Help needed with brewing Japanese greens

Hmm… try steeping it at a lower temperatures since green teas tend to be more delicate and maybe longer..maybe at least up to one minute. How much leaves and water are you putting in?

I would agree with Allison and suggest a lower temp. However, that seaweedy flavor is characteristic of many Japanese greens. I happen to love it but my husband hates it. Perhaps Japanese teas are not for you. :( I think I’ve had Gyokuros that don’t have that seaweed flavor but I can’t think of the vendor at the moment. Might have been Den’s.

Japanese green teas use a much lower temp and steep time. I would recommend 160-175 F water temp and less than a minute steep time. as you continue resteeping up the temp or steep time a little bit, but 190-200 F is really too high. Also, the seaweedy flavor is a characteristic of many Japanese greens, so perhaps they are not for you. When I first tried them I didn’t care for them, but over the years as my tastes developed and changed I enjoy them now. I found Harney and Sons Sencha to be more buttery and rich if you want to give that a try then if the time and temp changes don’t help.

Your water temp is way too high, dont go over 175, I usually brew sencha around 175, and gyokuro at 155

Mercuryhime hit the nail on the head. Vegetables, fish and seaweed are among the most popular foods in japan, so it kind of makes sense that their teas would taste similar. If you want a smoother flavor that is still distinctly japanese stick to matcha. I haven’t gotten around to trying them myself, but Red Leaf Tea has an insane amount of matcha flavors and several qualities of matcha that you can choose from. Here’s a link:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/

I used the high temperatures because Den’s Teas recommended boiling for their green! Well, today I took your advice and tried the sencha again. This time taking the temp way down to about 160. After 1 minute, the liquid is faintly scented, and tasted slightly sweet. I decided to keep going and go for 2 minutes to see what it’s like.

First thing I noticed was a definite reduction in “fishiness”. The tea is almost savoury when it hits the tongue tip, but has a much sweeter lingering finish and a slightly heady vegetal flavour. When the liquid hits the back of my mouth, the umami flavour immediate makes me salivate. It was..nice! The more I sip, the more I like it.

I still have more Japanese tea samples; next time I will make some food to go with the tea. I don’t know if I would drink this everyday, but I can see that a cup of this would go very well with clean, bright flavoured foods, to give a rounded finish to the dish. Thank you so much for the advice everyone!

I’m so glad you made this thread. I’ve not liked Japanese greens so far for the same reason. I’m going to try them at lower temperatures now and see what I get.

Yes, I’m also glad to see this thread and I think my problems (mostly bitterness rather than fishiness) have also been temperature-related. I just re-checked a packet of genmaicha I have at work and it says 165 F, steep time 2-3 minutes.