How to Make Authentic Japanese Green Tea

Prepare authentic Japanese green tea with whole tea leaves.

Authentic Japanese green tea does not require a lengthy or complex process, but each step ensures the quality of tea and brings out the best characteristics of each type of tea leaf. Use only loose leaf tea for authentic Japanese tea. Japanese loose leaf green tea comes in six primary varieties: sencha, bancha, hojicha, genmaica, kukicha and gyokuro. Sencha is the most common type of Japanese tea, while gyokuro is the most expensive and requires the most care when preparing.

Things You'll Need

• Tea kettle or pot
• Water
• Cast iron teapot (tetsubin)
• 3 tea cups
• Green tea

Instructions

1. Heat water to a boil in a tea kettle or pot on the stove. Immediately remove from the heat. Pour enough of the hot water into your teapot to fill it. This helps to warm up the teapot before you add the tea and rinses it out as well. Pour the water out into two of the tea cups. This determines the exact amount of water you need for the tea and helps to cool the water further.

2. Add one teaspoon of leaves per cup to the tea pot. Pour the water from one of the two full tea cups to the empty, third teacup and back. Repeat for the other teacup of water. This cools the water to the temperature required for all Japanese green teas except gyokuro. Use a thermometer to verify the temperature if needed---the water should reach a temperature of 180 degrees. Allow the water to cool for another minute to 140 degrees if making gyokuro.

3. Pour the water from the two teacups into the teapot. Steep the tea for two minutes or according to the instructions on the package. Genmaicha can steep for as little as one minute, while higher quality gyokuro can sometimes handle three minutes of steeping. Kukicha, made from the stems and twigs of the tea plant, can steep as little as 30 seconds.

4. Pour the tea into the teacups and serve immediately. If the tea turns out too bitter, reduce the temperature or brewing time for the next steeping. You can steep high quality Japanese tea leaves multiple times.

Tips & Warnings

• A cast iron pot, or tetsubin will keep the tea hot longer, which is useful if you cannot drink it all right away. Most tetsubins have an infuser basket to hold the leaves that you can remove at the end of the steeping time. Other teapots, known as Kyusu, have metal strainers built into the teapot's spout to filter the leaves.

References

• O Cha: Learn How to Brew Japanese Green Tea
• Shizuokatea.com: How To Make Japanese Green Tea
• Zencha.net: Brewing