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The owner of Mukasa-En, MUKASA Yasuyuki, is one of the most prominent tea farmers in Japan. His technique of tea cultivation and production is so sophisticated that tea farmers visit him to study his skills from many areas of Japan. … Continue reading
Green tea “Sencha” has a potential to be brewed more than three times.
In Japan, it is recommended to infuse green tea at low temperature at first infusion and then re-steep at higher temperature than the previous infusion. An example of water temperature to infuse deep-steamed green tea “fukamushi cha” is shown as follows.
In this condition, extraction behavior of each constituents determining tea taste is shown in the following picture, based on results measured by Sakamoto et al. [089].
The first infusion makes us enjoy umami due to amino acids and delicate taste with fresh aroma. In the case of higher grade one, these flavors keep longer and finish smoothly and more gracefully.
The second infusion has a nice balance of umami with bitterness and astringency. In the case of higher grade one, in some minutes after sipping it, aftertaste can keep longer and change to sweet gradually. In the supposition of the author, this grdual change in aftertaste to sweet would be caused by the conformation change of taste-determining polyelectrolyte such as catechins, tannin, saccharides and their complexes, due to the change in their surrounding chemical conditions such as electrochemical potential and oxidation-reduction potential.
The third infusion has more bitter and astringent taste derived from catechins.
In addition to these taste, we can enjoy the change in infusion color also, especially in case of deep-steamed green tea. Till the third infusion, its color is getting deeper green with the progress of re-steeping.
As just described, we can find expressive faces of green tea by re-steeping.
Furthermore, we can arrange the flavor of green tea by adjusting water temperature and steeping time based on the extraction kinetics of each taste-determining constitution.
In my personal opinion, I prefer longer infusion time at 1st infusion, resulting in more umami and fine aftertaste for me.
Please try various arrangement of infusion conditions as you like!
<Reference>
[089] Sakamoto A., Nakagawa M., Sugiyama H., Horie H. (2002) The compositions of the respective infusions of Sencha brewed three times, Tea Research Journal94:45-55 (in Japanese)
Based on the Tea Council of the USA, January 12th is recognized as “National Hot Tea Day” in USA., suggesting that the coldest month makes us to be eager to drink hot tea.
Hot teas provide us warmness, soothing sense of relief, power to live, comfortable time with family and loved one, especially in cold days. In the bedtime scene, a nightcap tea invites us smoothly to a comfortable dream.
In general, it is recommended to brew Japanese green tea at lower temperature, resulting in better taste due to the difference in infusion rate of each constituent determining taste.
At lower temperature, amino acids responsible to umami and delicate taste diffuse faster(*1) than caffeine or catechins, responsible to bitter or astringent taste. This tendency was clarified in the reference[091] described at the end of this post and depicted as follows.
If we brew Japanese green tea at high temperature around 100 degree Celsius, constituents of bitter and astringent taste will be infused more. While we know such fact, nevertheless we would like to enjoy hot green tea of better taste as soon as possible.
Yutaka Koizumi, a past president of the Prefectural Research Center of Tea Industry in Shizuoka, told a nice idea to enjoy umami-rich green tea at higher temperature very easily as shown below.
1) Soaking tea leaves in water for minutes(*2).
Loose leaf tea is soaked in a little amount of water for some minutes.
In this process, amino acids are infused.
2) Adding hot water
Pour hot water to the tea pot, and then brew tea into tea cups.
Only two processes will provide better taste tea at warm temperature.
In my personal opinion, this method can be apply to Japanese black tea also.
I hope you will find this method very helpful.
< Note >
(*1) Based on the Fick’s first law and Stokes-Einstein equation, diffusion flux of each constituent increases as molecular size increases.
(*2)Soaking time can be extended. I often soak before going to work and pour hot water after coming home. More than 10 hours soak does not result in bitterness and astringency so much. I feel a little bit bitterer and more astringent.
<References>
[091] Ikeda S., Nakagawa M., Iwasa K. (1972) : Relation between Infusing Condition of Green Tea and Soluble Component, Tea Research Journal 37:69-78 (in Japanese).
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Colorful leaves and flowers make us happy! We can enjoy autumn crimson and yellow along with evergreen tea plants in Makinohara plateau, especially on its terrace sides. Cold dry air and sunshine create fantastic scenes and beautiful landscape. Tea leaves … Continue reading