How to brew Gyokuro
Shaded Japanese green: Yame, Uji, Okabe.
Shading fills gyokuro with sweet, savory amino acids that come out at low temperatures, while hot water pulls bitterness ahead of them. So it starts cool, with a lot of leaf and a long first steep.
Starting recipe
| Setting | Teapot (kyusu) | Small pot or houhin, concentrated |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 104–149°F (40–65°C) | 104–149°F (40–65°C) |
| Leaf | 5–17 g per 100 ml | 8–17 g per 100 ml |
| Steepdial starts at | 131°F (55°C) · 6 g · 80 ml | 131°F (55°C) · 5 g · 50 ml |
| First steep | 1:00–3:00 | 0:30–1:30 |
| A whole session | 2:00 · 0:30 · 1:00 · 1:30 | 1:00 · 0:20 · 0:40 · 1:00 · 1:30 |
The details
Rinse
Not needed. Start with the first steep.
Drinking window
Best fresh: at its best for about 2 months once opened.
Caffeine
Contains caffeine. How much depends on the leaf, the water temperature and the steep time; the style alone is a poor guide.
Iced and cold brew
Cold brew: 1.5 g per 100 ml of cold water, in the fridge for about 4 hours. Keep it cold and drink it within a day or two. For iced tea now, brew a concentrated hot cup (the same leaf in half the water) and pour it over an equal weight of ice; Steepdial accounts for the ice in the total water.
How Steepdial adjusts
After a session you tap what you'd change: more flavor, less bitter, less drying. Steepdial changes one thing at a time, staying near the ranges above, and remembers what worked for that tea.
More green
The whole guide →Kabusecha
Lightly shaded Japanese green
131–158°F (55–70°C) · 3–8 g per 100 ml→GreenSencha
Steamed Japanese green, including shincha
149–185°F (65–85°C) · 2.5–6 g per 100 ml→GreenFukamushi sencha
Deep-steamed sencha
149–176°F (65–80°C) · 2.5–6 g per 100 ml→GreenBancha
Later-harvest everyday Japanese green
185–212°F (85–100°C) · 1.5–3 g per 100 ml→GreenHojicha
Roasted Japanese green
194–212°F (90–100°C) · 1.5–3 g per 100 ml→GreenGenmaicha
Green tea with toasted rice
176–203°F (80–95°C) · 2–3.5 g per 100 ml→