Making cold green tea. Techniques? Brands?
 

It's that time of the year. Hot ocha isn't so appealing anymore and (in London) bottles of cool sencha aren't available on every street corner.

What techniques do you use to make your own?

I'm 'self taught' when it comes to preparing cold green tea. Although my own is OK, I've had better at several places so I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few tricks.

Currently - I make green tea according to sencha brand/type (ie some taste best made with 90°C others with 70°C). I put more tea in the pot than usual and make it as strong as possible - but without overbrewing which makes it bitter. I make a few batches of this stronger tea (4-5 using the same leaves) and pour into into a large jug. The jug is then topped up with cold mineral water and plenty of ice.

Does anyone have any favoured brands? Are they different to what you prefer for hot sencha?

Also, has anyone tried any of the powdered products for cold green tea?

LapLap, I bought some tea bags especially for iced green tea on one of my more recent trips to Tokyo. IIRC, I found them in the basement of the Bunkamura Tokyu at one of the separate tea vendors (not in the supermarket bit). The brand is "Ureshino", and they come in a foil package says "Tsumetai Nihoncha". There are 15 bags in a pack, each of which is supposed to make about 1 liter worth of tea, so it might not last you very long.

Which reminds me I should pick up some more, as it's quite good....

Has ItoEn's "Tea'sTea" product not made it to the UK yet? We can get their bottled cold tea here, although I'm sure it's cheaper to make your own. I have a few bottles of the jasmine in the fridge now as Whole Foods has it on sale this week for 4 bottles for $5 (office caf charges $2.50 a bottle, highway robbery....).

No, although I'd be interested in trying it as ItoEn's Oi ocha is my favourite commercial brand of ready made cold tea.

I understand some company is working on a European 'brewery' and is preparing to make a mass launch on the market over here - Germany in particular seems to be ripe for this.

You can get reasonably priced ready-made tea in London, but Yamamoto seems to have cornered the market... I'm not a fan:td: . Ito En's teas are available in Japanese stores, but at 99p to 1.25 for a small bottle ($2+) it's impractical to rely on this for the 2 litres plus we drink daily.

If there is Costco in the UK they should sell green tea tea bags made under the house brand "Kirkland" but produced by Itoen. Take a large glass sealing (4L) jar put a few (depends on how strong you like it) seal the jar and put it in the sun. Sun tea you should have..............^

I'm a non-driving city girl! I can't even get to an Asda for Cholula sauce, never mind a Costo (Don't you have to pay annual membership fees for Costco?) And I don't have a garden, or even a sun-facing window.

Hopefully the suggestion will help someone else, but for me it would be simpler to have my faher-in-law send a few packets of a recommendation over by post than attempt to get to a Costco using public transport and a wheelchair. I wouldn't trust said otousan's judgement though. I love him to bits, but his tea is appalling! (I poured some into a flowerpot during my last visit, only to then realise that the flowers were fake...:o )

If you don't mind Yame(八女茶)Cha , I will send you some if you PM me your address........

Ooh! That last post of mine had a snappy undertone!:o It wasn't intentional... honest!

Anyway, YGPM. Thanks!:)

Looks like the closest Costco to London currently is in Reading (unless Milton Keynes is closer) so that's not real close anyway. In the U.S. and Japan, you can also order from their webpage, but not (yet) in the U.K.

Actually Costco does not have on line shopping in Japan unless you count the Flying Pig..........I also will help get some of the local O-cha to Laplap in the next week.

There is one in a shopping area my parents occasionally go to, Thurrock.

However, in the UK:
"Costco is an exclusive wholesale cash and carry membership warehouse club and is not open to the general public. Membership is required. You are eligible for trade membership if you are a bonafide business owner/manager who can provide evidence of trading. Follow our Trade membership tab above for further details"

And on top of that, it costs 20GBP a year (currently $40) for membership - you can post a lot of tea from Japan to the UK with that!

My parents shopped there when it opened quite a few years ago, they used to get stock for charity events relating to the Scouts. They didn't think the savings were good enough to justify becoming members for their own needs and requirements.

Lap Lap I have to send some stuff to my sister in London (Clapham I think) in the next little while so let me know if I can help you out. A packet of tea isn't gonna boost the shipping cost much so if you want me to just say the word.

Also, if the Costco over here (the U.S.) has this tea as Q says, I could bring some over to you the next time I'm headed to LHR, but I haven't scheduled that trip yet, probably won't be until fall.

I kind of like the idea of calling Q Shoe Guy "Q" -- has a James Bondish-ring to it!

Funnily enough, Autumn is when my current stash of tea is predicted to run out...
It would be lovely to meet up with you regardless, do please let me know next time you're over here.:)

Like most Spanish females, my first initial is M.

I bought a box of Costco green tea last year. I thought it tasted a bit off. I ended up throwing out the box after a couple months.

Tea, when exposed to excess humidity can go bad.

I prefer not to use tea bags as they tend to be the ends and stems of the tea leaf. This is good for price and speed, but nothing beats a good whole leaf. Typically I don't use the same tea leaves for more than 5-6 pots and I pour out the first pot (when using whole leaves only).

I am not a fan of the powder.

For cool iced green tea:

Bring water to a boil, shut off heat and wait 2-3 min.
Take tea leaves and add to the hot water.
When tea is nice and strong (1.5x the regular strength), simply pour into a full cup of ice.
Wait 2-3 min, stir, and enjoy.

If you wish to make the tea for later, steep tea and pour into a container (make sure to remove leaves). Let sit in room temprature for 1 hour, then into the refrigerator. Add some ice before serving.