11.24.04
Teapots for green tea…
Recently I received a question regarding teapots for green tea, so I thought this might be a good time to explain why it’s a good idea to have one that’s made for green tea. It seems that a lot of people are not quite sure how to brew green tea correctly, I understand why. It’s not that it’s hard to brew green tea, you just have to put a little more thought into it than you would with those Lipton teabags. This thread will focus on the teapots.
The first thing to consider is that Japanese green tea tends to have a much finer consistency than other types of teas. For that reason, it’s best to have a teapot with a fine mesh screen built into the side. The standard teapots with small holes inside of the spout really don’t cut it, although you can get by with it if you have to. In Japan you will often find teapots that have a little infusor basket that sits down into the teapot, but the trend these days is towards the type that have the screen built into the side. There’s a good reason for this - Japanese green tea is tightly compacted. The leaves are dried and rolled into needle-like splinters. Once heated, they really expand. Because of this expansion, it’s better to have a lot of room in there. Like, you really want those leaves to float around inside of the teapot freely. This rules out tea balls and the like. It also pretty much rules out those Yixing teapots made in China. In case you haven’t seen one, they’re tiny, maybe the size of a tangerine. They’re made for oolong teas, of which the leaves are larger when they expand.
Another thing that doesn’t work too well is your standard English teapot. First, it’s huge. Well, at least by Japanese standards. They typical Japanese teapot holds about 10 to 12 ounces of water. They’re just the right size for 2 small cups of tea. As in, you make it, and then drain it completely between infusions - another very important thing to do when you brew green tea.
All that being said, I would say that it’s still possible to make a good cup of green tea in a regular ol’ teapot, or perhaps a cup and strainer, provided that you know exactly what your doing. We haven’t gone into brewing temperatures or times, so that will be next. I’ll just say that a good teapot designed especially for green tea will only set you back about $30 or so, and will make your life much easier in the long run.
As I said earlier, brewing green tea is not hard, it just takes more consideration and a bit of practice. Once you get the hang of it, the ritual becomes almost as fun as drinking it!
RSS
Maria Clemente said,
July 10, 2005 at 4:44 pm
After reading a few articles regarding kyusu as the designated teapot used for green tea, when is tetsubin used? BTW, I love your website, so informative.
site admin said,
July 10, 2005 at 8:03 pm
Hi, good question…
Well, as you know tetsubin are made from cast iron. I had some wonderful green tea in a very old tea shop in Kyoto recently which heated their water in a cast iron pot known as a “kama.” They don’t actually brew the tea in the kama, but instead take hot water from it with a bamboo dipper known as a “hishaku.” I’ve also had it the same way where the water was heated in the tetsubin and was then poured directly into the ceramic tea pot.
Most likely, your testubin came with a stainless steel mesh insert, right? Sure, you can use it to brew green tea, but what you will notice is that the insert is small, cup shaped, and you would really need to fill that tetsubin up with a lot of water in order to infuse the green tea leaves. This is not really ideal, as you want those tea leaves to really open up. What I recommend that you do is use the testubin for heating water, and save your brewing for a regular Japanese teapot.
In case you are wondering why one would even bother with the tetsubin at all, the way I understand it is that a small amount of iron, when heated, is released into the water and when you brew with it, it actually improves the taste of the tea. A lot of people think you want absolutely “pure” water when brewing green tea water with some minerals in it is supposed to make for a better cup. I plan on switching from my electric air pot/ water dispensor thing here pretty soon myself and use either a kama or tetsubin for heating water.