-contradiction. What is actually true is that Spring Water, followed by Natural Mineral Water, is generally the best type of water for teas with subtle flavor. Generally, distilled water is not good for tea due to the lack of minerals, which are needed to enhance flavor. You generally want the water to be at a pH of 7.5 to 8.5 for these types of tea.
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Aug 10, 2013 03:28
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 Harukasumi from Marukyu Koyamaen :3
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Mar 13, 2018 02:38
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Reiterpallasch posted:Go to any of the high-end department stores and look for the tea counter in the basement where all the food stalls are--the "flagship" department stores (Isetan in Shinjuku, Mitsukoshi in Ginza, probably some other ones) carry very good teas there. a brand i buy a lot of is Marukyu Koyamaen, a Kyoto-based tea concern that should be distributed at most high-end department stores in Tokyo; they specialize in shaded teas but also have a bunch of consistently blended, reasonably priced senchas and kabuses. This is a month late but no department store in Tokyo sells Marukyu Koyamaen. The closest would be Kyoto. The Shinjuku Isetan holds Kanbayashi, which is an Edo-established producer Maccha (and notably just about as famous), but my experience with Kanbayashi sencha and maccha is that Koyamaen is more balanced and complex. Ginza Mitsukoshi holds Ippodo, which produces a consistent sencha that I buy, but I still like Koyamaen even more. It's worth noting that I like Ippodo more than Kanbayashi Daimaru in Tokyo has Fukujuen, which is also well established, but I like Ippodo more. Takashimaya in Nihonbashi has Yamamotoyama, which likes to produce nori as well. However, it's also not as good as Ippodo. In any case, the point is that Koyamaen is harder than you think to get in Tokyo, and that I suppose mail ordering it is the best. It's also worth noting that Tsujiri (not to be confused with the 4-5 other stores also called Tsujiri) now has a store in Ginza, and I have been meaning to try their maccha and sencha for a while.
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Mar 18, 2019 08:06
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 11:08 |
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They're good. A solid flagship department store isn't going to sell bad tea in Japan. The differences between those five different brands I mentioned isn't going to be significant unless you drink Japanese green tea every day, and buying based on the quality that they advertise (they're fair with this) will end up being fine. Even as a person who drinks green tea every day the difference is subtle.
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Mar 19, 2019 05:27
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