Have you had issues with overbrewing your Japanese green tea? Japanese green tea is delicious, but many people make it too strong and, as a result, the flavor can be bitter or astringent.
This handmade kyūsu from Japan is an essential teapot for brewing Japanese green tea.
There are three things to pay attention to when brewing Japanese green tea: duration, temperature, and how much tea to put in the teapot.
One of the most important things is the length of time you brew your green tea. It often only takes an instant––3 to 5 seconds!––to brew Japanese green tea. Those seconds are critical. It's the time from the hot water first hitting the tea leaves in the teapot to the time when you pour the tea out into your cup.
Without using the right teapot and strainer, the tea leaves will clog and slow down the pouring, which can prevent the tea from being poured within that essential, brief steeping window.
A regular strainer will often get clogged and your leaves will quickly be oversteeped. The strainer in this teapot is widely spread out inside the teapot, which helps to distribute the tea leaves and maintain an even flow while pouring.
Japanese green tea is often a lot finer than Chinese green tea. To keep your cup free of leaves you have to use a fine strainer, and this kyūsu features a very fine-mesh strainer for the job.
This teapot is also made of clay, which absorbs the flavor of your tea and, over time, will improve the flavor of your green tea. Do not wash it with soap because the soap itself might be absorbed into your teapot and get imparted into the flavor of your tea. And try to use it to brew only green tea––no other teas, and certainly not a clashing type of tea like an herbal.
The more you use this teapot, the better your green tea will taste. When used properly, the natural clay will also reduce the astringency and improve the sweetness of your green tea.
