Tea for Everyone
【お茶の淹れ方】
お茶は自由！淹れ方によって全く違う表情を見せてくれるから楽しい。
normの思う、知っておきたい基本の淹れ方。
まず気をつけてほしいことは「水」。日本の水道から出るお水は軟水がほとんどなので浄水器や浄水ポットを通してしまえば大失敗にはならない。香りがカルキ臭いとか、なんだか鉄臭いとかそんなことがあれば購入したお水の方がいい。硬水ではなく「軟水」を。飲んでみて体にスーッと違和感なく流れ込んでくる水がいい。ペットボトルならサントリーの天然水は調子が良い。何と言ってもお茶の実態はほとんどが水。水がまずければどんな美味しい茶葉も台無しにする。その次に「茶器」。淹れたいもので淹れたいお茶を淹れるのが良いと思うが、もちろん向き不向きはある。どんな茶器があるのかは次の項で。茶器は茶葉を入れる前にアツアツに温めるのが良い。そうでないとお湯を注いだ後にお湯の温度ががくんと落ちてしまって、ぼんやりした味になったりせっかくの香りが楽しみきれなかったりする。それに、温めた茶器に茶葉を入れて立ち上がる香りを嗅ぐと、うんと幸せな気持ちになる。お茶を飲むのとほとんど同じくらいその瞬間が好き。良い水と好きな茶器が見つかったら「茶葉」を見てみる。茶葉が弱そうか強そうか、柔らかそうか固そうか。文字で伝えるならば、煎茶や玉露、芽がたくさん入ったお茶はデリケートなのでお湯の温度がアチアチだと火傷してしまう。釜炒り茶や烏龍茶、紅茶の茶葉が大きめでしっかりしたもの、番茶やほうじ茶のワイルドな見た目の茶葉ならお湯の温度が低いとぼんやりとして本領を発揮できない。例外もある。お茶屋さんでお茶を選んだら「おすすめの抽出温度≒茶葉の柔らかさ」と「サッとだすか、しっかりだすか」「煎のきくお茶か」の三点を参考に聞いてみると良い。
【How to brew any tea】
Tea is totally up to you! Depending on how you brew your leaves, you can experience a totally different tea, that’s what makes brewing your tea yourself so fun. To get started, here are norm’s fundamentals to tea brewing.
First — pay attention to water. Water from most Japanese household taps is known as soft water – this differs depending on the country so do your research! When you’re brewing tea, it is advised to use soft water, not hard water. However, if your water smells of calcium carbonate, or has a metallic taste, it is advisable to use bottled or filtered water. As a point of reference, you can think of the ideal water for brewing as water that is highly drinkable (quite literally, easy to drink). When you think about it, tea is almost completely made up of water, so if the water is subpar then it wouldn’t matter no matter how special the tea leaves.
Next up — teaware. While we’d usually say brew whatever you like in wherever you want, of course there are exceptions. Begin by asking yourself: what do I have that I can use? (For more on teaware, see the next page) Regardless of what you have, a good principle to follow is preheating your teaware prior to adding your tea leaves. You can think of warming up your teapot like preheating an oven — pour hot water into the clean teapot or cup and allow it to sit and warm up before emptying again. This prevents a drastic drop in the temperature for when you begin brewing, and also allows you to enjoy a long, clear aroma. After preheating, before adding hot water to brew, place your tea leaves inside the empty vessel and enjoy the scent that arises with the residual heat. You may find equal satisfaction in this moment, as much as in the actual drinking of the tea.
Once you have good water and good teaware, then it's about finding proper tea leaves. Take a look for yourself. Do your tea leaves look delicate or strong? Do they look soft or hard? Is it sencha or gyokuro?
A tea that uses many young sprouts is more delicate, so boiling hot water can easily scald it. On the other hand, teas with larger leaves like kamairi-cha or oolong or black teas, or more wild teas like bancha or houji-cha, may need higher temperatures to avoid a flat taste… When you are choosing tea in any tea shop, it is recommended to ask about these three things: 1) What is the recommended brewing time? Or rather, what is the softness of the leaves? 2) Should I brew this tea strong, or for a shorter period of time? 3) How many times can I steep these leaves?
So we’ve covered your essentials — your water, your cups, and your tea leaves! It’s now time to try brewing your own tea. On the following pages we introduce two ‘recipes’ that we suggest you follow when starting out. In these pages you’ll also learn more about teaware.
大失敗しない、基本の淹れ方
用意するもの
茶を淹れる器
茶を飲む器
好きな茶葉 3.5g
お湯 160ml
-
器たちを温める, as well as how to best brew your leaves in them.
2. 茶を淹れる器に茶葉とお湯を入れ、1分〜2分待つ - 茶を飲む器に抽出した茶汁を移す
- 美味しく頂く
湯の温度は先に述べた通り茶葉によって変わるが、この淹れ方ならだいたいのお茶がなんとなく美味しくはいる。例えば朝起きて台所で朝ごはんの準備をしながら、仕事の合間に電話をとりながら、湯を入れたことを忘れることだけが心配なのでタイマーをかければ安心！この茶器ならこのくらいまで湯を入れて、このサジならこのくらいの茶葉をのせて、と手持ちの道具と茶葉と仲良くなれれば湯量や茶葉量を計らなくても問題ない。スケールやタイマーを使うのはなんだか味気ないけど、好みの淹れ方を掴みやすいから最初は測って淹れてみることをnormでは推奨。スケールは0.0gまで測れると尚良くて、ネットでも意外と安く売っている。
A fail-safe method to brewing tea
What you need:
Brewing vessel of choice
Drinking vessel of choice
Tea leaves 3.5g
Hot water 160ml
- Preheat your teaware
- Put the tea leaves and hot water into the brewing vessel of your choice, steep for one to two minutes
- Pour out the brewed tea into a separate drinking vessel
- Enjoy
In principle, you should always adjust the brewing water temperature to the tea leaves you are brewing, but as long as you follow these numbers as a general guideline, you’re almost guaranteed a nice cup of tea. This recipe is perfect for mornings when you are busy preparing breakfast on the side, or when you’re dodging in and out of work calls and just want to brew something fast and simple. Just don’t forget about it after pouring in the hot water and you’ll be fine (set a timer if you are forgetful!). Use this formula as a base, and then adapt the quantities to what you have at hand; the amount of water to the size of your cup; the amount of tea leaves to the size of your teaspoon. Lastly, don’t forget our hands are our best tools — once you get a feel for your tea leaves you won’t ever need to rely on a scale* to brew a good cup of tea. That being said, there is no shame in using a scale or timer – we do recommend starting with one, then working out what your own preferences are.
*A scale that measures down to a tenth of a gram is ideal, and can even be found inexpensively online.