I'll have to double-check the quantities by re-brewing tomorrow, but I think it was 3-4g to ~170ml water - I am pretty sure I wasn't overleafing!Victoria wrote: ↑Sun Apr 12, 2020 5:17 pmHow much leaf to water are you using VoirenTea? Too much leaf can sometimes lead to overly concentrated liquor that overwhelms the elegance of certain quality Gyokuro. I had this happen to me recently with O-Cha’s Tsuen Uji Gyokuro Yume no Ukihashi. I started off using 6.4g/80ml/135f/2min in a preheated shigaraki 90ml kyusu and found the liquor too concentrated, overwhelming what I could detect were layers of more subtle flavors. Just reducing leaf to 6g/80ml/135f/2min resulted in a more elegant nuanced steep. A delicious Gyokuro full of umami, having long after taste and salivation, with very green leaf sweet aroma. Each Gyokuro is unique though, with producers and vendors refining and tweaking their teas differently, like Ippodo’s Gyokuro that do much better with a higher leaf:water ratio, 10g/80ml.
I don't usually weigh my Japanese greens, unlike my other teas, and just spoon some in - weighing a new spoonful gave me the 3-4g, depending exactly how heaped it was. My kyusu currently fits 160ml water with the expanded leaves in there so the first steep was a bit more.
I think if it had had some bitterness to cut through the rest I would actually have liked that first steep more.