Just bought my tea loving, Japanese learning, foodie 15 year old a teapot and a couple of loose teas to try (from your shop)! Thanks for the great video.
@@51rwyatt I've also have a cheaper cast iron tea pot. I take it camping, not ceramic lined just oil seasoned. And it works just fine. This guy is just pushing the product he's selling.
The cast iron tetsubin is not a teapot; this is not explained in the video. The tetsubin is a kettle to heat the water. Tannins in the tea that has been brewed in a tetsubin will react with the iron turning the tea black. A true tetsubin is not enamelled. Most cast iron japanese 'teapots' are cheap, Chinese copies and have been enamelled to prevent the tea from reacting with the iron. Better stick with clay teapots. Even a budget glazed teapot is better than a cast iron enamelled tetsubin.
A technique comment - for the pour you should not be doing one big tip and pour. You should pour and rock the kyusu back and forth about 3 times in smaller pours. The person demonstrating the pours in the video you can see all the leaves on the bottom during the pour. (Well the lid should not be taken off either) Not what you want. The leaves should wind up against the side of the inside of the pot for best extraction. At timestamp 7:30 you will see a sped up version of someone doing a good pour.
So, it seems i've been brewing my green tea all wrong for years (alas, i have a cast iron tetsubin). I mostly drink Tamaryokucha, Sencha (different cultivars), occasionally Gyokuro. I've known it all along that the leaves are supposed to move around, and yet somehow i've never brought myself to do the switch to a clay teapot. But i definitely need some sort of teapot with a built-in strainer. Thoughts?
Definietly try to get a tokoname clay kyusu, or a shiboridashi. I find brewing in clay to be the most enjoyable, although I also use a glass gaiwan a lot because it lets me observe the leaves through the whole steep.
@@wadsworth2351 you can get it from us! there is the black tokoname kyusu here: nioteas.com/collections/teaware/products/kyusu-teapot-black and the red kyusu teapot is here: nioteas.com/collections/teaware/products/red-fukamushi-kyusu
So you wanna heat with a tea kettle or something that can handle the flame, but then transfer it to the Japanese tea pot to actually do the brewing right?
yes you can do that. If you want to learn more about the teapots you can watch this here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-47HRFA-dhWk.html
Wow you really do know your teapots. Incredible content! I had no interest in teapots and I have no idea how I got here...but I watched the entire thing. I must try a Japanese tea!
Hello! Can you use a cast iron pot with enamel coating on the inside to boil tea on a stove? I don't know if I can use it to boil tea directly and I do not wish to ruin the pot.
yes exactly but a lot of people prepare tea in a cast iron teapot using a basket brewer. If you want to browse our kyusu you can find them here: nioteas.com/collections/japanese-kyusu-teapot
Agree with you, tetsubins are cast iron kettles without any enamel inside. It’s purely for boiling the water. “Softens” the water and is never used for brewing. The teapot used in this video is likely a cast iron with enamel coating inside, which is used to brew the tea - so it’s not really a tetsubin kettle at all. The tea pot shown in the video has been popularised in the West. Iwachu also make some but it’s not really a Japanese method of brewing tea. Iwachu is more known for their cast iron tetsubin/ kettles. Mostly Western brands sell this enamel-lined cast iron teapot in a misguided way to cash in on “oriental” design whilst missing the point and origin completely. So it’s doubly odd that this channel that purports to have knowledge of East Asian tea does nothing to correct this Western misconception.
You can just put less water in larger teapot! Also if the cast iron is not good then you also have the metal mesh within the clay pot! You are not making any sense!
the Kyusu teapots we use in the videos are Japanese. The tetsubin or cast iron teapot we mention is also Japanese but it is meant for heating water, not for preparing the actual tea
This is ridiculous, unless you’re participating in a Shinto ritual who cares about being graceful and who wants to brew a literal sip of tea. A “relaxing tea moment???” it’s a beverage, not a massage. I like strong tea, so I use a lot of leaves Japanese style, but I’m also not a rich man who likes to put on a show, so I want my cup to actually be full.
