What is Fukamushi Sencha?
Before talking about fukamushi sencha brewing, let’s briefly discuss what fukamushi sencha is and what makes it different from other types of sencha.
Normally, sencha tea is harvested and then steamed for 60-90 seconds.
As soon as the tea leaves are picked, they will begin to oxidize naturally and eventually turn into a black tea.
In order to prevent this process from taking place, heat needs to be applied in order to deactivate the enzymes that cause oxidation.
The steaming also locks in these more grassy or steamed vegetable notes of the leaf.
The Effects of the Longer Steaming Process
When the tea is steamed for a longer time, as is the case with fukamushi sencha, the tea leaves start to break down.
This allows more of the leaf material to flow into the cup, which is why fukamushi sencha has this strong, jade green color.
Fukamushi sencha also takes on a smoother flavor, with notes of steamed vegetables and even fruit. The tea also works quite well as a cold brew, which we will discuss later.
To learn more about how important the heating process is in the production of a green tea, you can read all about it in this article on 👉 What Makes a Green Tea a Green Tea
What's the difference between brewing Fukamushi Sencha and Normal Sencha
The main difference when it comes to fukamushi sencha brewing has to do with the steeping time. While most sencha teas require a full minute to open up and release their flavor into the water, fukamushi sencha only really needs 45 seconds.
If you want to learn how to brew regular sencha tea, you can read this article on 👉 How to Brew Sencha
The Brewing time of Fukamushi Sencha
This is because the deep steaming process renders the tea leaves more brittle, and they break into smaller pieces.
These smaller leaf pieces have more relative surface area and therefore they infuse more quickly into the water. This shorter brewing time will help reduce some of the bitterness while still extracting plenty of flavor from the tea.
If you want to learn how to brew fukamushi sencha without the teapot, you can follow this guide on 👉 How to Brew Loose Leaf Tea Without an Infuser
Fukamushi Sencha 70 Celsius Brewing
Normally we recommend a brewing temperature of 60 degrees celsius or 140 degrees fahrenheit, but if you want to extract a little bit more strength from your tea, you can use 70 degrees celsius. Although this will extract more overall flavor, it will also make the tea more bitter.
Catechins are the bitter components within green tea and they are extracted at higher temperatures. A small dose of catechins can be nice, but too much of them can quickly overpower the drink, so you’ll want to be careful when you are fukamushi sencha brewing.
Cold Fukamushi Sencha Brewing
One of the benefits of fukamushi sencha is that it can work great as a cold brew! To cold brew fukamushi sencha, you can use 5-10 grams of leaves, 500ml of room temperature or chilled water and let the tea sit for 3 hours.
Because you are using a lower temperature for this fukamushi sencha brewing, you will be left with a smoother and sweeter green tea with less bitterness. You may even notice the fruity flavors start to come out a bit more, like with the Fukamushi Yamaga
If you are interested in cold brewing, you can follow this complete guide on 👉Cold Brew Green Tea
Final verdict on Fukamushi Sencha Brewing
As long as you follow the instructions and pay special attention to the temperature and brewing time, you should be able to easily make your own fukamushi sencha at home.
If you really want to get serious about fukamushi sencha brewing, you may want to consider getting the fukamushi teapot, which has a circular metal filter to keep the leaves out of your cup. This will really make it easy to brew delicious cups of fukamushi sencha without clogging your teapot.
Which Fukamushi Sencha to go for
During our travels, we’ve met with dozens of farmers and sampled many different fukamushi senchas. We’ve ultimately decided on a handful of our favorites, and we’re so happy to share them all with you! These teas all come from different regions, tea farms, cultivars and production styles!
If you’re looking for a good representation of the category of fukamushi sencha, we recommend the Murasaki Sencha. It is a deep steamed, Yutaka Midori sencha with a powerful fruity and vegetal flavor. It is produced by Mr. Kawaji, a talented farmer in Southern Japan that specializes in deep steamed teas.
