Determining the right size kyusu pot

[Noonie]

Has anyone experimented with using a small Kyusu (say, 100ml) vs. a larger one (200-400ml) and a yuzamashi to control temp and water volume? If for example the clays were the same, is the larger volume a good/bad thing...I'm thinking about leaf expansion, the water getting at more of the leaf, and the larger kyusu cooling quicker (to name a few factors).

I opened a new tea the other day and brewed it up in my 100ml Kyusu. There were a lot of fine particles and it was a pain to clean afterwards. Tea tasted great, however. Note - when I brew in a Kyusu of this size I pour the water from the temp control kettle straight into the kyusu. The next day I used a larger Kyusu I have (300ml) and poured water that was 10C hotter into my cup, then into the kyusu. It was similar taste, and I found it easier after as it has a mesh filter.

Thanks.

[Victoria]

Has anyone experimented with using a small Kyusu (say, 100ml) vs. a larger one (200-400ml) and a yuzamashi to control temp and water volume? If for example the clays were the same, is the larger volume a good/bad thing...I'm thinking about leaf expansion, the water getting at more of the leaf, and the larger kyusu cooling quicker (to name a few factors).

I opened a new tea the other day and brewed it up in my 100ml Kyusu. There were a lot of fine particles and it was a pain to clean afterwards. Tea tasted great, however. Note - when I brew in a Kyusu of this size I pour the water from the temp control kettle straight into the kyusu. The next day I used a larger Kyusu I have (300ml) and poured water that was 10C hotter into my cup, then into the kyusu. It was similar taste, and I found it easier after as it has a mesh filter.

Thanks.

Hi @Noonie. Moved your post here since it’s about kyusu size selection. Hope that’s okay. There are also a few other pot size threads that discuss temperature fluctuations;

Does size really matter?

Rethinking the appropriate size of pots

What size pot do you like?

I will sometimes only fill a kyusu half way because maybe the clay, the form, or the filter type works best with a particular tea. Since I always pre-heat my pots, and with Japanese greens use cooler temps, fluctuations in heat loss don’t seem to factor in for me really. This becomes more of a factor with yancha and other teas that do better using very hot temperatures.

[Noonie]

Thank you @Victoria

I had the same thought on temperature for Sencha not mattering as much. That's good to hear your experience.

Hmm I don't own a yuzamashi but would like one. I was searching for Kyusu's and found some I liked though larger than what I had originally wanted...now I see this plan for acquiring new teaware working out rather nicely

[Victoria]

Thank you Victoria

I had the same thought on temperature for Sencha not mattering as much. That's good to hear your experience.

Hmm I don't own a yuzamashi but would like one. I was searching for Kyusu's and found some I liked though larger than what I had originally wanted...now I see this plan for acquiring new teaware working out rather nicely

Is your goal to cool water in a traditional way? Since I mostly prefer using my electric variable temp kettle, I use my yuzamashi to measure and easily load leaves into the kyusu. But if I’m using a tetsubin then I’ll either put hot water “into the kyusu first, then yuzamashi, then into cups and, after filling kyusu with dry leaf, back into the kyusu. Other times, hot water goes into yuzamashi first, then cups, then into kyusu with dry leaf. With the second method, the kyusu is not preheated. I prefer preheating the kyusu because it brings out aromatics of the dry leaf.” In this post I also go into more detail about yuzamashi size in relation to kyusu.

[debunix]

The only trouble I have with using less leaf and water volume in a larger pot is that I forget to stop pouring until the pot is full.

And I do adjust the temp in the kettle a bit for whether or not the pot is preheated or how big the pot is vs volume I am actually infusing.

[Baisao]

@Noonie, Most of my kyusu are around 200ml and I make about 70-100ml of tea each steep. I wouldn’t want to go larger than 200ml with that volume of tea as it would just seem strange and you lose some of the handling advantages of a small pot.

I’ve been using a 100ml kyusu this week for gyokuro and I think it would work fine for sencha as well.

I used to preheat kyusu long ago but have since stopped as I count on the kyusu further lowering the water temp at the beginning when the water is fresh and still warmer than ideal. Of course, I use lower temps than most even with sencha and oolong. For example, while most people target 180° for sencha, I prefer 165°-ish (I don’t take temps but know about what the temp is by feel).

Therefore, the water going into the kyusu on the first steep is about 175° and the kyusu will bring it down to 165°. The water in the kettle cools and subsequent steeps can go into the now warm kyusu at around 170-165°.

I’m using a yuzamashi but this doesn’t change the approach.