I've half-way typed up so many posts for here but the heat just puts me in this state of 'don't wanna' and leaves so many things unfinished. So, a post about something cool.
All those flavored iced teas and tisanes are well and good, but for a hot day nothing beats ice-brewed sencha, imo. It's cold, it's sweet, and it's just caffeinated enough to give you a little perk up. No contest.
The only downfall, as with all iced-things, seems to be time. For the best results, use a medium to high quality sencha with nothing but ice(meaning you have to wait for however long it takes the ice to melt). Yet, given my heat-induced state of 'don't wanna' as in 'don't wanna wait that long', I tend to go halfway on the ice.
That is, about 9 grams(you can use less, around 5, if going with just ice) in a 9oz. kyusu. Filled half the pot with ice cubes, then poured cold water to fill the rest, and sat down with a sketchbook and tried to ignore the slow melt of the ice.
In all, using today's batch for reference, it took about half an hour per steep(two good ones and one 'eh' one), and a brief bout of rain, but came out magical* in taste. Heavily concentrated and without even a trace of bitterness, ice/cold-brewed sencha tends to be very sweet and very refreshing.
That said, I'm sure using my new icy-looking hagi certainly didn't hurt.
*Translation: grassy, sweet in a pleasant non-sugary way, and delivering of a bit of a heady feeling