Brilliant video. It made me laugh out loud several times. It's cool to be passionate about something, but this is a bit over the top for an average Japanese family. Sure tea connoisseurs exist, and I suppose that is your market, but you should know that most people here just brew whatever tea they have, in whatever teapot they have on hand.....my mother in law likes using a glass western style teapot. Most people just brew tea to, you know, have a drink, and the minutia of how gracefully the tea is poured is really not a factor. Still, fair play to you. If you were just selling tea, and teapots without attaching a lot of mystique, and culture, I'm sure you'd only be able to ask for half as much per pack. I don't blame you at all. I'm sure you're much richer than me. Except for Mijirushi about 10 years ago (which I'm sure is the "wrong" place to buy a teapot) I've never seen a Yokode Kyusu, with the handle suitable for left handed use. I promise you it is far from graceful when I use one, compared with using a top handle.
yes thank you for your feedback, you are right on a lot of these points. When we go to Japan we tend to meet with mostly the people that work in the industry - certified tea masters, owners of tea shops and tea farmers so of course their view is biased. It was not my intention of claiming that "most Japanese families do this" but I can see how it could be misconstrued as such. We are mostly making content explaining the customs of Japanese tea connoisseurs to American and European tea connoisseurs if that makes sense. And yes, it can be tough to find a left handed kyusu teapot, hopefully we can offer one someday!
A lot of hyperbole and snobbery to sell expensive gear without much proof of actual benefit or effect. I bet i could brew in a cast iron teapot and stick the same amount of tea in a teabag and you would not be able to tell the difference as it is the tea, the water and the brewing/serving temperature and time that actually matters. Ceremony and tradition is all fine and good but it is just that.
Tetsubins are traditionally used in chanoyu for bon temae, unglazed tetsubin, and the ones that are not urushi treated can be used to boil water for tea, although in senchado small white clay pots called bofura are used over clay stoves called ryoro, if you use a good tetsubin as a tea kettle, it sweetens the water, Banko clay kyusu with a tetsubin make sencha sweeter.
Exactly, I found it really weird how there was no mention in the video about what tetsubin is actually meant to be used for (before teashops, especially in the west, started pushing glazed tetsubins on people for use as an expensive teapot).
@@karamcsand Only unglazed and not treated with urushi lacquer, for a good info on this topic search for Hojo tea tetsubin, that site has all the info you will need.
If you are going to tell people not to use the Tetsubin, atleast own or use a GENUINE one. The one you have is mass produced outside of tradition and will ruin the tea. Traditional Tetsubin will be heat treated to form a thin layer that protects it from rusting, and to enhance the taste of the water when you heat it. The traditionally made Tetsubin actually has properties in the iron that helps remove chlorene as well. But it's okay if you disagree, I'm just the one who is japanese here. 🤷♂
Surely you're not advocating the brewing of tea in a traditionally made tetsubin, right? You're only advocating the use of an unglazed tetsubin for heating the water used to make the tea, aye?
Well, my first video watching your channel showed me your titles have nothing to.do.with the content. You didnt say anything about why not to use a cast iron teapot, not why there may be a risk and difference between the glazed/cheaply glazed vs. heat treated iron pots.
When you want to boil WATER in it, it’s called a tea KETTLE. Cast iron inside, to flavor the water in a very specific, subtle way. When you want to brew TEA in it, it’s called a tea POT. Ceramic inside, so the tea leaves dominate. Using tea leaves to steep inside a cast iron KETTLE will ruin the KETTLE, which if made by hand is very expensive! _so don’t do that!_ People really need to be specific in their titles so others won’t be confused'
I'm glad you like using it! If you ever want to learn more about Japanese teapots, you can watch this video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-47HRFA-dhWk.html
Maybe I missed it, but why exactly is cast iron bad? For the same reason as other western styles? It's just too big? Or is there something specific to cast iron
Personally, I love my cast-iron teapot, and I have had no problem getting a good strong brew from it. Then again, I use it to make herbal blends, not traditional Japanese tea, and it keeps the brew hot for a long time. I love mine, and I’d like a bigger one. Also, I boil the water in a regular kettle, and then pour the boiling water over the tea in the pot, and set it on a warm place on the stove, not a burner that’s on, but a burner that still has a little bit of heat, this allows the tea to simmer a little bit, and not over brew. If you can smell it, it’s done.
