Chef Takumi
Bancha (番茶)
Bancha is the honest daily cup: late-season leaves, hot water, a short steep, and a clean amber-green liquor that asks for no ceremony to be good.
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Cold-Brewed Sencha (水出し煎茶, Mizudashi Sencha)
Created by
Summer sencha asks for patience, not heat: cold water, good leaves, and enough time for sweetness to come forward while bitterness stays behind.
Beverages
Japanese
Picnic
Outdoor Dining
Make Ahead
5 min
Active Time
0 min cook•3 hr 5 min total
Yield4 servings
Sencha is often blamed for the bitterness that careless water gives it. Boil the water, pour it straight over the leaves, walk away too long, and yes, the cup will scold you. Mizudashi sencha is kinder. Cold water draws slowly, and what it draws first is sweetness, color, and the green scent of the leaf.
The first secret of tea is always water temperature. Here, the temperature is simply cold. That isn't a shortcut, it's the method. Tannin and sharpness come out reluctantly in cold water, while the sweet amino acids and soft leaf fragrance have time to gather. The second secret is dose and time: 10 grams of sencha to 1 liter of water, three to six hours in the refrigerator. More leaves make a fuller cup; more time after the leaf is spent only makes it tired.
This is shun for summer, the cup we make when hot tea feels too stern for the weather. Use good sencha, especially shincha if spring's first tea is still fresh in your tin, and don't ask old leaves to behave like new ones. Nothing hidden here. A glass pitcher, a fine strainer, and a quiet afternoon are enough for honmono.
Sencha became Japan's dominant everyday green tea in the Edo period after Nagatani Sōen of Ujitawara refined the green-tea steaming and hand-rolling method in 1738. Cold-brewed green tea is a modern household extension of that tradition, especially suited to summer and to bottles prepared ahead for picnics and outdoor meals. The method fits Japanese tea practice because it respects the same principle used for hot sencha and gyokuro: water temperature decides what the leaf gives up.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
sencha green tea leaves
Quantity
10g
cold filtered water
Quantity
1 liter
ice cubes (optional)
Quantity
as needed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| sencha green tea leaves | 10g |
| cold filtered water | 1 liter |
| ice cubes (optional) | as needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Mizudashi tea pitcher with filter, or a glass jug and fine-mesh strainer
- •Digital scale
- •Small yunomi cups, or clear glasses for serving
Instructions
- 1
Choose the leaves
Use good sencha with a fresh green scent and leaves that still look vivid, not dusty gray. Cold brewing is gentle, so it won't hide stale tea under heat or sharpness. If the leaves smell flat in the tin, make a shorter, everyday cup and buy better leaves for this.
Shincha, the first sencha of spring, makes a particularly sweet mizudashi cup when it is still fresh. Summer is when this method is at its prime. - 2
Combine tea and water
Put 10 grams of sencha into a cold-brew tea pitcher, glass jug, or clean jar. Add 1 liter of cold filtered water and stir once, gently, just to wet the leaves. Cold water draws sweetness and fragrance slowly, while leaving much of the bitterness behind.
- 3
Steep it cold
Cover and refrigerate for 3 to 6 hours. At 3 hours the tea will be light, clear, and grassy; at 6 hours it will be deeper and rounder. Don't shake the pitcher while it steeps. Agitation pulls fine leaf particles into the liquor, and the cup loses its clean look.
The dose and time are the second secret: 10 grams to 1 liter gives enough body without asking the leaves to sit until they taste spent. - 4
Strain cleanly
Pour the tea through a fine-mesh strainer, or lift out the filter basket if your pitcher has one. Let it drain naturally and don't press the leaves. Pressing forces out cloudy, rough flavors from leaves that have already given what you wanted.
- 5
Serve chilled
Pour into small cups or yunomi, filling them only partway so the color and coolness can be seen. Serve as it is, or over one or two ice cubes if the day is severe. Drink it the same day. Sencha is a fresh leaf tea, not a syrup, and its fragrance fades by tomorrow.
Chef Tips
- •Use filtered water if your tap water is hard or smells of chlorine. Tea is mostly water, so poor water announces itself before the leaf has a chance to speak.
- •A mizudashi tea pitcher with a built-in filter is convenient, but a glass jug and fine-mesh strainer do the same honest work. The tool is not the ceremony. The clean strain is what matters.
- •Don't add sugar. If the cup tastes harsh, the leaves were stale, the water was poor, or the steep went too long. Change that first.
- •For a stronger cup, increase the sencha to 12 or 15 grams instead of steeping far past 6 hours. More leaf gives body; exhausted leaf gives dullness.
Advance Preparation
- •Start the tea in the morning for an afternoon picnic, or steep it overnight for no more than 6 hours and strain it when you wake.
- •Strained mizudashi sencha keeps refrigerated for 24 hours, though it is best the day it is made.
- •Keep the spent leaves for a second, shorter brew with 500ml cold water for 1 to 2 hours. It will be lighter, but still pleasant if the first steep was not too long.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 250g)
Calories
5 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
3 mg
Total Carbohydrates
0 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
1 g
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