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      • About us
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  • Home
  • Shop
  • Experiences
  • Contact
  • About
    • About us
    • Our mission
    • Blog
    • Brewing guides
    • Teaware care

Brewing guides

How to brew your Leaf & Buds teas

Welcome to the delicious world of high-quality, loose leaf tea! We source our teas through direct partnerships with farmers and producers, valuing sustainable farming and business practices.


Brewing tea is a very personal experience, and there's no right or wrong way to do it. Different brewing methods and parameters, such as temperature, brew time, and leaf-to-water ratio, will extract different flavours, so it's worth experimenting to figure out what your personal tastes are.


You'll find our recommendations for brewing each Leaf & Buds tea below!

Spring Sencha

Japanese green tea

A delicious steamed green tea harvested from seed-grown tea plants, rather than the more common cultivated varieties. A bright, full-bodied tea with sweet floral notes and moderate astringency.


Origin: Wazuka, Kyoto, Japan

Ingredients: Green tea

Our brewing recommendations

Use 4 grams of tea in a 290 ml kyusu. Brew with 70 C water for 1.5 minutes for a more umami flavour, or 80 C for 1 minute if you prefer a more astringent brew. You can reinfuse this sencha 3-4 times, and we recommend raising the water temperature slightly and shortening infusions as you go.


Sencha also makes for a delicious cold-brew! Use 5 grams of tea per liter cold water in a glass bottle, and leave the mixture in the fridge for a few hours, ideally overnight. 

Storage guidelines

Keep your sencha sealed in air-tight, light-tight packaging, away from other strong aromas. We recommend keeping sencha refrigerated to maintain its freshness.

Hojicha

Roasted Japanese green tea

A traditional roasted green tea, this hojicha is nutty, toasty and warming, with very little bitterness. The roasting process reduces the caffeine in the leaves, making it a popular afternoon choice. 


Origin: Wazuka, Kyoto, Japan

Ingredients: Green tea

Our brewing recommendations

Use 4 grams of tea in a 290 ml kyusu, and brew with 80 C water for 1.5 minutes. You can reinfuse hojicha 3-4 times. 


Hojicha also makes for a delicious cold-brew! Use 5 grams of tea per liter cold water in a glass bottle, and leave the mixture in the fridge for a few hours, ideally overnight. 

Storage guidelines

Keep your hojicha sealed in air-tight, light-tight packaging, away from other strong aromas. This means away from kitchen spices!

Genmaicha

Japanese green tea with toasted rice

A bright, refreshing vegetal brew with toasty, roasted notes.


Origin: Wazuka, Kyoto, Japan

Ingredients: Green tea, toasted mochi rice

Our brewing recommendations

Use 4-5 grams of tea in a 290 ml kyusu. Brew with 85 C water for 2 minutes. Genmaicha can be reinfused 2-3 times.

Storage guidelines

Keep your genmaicha sealed in air-tight, light-tight packaging, away from other strong aromas. We recommend keeping genmaicha refrigerated to maintain its freshness.

Sakura Sencha

Japanese green tea with cherry blossoms

A steamed green tea blended with cherry flowers and leaves, for a sweet and surprisingly spicy flavour profile, with notes of cinnamon and marzipan. 


Origin: Wazuka, Kyoto, Japan

Ingredients: Green tea, sakura leaves and flowers

Our brewing recommendations

Use 4 grams of tea in a 290 ml kyusu. Brew with 70 C water for 1.5 minutes for a more umami flavour, or 80 C for 1 minute if you prefer a more astringent brew. You can reinfuse this tea 3-4 times, and we recommend raising the water temperature slightly and shortening infusions as you go.


Sakura Sencha also makes for a delicious cold-brew! Use 5 grams of tea per liter cold water in a glass bottle, and leave the mixture in the fridge for a few hours, ideally overnight. 

Storage guidelines

Keep your Sakura Sencha sealed in air-tight, light-tight packaging, away from other strong aromas. We recommend keeping it refrigerated to maintain its freshness.

Kyobancha

Roasted Japanese green tea

Kyobancha is a rare green tea making use of the lower-leaf material on the tea plant. Harvested in late winter, before tea plants sends up its first spring shoots, the leaves are steamed for longer than usual and lightly smoked to produce a sweet, well-rounded flavour. 


Origin: Wazuka, Kyoto, Japan

Ingredients: Green tea

Our brewing recommendations

Use 4-5 grams of tea in a 290 ml kyusu, and brew with 90 C water for 2 minutes. You can reinfuse kyobancha 5-6 times. 


Kyobancha also makes for a delicious cold-brew! Use 5 grams of tea per liter cold water in a glass bottle, and leave the mixture in the fridge for a few hours, ideally overnight. 

Storage guidelines

Keep your kyobancha sealed in air-tight, light-tight packaging, away from other strong aromas. This means away from kitchen spices!

Matcha

Soak your whisk in clear hot water for a few minutes to soften it. Pour the soaking water away, and add a scoop of matcha into your warmed bowl.


Add a tiny bit of room temperature water and gently make a paste. This helps to break up any matcha clumps and will help give you a smoother drink.


Add water at around 85 C until your bowl is about a quarter full. Whisk in an M/W motion until you have a nice foam. 


Clean your whisk by soaking it in clear hot water again, and store it on its stand.

Treat your teaware right

Teaware care

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