Hmm, I want to encourage you on your video making journey friend but the click image i clicked to get here said don't use this tea pot. and it was a japanese tea pot or kettle. I was looking for whether it was a tea pot or a kettle but clicked your video first wondering why I should use one. I didn't really get the information I thought I would get(why you shouldn't use this tea pot) instead you talk about all other types of tea pots, mostly clay and blah blah blah, 8 mins of blah. I don't want to diss you ma dude, just trying to help you focus your thoughts on the subject and mostly the subject. Then make another video about the clay pots which I would gladly watch to know why clay tea pots are better. Just not when I was clicked baited into why not this one.... Best of luck to you on your journey. Cheers. Now I'm gonna go find out if that pot is really a kettle or a tea pot. I'm betting its a kettle.
yes if the teapot has a glaze to it you can really use it for all different types of teas because it doesn't season the tea. If you want to learn more about green tea you can watch our full documentary here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8U3tT7tW_BI.html
This guy is reaching so hard. Most "Western style" brewing is done in a mug. My strainer is over half the size of a cup. He is determined to convince himself it's "watered down" compared to his marginally superior method. And I'm not saying it's not good, I'll probably buy one myself, but if you're doing it right the difference is really not very big.
yes this makes sense. To me the leaf to water ratio has a huge impact compared to the shape of the vessel but I do find the Kyusu way more convenient compared to the strainer or the cast iron teapot
@@Nioteas true, I find a Melitta strainer to be the peak of convenience, but I want to try the Kyusu partly because of the quality but also because I like toys haha
Hello, very interesting video. I have added the red pot to my shipping cart but before I check out, do you offer the clear glasses you have in the video? If not, where can we get them?
"Why You Shouldn't Use the Cast Iron Teapot" .... Um, you really didn't cover this though? >_> This is the second video I've tried watching titled like this and neither explained why you shouldn't use it. You're not supposed to use a detachable strainer if you're doing it a traditional way, so that's not a point against not using it.
He did say that cast iron teapots are usually larger and the tea tends to be weaker. He also talked about some benefits of clay teapots, so a cast iron teapot won't have those benefits. It's obviously not harmful to make tea in a cast iron teapot, it's just not the way Japanese tea is made, but it can be used for other styles of tea.
Thank you so much! I am glad to hear you are learning about tea. By the way, if you are interested in trying some of our teas we have our summer sales going on now: nioteas.com/
Really a clickbait title on a video about teapots. Doesn’t even show a traditional cast iron Japanese teapot. Probably the only reason he has is that he doesn’t sell them
We would happily sell the cast iron teapots and make more money, but we don't think it is a practical tool so we do not. We tend to sell what we think are the very best tools and teas for tea lovers like ourselves
Traditional cast iron Japanese teapots do not exist. Clay is the traditional brew medium, what you're thinking of are modern teapots made to resemble traditional cast iron kettles. They did not brew tea in their kettles.
@@pthalodezin Those are modern, not traditional. Tetsukyusu are the modern teapots made to resemble kettles that I referred to. They don't predate the 1900s. Tetsubin are the kettles that the testukyusu mimic. A teapot is not a kettle, a kettle only heats water.
When we were having a tea ceremony and trying several cups, I noticed that the glass one had about half the tea taste. So my understanding is that ceramics are way better for the full flavor of the tea. @@Nioteas
@@Nioteas rightly so - I'm guilty of spending hours obsessing over what DAC chips I should look for in a quality used cd player -- perhaps most unproductive use of my short life.
surely you can brew other tea types in it yes? i might get the first kind,but I'll be honest, i love to toooo much maybe haha, and i don't want a boring looking bog standard one, minimum I'm getting at artistic one,definitely a ceramic filter,and maybe from that one area. thanks for the introduction and showing all those pretty ones in the video otherwise i might've bought yours then regretted it later. might also get that wide funky one to have a novel experience.
Lol you absolutely can. It just may not be the most efficient way. Like a black tea you probably don't want 5 grams of leaves as it will just be wildly bitter. So you'd do 1 gram of leaves and a cup of water, wait 5-6 minutes and it's ready, you gon do that each time for black tea haha? It's also like drinking high quality Japanese green tea, is more like get the best tools to create that perfect cup, whereas a good ol English black tea isn't of the same vein.
You can use clay as well. Most glazed teapots can brew both black and green teas, just be careful as some clay might not be able to handle the higher temperatures required for black tea. Most clays can, though.
@@hewhodoes8073 Thank you! And do you think the size of the teapot matters? I was thinking if you just make sure that the leaf-water ratio is good, then it shouldn't matter if there is more space in the teapot
@@somethingstuffles9084 Well, as long as the tea has enough space to expand any size works. You don't want the tea leaves to be crushed. Depends on how much leaf you're using.
Hi Neo. I'm from England. What country do you ship your products from? US? Sweden? Am I going to be charged for custom duties? If yes do you know how much these are going to be? Why some products are only available for the US? Is there a way to get in touch with your customer service?
