Tea enthusiasts who want to share our love of Japanese tea and teaware with the world.
The Japanese word tezumi (手摘み), meaning 'hand-picked', is used to describe the select few teas that have been carefully picked by hand, rather than by machine, resulting in the highest grades of tea. We chose this name because we put the same care and patience in selecting our teas and teaware.
Thank you for the tip on properly brewing shincha. I always assumed it should be steeped like regular sencha, which might explain why it rarely impressed me.
Not necessarily! Glass works very well and behaves quite similarly to glazed porcelain. Clay tends to hold heat better and can have subtle effects on the flavour of the tea (unglazed clay only), but that's mostly it
If it's granulated sugar, I'd add it to the sifted matcha before adding the hot water. For syrups, I'd add it to the matcha base after the hot water. Hope that helps!
It's a pretty affordable scale you can pick up for under $20 with various brand names on amazon (search "espresso scale with timer"). While they're not as nice or as featured as fancy scales, they're cheap, quick, small, and accurate, so I quite like them
I'm an American potter who has made English and Japanese style teapots. I've only ever made the round shape Kyusu with the spherical filter and it quickly became my favorite style of teapot to make and to use. That being said I really enjoyed hearing about all the other styles of Japanese teapot and the pros and cons of each. Thank you for this excellent video!
In the filter section of the video the ceramic filter have been almost invisible. Maybe using a spot led light or a led light in the spout could help to illuminated the filters better
Isn't the first black tea pot (Shiboridashi) a bit like a Gaiwan? Or a bit Gongfu chan vibe? Could you elaborate on the differences in a video. Also black Japanese tea would be an interesting topic, regards
Good point! Shiboridashi probably evolved from or were inspired by gaiwan. The primary difference is the spout and the flatter shape. Japanese black tea is a very interesting topic, both historically and today, so it'll definitely feature in a video at some point!
Could you please explain why is the second pour straight away while the third is 45 seconds of steeping before pouring? Does this recipe or technique work with all kinds of sencha? Fukamushi, Kabuse, kukicha, shincha, gyokuro if preferred? Could you make some videos explaining how to also brew different kinds of teas like white, oolong, black, hojicha, and pu-erh? And the different types of each kind? I’m new to the world of tea and I’m finding it hard to learn about this. I’ve seen some RU-vid channels like NioTeas but he’s crazily biased and thus not so much informative. You obviously are so much sophisticated since you’re a chajin, so please teach us since the tea world isn’t as big as the coffee world, meaning there aren’t as many people to learn from like there are about coffee.
The primary reasoning for the short second steeping is that the leaves are still somewhat steeping in the little liquid that remains after the first infusion. You can steep a little longer but I (and others) have found that keeping it short for the second infusion is best. By the third infusion, the leaves have already released a lot of their flavour, hence the longer steeping time. While you can use this method with other Japanese green teas, you can make even better tea with some adjustments. For example, with fukamushicha, the broken leaves mean that shorter infusion times (e.g. 30s) work better. For kabuse and gyokuro, lower temperatures and longer steeping times (e.g. 50-60C and 120s) are idea. In depth brewing videos for all of these styles are on our to-do list! Thanks so much for the kind words! One of our goals is to bring a lot of Japanese tea education into the English-speaking world as there is a lot of information out there that isn't accessible to those who don't speak or understand Japanese.
Thank you, really enjoyed this informative, to-the-point video! I saw some really flat 100ml kyusu teapots with the handle - how do they compare to the shiboridashi in terms of usage? It seems they would be as good for sencha and gyokuro as the shiboridashi pots? I’m just starting out with my tea journey and wondering what pot I should get for Japanese green teas - any advice would be much appreciated!
Glad it was helpful! Good question. Flat kyusu are comparable to shiboridashi - their wide, flat shape and small size are also specially designed to promote even contact between the leaves and the water, aiding the extraction of umami from high-grade sencha and gyokuro. The primary differences would be the filter and handle.
My bamboo whisk has tiny slivers of bamboo on it. I swished it in water multiple times with hopes that this would remove them. Not purchased at Tezumi. Maybe a quality issue? Thank you!
Yeah, this happens a lot with the more mass-produced whisks from China and Korea. Usually one of the steps in Japanese chasen production is to chamfer the edges of each tine to shave off any slivers and to prevent tea from sticking. This step is often skipped in cheaper whisks.
@@tezumiteaThank you! Are the Tezumitea whisks hand made and not mass produced? I’m trying to find a new one but can’t afford the super expensive ones.
All of our Japanese-made whisks are handmade, but due to this and to the incredibly limited supply (only around a dozen people make all of the whisks in Japan) they are relatively expensive compared to their mass-produced counterparts
Good question! I usually wash it under cold water after use to get any matcha off and let it air dry. If there is staining, I often use dish soap (unscented is ideal) or if it is heavily stained, you could bleach it (but getting the bleach odour out takes some time). While they are considered 'consumables' in the tea ceremony world, I do try and make them last as long as possible, and these Hoda-ori weave ones do tend to last longer than the regular weave ones. But when they begin to fray or become too threadbare, then I'll use a new one.
Lovely as ever. Helpful and marvelous to see your process. I know it would be a bit dull for some, but I'd love a look at the variety of ceramics and recommendations on cleaning (cups, bowls, kyusu, etc.). I play it safe and only use a hot water rinse on everything.
I typically use higher leaf to water ratio, more like to chinese gongfu tea, about 1 gram per 20ml, but based on the volume of the vessel versus weighing the water. Do you always weigh the water or was it just for demonstration purposes? And in japanese tea ceremony is not typical to completely fill the brewing vessel?
Sencha is very adaptable with brewing, and I do also enjoy a higher ratio sometimes (especially with higher-grade teas at a lower temperature). In senchado (煎茶道 - sencha/loose-leaf Japanese tea ceremony) they typically do not fill the entire brewing vessel, but there are many different schools and styles (for example, some add water first then leaves). For regular brewing, if it's a vessel I'm very familiar with, I won't measure the water as I know the volume well enough. But if its a tea that I'm sampling or brewing more carefully, I'll weigh the water
Great Video! Watched it while brewing some older left-over shincha in a glass pot (i know don't judge me too harshly for leaving shincha undrunken :D )
