Remember, these techniques are guidelines meant to start you off. Depending on your own personal taste, the water type you have available, and of course the specific tea leaves, you should learn to adjust the water amount, temperature, tea leaf amount and steep time to achieve your perfect cup of tea.
The ice steeping technique works best with spring harvested teas — as well as shaded teas such as gyokuro or kabusecha.
Water amount: 1/2 tea cup / 3-4 oz / 80 cc / 80 ml
Water temperature: ice (0C / 32F degrees)
Tea leaves amount: 5 grams
Steeping time: until the ice melts
First steeping (issen me一煎目)
- Place the tea leaves in a teapot
- Place about 1/2 cup worth of ice on top of the tea leaves, and wait for it to melt.
- Drink when the ice has melted
Second steeping (nisen me二煎目)
For the second steeping and onwards, feel free to use any other steeping technique.
An interesting alternative is to this method is place a few tea leaves into the ice container before freezing and allow the leaf to steep in the cold water as it freezes. It will steep partially and continue to steep as the ice thaws.
