Tricks you can use to enjoy your Japanese teas on the go

Read it in Spanish!

We all love our Japanese teas and we wish that there were easier ways of enjoying them even when we are not at home. I personally got a specific teapot for travelling so I can brew on the go. I love it, my customers love it, we all love it. It’s tiny, it’s light, it’s not that expensive so if it gets lost or if it breaks, it can be easily replaced. I still remember back in the day when I worked as a QA & Project Manager at an office in Munich. I carried my own specific water for tea making to the office everyday. I also had a 3l water boiler (they use them everywhere in Japan, something similar to this one) at work and a dedicated kyuusu. My co-workers though I was pretty mental. I see myself as a hardcore tea brewer and I will go to great lengths in order to enjoy a well brewed cup of tea. However, I can also understand that this is not for everyone and many of the things I would do might be inconvenient for some people.

Days ago, I had my first Live Instagram session and Johanna asked if there was an easy way to brew matcha when you are on the go. I think this is a really good question (thanks Johanna for joining in and also for asking this.) I will give you some tricks you can use to enjoy Japanese teas outside home. But before that I wanted to mention something that might be interesting for you.

There is a product I want to import from Japan that has a really good quality and can be easily brewed on the go. I am 100% sure it would be an instant hit in Europe, its colour is good, its flavour is excellent, it is organic and easy to prepare anywhere you go. I have tried similar products from different brands before (I got something similar in Japan, Barcelona, Copenhagen…) but all of them were pretty sub-pair. The Japanese Tea Hub is a very tiny company, we have to go one step at a time, yet when we have a goal in mind we will reach it. So please bear with us, we will get there, eventually. If you haven’t subscribed to our newsletter yet, I would recommend you to do so. You will not only get 10% OFF on your first purchase with us but also the newsletter twice or three times a month, fully packed with the latest news about our teas and teaware, among other interesting things. We will not spam you, I promise.

In the meantime, I will tell you a couple of tricks you can use in order to enjoy your favourite teas outside home. Each type of tea is different and of course everybody’s palate is not the same. Feel free to adjust the parameters accordingly or reach out if you have any doubts.

Since we have great quality teas in our shop that some of you have purchased and I know them very well, I will use these teas as a reference. You can of course use any teas of your liking, keep in mind that results might vary depending on many factors, such as brand, age, type, cultivar, quality…

LOOSE LEAF TEAS

The same parameters can be used to cold brew these teas. Method 1 Ingredients & Tools:

10 grams of tea leaves 1 Tea Spoon or chami (you can use other spoons, adjust the measure accordingly) 1 litre of cold water (better if it is not chalky) 1 litre container to brew the tea in (needs to be suitable to go inside the fridge and needs to have a cap or lid)

Preparation: 1. Use the chami to take the tea leaves out of the tea pouch

2. Add the tea leaves to the container you will be using to cold brew your tea, you will need about 4 tea spoons

3. Pour a litre of cold water on top of the leaves 4. Close the container tightly

5. Leave inside the fridge for at least 8 hours

6. Remove the leaves (so the tea lasts longer) & enjoy Method 2 (Click to see the video) Ingredients & Tools:

10 grams of tea leaves 1 Tea Spoon or chami (you can use other spoons adjust the measure accordingly) Enough ice cubes or crushed ice to fill in your chosen container A container to brew the tea in (needs to be suitable to go inside the fridge and needs to have a cap or lid)

Preparation:

1. Use the chami to take the tea leaves out of the tea pouch

2. Add the tea leaves to the container you will be using to cold brew your tea, you will need about 4 tea spoons

3. Add enough ice cubes on top of the leaves to fill in the container

4. Close the container tightly

5. Leave inside the fridge for until all the ice cubes have melted (crushed ice work better) 6. Remove the leaves (so the tea lasts longer) & enjoy

Once the ice cubes start melting, you can add more if you want to obtain a lighter brew. Recently someone posted a sparkling cold brewing recipe in one of the tea groups I belong to so I decided to give it a go. I used slightly lemon flavoured sparkling water yet I don’t recommend to use it unless you really don’t mind to see how it tastes. Here you are my take on it.

