How to brew gyokuro

Gyokuro is the shaded green tea of Uji and the most expensive leaf most people will brew. It is grown under cover for the last weeks before picking, which keeps the leaf dark, soft and full of the amino acids that taste of broth, and it is brewed to get those out and leave the bitterness in the leaf. That means cool water, very little of it, and patience.

What you need

A small teapot, ideally a kyusu, the Japanese side-handled pot with a built-in strainer, or any pot that holds under 200 ml. 10 grams of gyokuro, about two tablespoons. 80 millilitres of water. Small cups: this is a tea you drink in sips, not mugs.

The method

Boil the water, then cool it to 60°C. Ippodo's way to do it without a thermometer is to pour it from vessel to vessel three times, kettle to cup to cup to pot; each transfer drops the temperature by roughly ten degrees. Put the leaves in the pot, pour the 80 ml over them and leave them 90 seconds, without stirring or moving the pot. Then pour out every last drop, dividing between the cups a little at a time so each gets the same strength. The last drops are the richest.

What it should taste like

Dense, savoury and sweet at once, with a texture nearer a broth than a tea; Ippodo's own word is lush, and umami in every drop. If it tastes thin, the water was too hot or there was too much of it. If it tastes bitter, the water was too hot.

Second and third infusions

The leaves have most of their flavour left. For the second cup use water a little hotter, around 70°C, and a shorter steep, about 30 seconds; the third can take water near 80°C. Each cup is lighter and brisker than the last.

When to drink it

After a meal rather than with one, and never with milk. It is the tea for a quarter of an hour with nothing else to do, which in Japan is exactly what it is for.