Ocha brewing help.

[Chimpy]

Thanks to a friend of mine, who I haven’t seen in a while I recently came upon an 80g bag of ocha leaves, I need a bit of help so if anyone who knows about brewing ocha wouldn’t mind, it’d be greatly appreciated.

From what I’ve read of the instructions, mix the ocha and boiling water in a teapot, leave it to settle for 15 seconds then pour into cups and drink. So what I’m wondering is how much ocha to brew with? I don’t want to make it too weak or strong as I’m not likely to get my hands on another bag for a long time, unless I mail order so I want to brew my ocha well.

Thanks in advance.
Chimpy.

[SavageNarce]

This site identifies Ocha as a green tea. Their preparation instructions are:

Heat water to steam: not boiling !!! If your water does come to a boil,allow it to settle for 45-60 sec. before preparing your tea. This will prevent it from becoming bitter….
Use 1 level teaspoon/ 8 oz. cup.
Steep for 2- 2 1/2 min.

[Chimpy]

Thank you very much, SavageNarce.

::Sits back and enjoys his ocha::

[cckerberos]

Interesting. Ocha just means tea in Japanese. I wonder what kind of specific tea is sold as ‘Ocha’ outside Japan.

[Chimpy]

This is from Japan, a Japanese friend of mine sent it, it’s genmaicha, which explains why the brewing instructions were different to the ones **SavageNarce/b] provided.

[SavageNarce]

In that case, this site is more specific:

To brew hojicha, genmaicha, and bancha, use boiling water and brew just 15-20 seconds