Method 3 Ingredients & Tools:

8 grams of tea leaves 1 Tea Spoon or chami (you can use other spoons, adjust the measure accordingly) 1 litre of cold sparkling water (choose your favourite brand, flavoured water might be slightly overpowering) 1 litre container to brew the tea in (needs to be suitable to go inside the fridge and needs to have a cap or lid)

Preparation: 1. Use the chami to take the tea leaves out of the tea pouch

2. Add the tea leaves to the container you will be using to cold brew your tea, you will need about 3 tea spoons

3. Pour a litre of cold sparkling water on top of the leaves 4. Close the container tightly

5. Leave inside the fridge for at least 8 hours

6. Remove the leaves (so the tea lasts longer) & enjoy

MATCHA

Method 1 Ingredients & Tools:

1 bamboo whisk (chasen)

1 bamboo scoop (chashaku) (you can use other spoons adjust the measure accordingly)

1 matcha bowl (chawan) 4 matcha scoops

1 litre of cold water (better if it is not chalky)

1 litre container to brew the tea in (needs to be suitable to go inside the fridge and needs to have a cap or lid)

Preparation:

1. Use the chashaku to scoop out matcha from the container (4 scoops)

2. Add matcha into the container

3. Pour a litre of cold water on top of the matcha 4. Close the container tightly and shake it well until the mixture looks homogeneous

5. Leave inside the fridge for at least 8 hours

6. Enjoy!

Method 2 (Click to see video) Ingredients & Tools:

1 bamboo whisk(chasen)

1 bamboo scoop (chashaku) (you can use other spoons adjust the measure accordingly)

1 matcha bowl (chawan) 2 matcha scoops

1 litre of cold water (better if it is not chalky)

1 litre container to brew the tea in (needs to be suitable to go inside the fridge and needs to have a cap or lid)

Preparation:

1. Use the chashaku to scoop out matcha from the container (2 scoops)

2. Add matcha into the chawan

3. Pour 70 ml of 80 degrees water on top of the matcha

4. Whisk it to prepare an usucha 5. Pour the matcha brew into the bottle

6. Top the matcha up just to the middle with some more hot water (under 80 degrees Celsius) 7. Fill in the rest of the bottle with cold water 8. Close the container tightly and shake it well until the mixture looks homogeneous

9. Leave inside the fridge for at least 8 hours

6. Enjoy! I have recently done a test with matcha, ice cubes and crushed ice. I really liked the results. So I decided to add this method here as well.

Method 3 Ingredients & Tools: 2 matcha scoops 1 bamboo scoop (chashaku) (you can use other spoons adjust the measure accordingly) Enough ice cubes or crushed ice to fill in your chosen container A container to brew the tea in (needs to be suitable to go inside the fridge and needs to have a cap or lid)

Preparation:

1. Use the chashaku to scoop out matcha from the container (2 scoops)

2. Add matcha into the container

3. Pour ice cubes or crushed ice (I used both, crushed ice takes less time to melt) 4. Close the container tightly

5. Leave inside the fridge for at least 8 hours

6. Enjoy!

Make sure that any cold brewed teas you make, are stored in the fridge, leaving them outside will make them to start fermenting, eventually. Like any other natural drinks would do, for example honey water.

Cold brewed green teas are not only delicious but easy to make, have virtually no calories and much less caffeine than your average hot brew. In addition, they don’t become bitter since the amount of cathechins released is way less when cold brewing the teas. Still you get all the properties and benefits from drinking green teas. In fact, since the cold brewing is a slow process, it allows to extract much more of the components from the leaves than hot brewing them does.

I might go more in deep into these topics (caffeine release, cathechins release and components extraction) in the future since they are extremely interesting. For now, I will leave you to experiment with the tea leaves and the matcha powder to make delicious cold brews.

If you prepare your teas in this way and are on Instagram, remember to tag us @japaneseteahub so we can admire your delicious brews. If you aren’t on Instagram, we still want to hear from you! Please leave comments here and let us know how the brews turned up.

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