We already talked about green tea here and here, and today I wanted to tell you about yet another japanese green tea, that certanly deserves some more praise. Not just because of the price -which can be pretty high- but also because of its exceptional taste and way of brewing. Already its name, “jewel dew/gyokuro“, reveals that we’re not dealing with some every-day tea, it is rather served at special occasions like when having special guests.

Gyokuro is one of the highest quality sencha teas. About two weeks before harvesting, they shade the tea leaves which makes tea gain a distinct aroma. Namely, catechin, the main source of bitterness in tea, decreases due to shading, while L-Theanine in the leaves increases and hence makes gyokuro among the natural beverages which contain the most L-Theanine.

Note: L-Theanine is a kind of aminoacid that is proven to reduce stress and evoke feelings of relaxation while also slowing down caffeine’s assimilation.

When brewing gyokuro, you can easily make some mistakes. Not only the quality of water plays an important role here, as does the quantity of tea leaves added, but even the water temperature will decide the final result: you should brew your gyokuro at 50 – 60 degrees Celsius which is quite lower than what you would brew your usual sencha at.
Another thing that surprises a tea beginnger is the unusual big quantity of tea leaves used for brewing, which is twice the weight in dry tea leaves for a given quantity of water. This may vary slightly from one merchant to another – for the optimal result better ask about it when purchasing.

Do not use tea balls, let the tea leaves expand freely inside teapot. I would advice you to do so with every tea type. With such a great amount of tea leaves, you are able to re-brew it for numerous times, not only 3 times which is mostly how many times you’d do it with other green tea grades.