Ice Extracting Gyokuro Tea

For tea lovers, I believe that it is common knowledge that too hot water will extact astringency from tea leaf when preparing tea.

High-quality Japanese tea like Gyokuro, these tea leaves are grown under the screen to prevent exposing to sunbeam. This is because sunbeam will make tannin, which is the source of astringency. So gyokuro itself has less tannin, less astringency. Although, if you use boiling water to prepare Gyokuro, tannin will be extacted from the leaf. This is the reason that you should NOT use too hot water for Gyokuro. Proper temperature of the hot water for Gyokuro will be around 60 degrees Celcius, however more lower temperature will be better if you don’t want to extract tannin at all.

Then what is the lowest temperature water for Gyokuro? This question is same as asking “What is the lowest temperature of water?”. Yes, its zero degrees Celcius

So, I tried ice extraction. It’s so simple.

Put 4 grams of Gyokuro on a saucer (believe or not, tea pot is better! lol), and put couple of ices on the leaf. That’s it!

Wait patiently until the ices melt down. Move extracted tea to a cup and have a sip. You must be surprized by the difference from the taste of extracting Gyokuro with hot water.

Very very sweet like candy and completely no astringency. I recommend that you try this with Gyokuro. It’s so cool!

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• The Effects and Components of Japanese Green Tea
• Tea Keep You Awake
• Japanese Green Tea Is Natural Supplement!
• Genuine Uji Tea
• The Tea Harvest Seasons of Uji