Late to this - in fact I only found it due to a fluke, as I pretty much never read Touhou stuff - but as a tea fanatic, it sure spoke to me.
Gyokuro, and all Japanese greens in fact, are very temperamental about temperature and brew time, it's true. Anything more than about 2 minutes of steeping and it will start to turn bitter. I usually do it for around 1 minute 40 seconds. Believe me, it will NOT be weak, but a rich, soupy broth with a smell so savory it honestly always makes me think of roasted chicken. The flavor however, is of course deeply vegetal, somewhat reminiscent of nori. Properly brewed Gyokuro is absolutely delicious.
As for temperature, it's not depicted here because of the setitng of course, but modern Japan has sophisticated electric water boilers on the market where you can set the temperature you want, do a self-cleaning cycle, and even have it turn itself on with a timer. I own one in fact, a gift from my mother. It's been in continuous operation for about five years now... Blacks can go to 212 of course, but I find 195 fine for most applications, and this is also the temperature to do whites and oolongs at. Greens are really the only type that needs to go lower. 175 is recommended but I actually think that's a little TOO lukewarm for me, so I tend to still do 195 and just do a second container pour-through, leaving it at around 180 or so I would assume.
When it comes to amount, I tend to do 6.5 grams for 2.5ish cups of water. It's a generous amount that will still fit into most large cups or glasses (I drink out of a wide bowl these days), and this ratio seems to produce a consistently good level of brew strength across all kinds of tea - for me at least. Note that green teas don't rebrew particularly well; the second one will be drinkable but much weaker, and third ones pass what I think of as the boundary between actual "tea" and "tea-flavored water". :P
Still, as said Gyokuro is not cheap, so you might end up doing it a third time anyway just to get your money's worth. Oolongs rebrew the best, especially the balled-up "gunpowder" varieties. Even a third brew will be quite good. White tea and black tea come after that, with still-pretty-good second brews but thirds quite weak.
Anyway, thanks for your efforts, Waffle.
last edited at Apr 25, 2018 4:21PM
