Tea

How to Brew Sencha (and the Right Kyusu): A 2026 Buyer's Guide

By The Japan Table · Updated July 2026 · Research-based buyer's guide

Sencha is the everyday green tea most Japanese households drink: steamed leaf, brewed short, poured fresh. The two things that decide whether your cup tastes sweet and full or thin and bitter are the water temperature and the pot you pour from. Neither is complicated, but both are easy to get wrong with a Western kettle-and-mug habit.

This is a research-based buyer's guide. The brewing method below reflects how Japanese tea makers generally describe steeping sencha, and the teapot section is organized from maker specifications and established pottery sources. Leaf amounts and timings vary by maker and by tea, so always follow the guidance on your own tea. We focus on the choice that actually matters: which kyusu suits the tea you drink and the way you pour.

How to brew sencha (the short version)

A good everyday default is water at about 70–80°C (160–175°F), not boiling, steeped for about one minute. Amounts differ by source: Ippodo Tea, for example, suggests roughly 10 g of leaf to 210 ml of water for a full-bodied cup, while a lighter everyday brew is closer to a level tablespoon (about 4–5 g) per person — use your tea's own instructions as the guide. The single most common mistake is pouring boiling water straight onto the leaf, which drags out astringency and buries the sweetness.

1. Cool the water. Boil it, then pour it into the cups (or a yuzamashi cooling bowl) and back into the pot. Each transfer drops the temperature by roughly 5–10°C. Cooler water favors umami and sweetness; hotter water favors a brisker, more astringent cup.
2. Steep about a minute. Add the leaf to the kyusu, pour the cooled water in, and wait — don't stir.
3. Pour to the last drop. Pour in small amounts across the cups and back again so everyone gets the same strength, and empty the pot completely so the leaf isn't left stewing.
4. Re-steep. Good sencha gives two or three infusions. Make later ones slightly hotter and much shorter — often just a few seconds.

Deep-steamed (fukamushi) sencha is steamed longer, so it brews faster and pours cloudy with fine leaf particles — it usually wants an even shorter steep and a fine strainer.

Quick picks: kyusu

Affiliate links (Tokoname kyusu via Musubi Kiln / JOC Goods on Awin) are inserted before this guide is published.

At a glance

We have left prices as [要確認]; exact figures depend on the maker and retailer at the time of writing. Confirm on the retailer's page before buying.

How to choose a kyusu

1. Match the strainer to your tea (the fukamushi trap)

This is the choice most first-time buyers get wrong. A traditional sasame strainer is a cluster of small holes drilled into the clay body itself: an all-ceramic pour, nothing metallic in the cup, and it lasts forever. But with fukamushi (deep-steamed) sencha, whose fine particles are the whole point, a sasame can clog and pour slowly. If you mostly drink deep-steamed tea, a fine stainless-steel mesh strains cleaner and rinses out in seconds. For standard sencha, sasame is the nicer pour.

2. Pick the handle you'll actually use

• Side handle (yokode): the classic sencha kyusu. The handle sits at 90° to the spout, which makes one-handed pouring natural once you learn the grip. This is the default.
• Back handle (ushirode): a Western-style handle behind the spout. Familiar to pour, and easier for left-handers, since most side-handle pots are built for the right hand.
• Top handle (uwade): an over-the-top bail handle on larger pots, more common for bancha and hojicha than for delicate sencha.
• No handle (shiboridashi / hohin): a small handle-less pot for tiny servings of high-grade, low-temperature tea. Lovely for gyokuro; overkill for a daily mug.

3. Size it to how many cups you pour

Kyusu are small by Western standards. A ~150 ml pot suits one person; ~250–300 ml covers two to three cups, which is the everyday sweet spot; ~360 ml and up is for a family pouring several cups at once. Buying too big is the quieter mistake: an oversized pot leaves too little tea per cup and cools the water faster than you want.

4. Understand the clay

• Tokoname ware (Aichi): Japan's most famous kyusu region. Its shudei (red) clay is high in iron. Makers and tea sellers traditionally say the iron softens astringency and rounds the flavor; we have not independently tested that claim, so treat it as tradition rather than fact. Tokoname pots are valued for tight-fitting lids and clean-cutting spouts.
• Banko ware (Yokkaichi): also makes unglazed shidei (purple) clay kyusu, often at accessible prices.
• Glazed / porcelain: non-porous, keeps no odor, and shows the tea's color; a good choice if you brew several different teas in one pot.

The picks in detail

Tokoname shudei kyusu (~280 ml, sasame) — the default

An unglazed Tokoname red-clay kyusu with a side handle and a ceramic sasame strainer is the pot most people should start with for standard sencha. The wide, shallow body lets the leaf open, the sasame gives an all-clay pour, and the ~280 ml size handles two to three cups. Tokoname makers such as Gyokko and Hokuryu are widely stocked by Japanese-craft retailers. Buy it if you drink regular (non-deep-steamed) sencha and want the traditional pour; skip it if most of your tea is fukamushi, where the fine leaf can clog a sasame.

Check Tokoname kyusu at Musubi Kiln / JOC Goods (paid link)

Fine stainless-mesh kyusu (~300 ml) — for deep-steamed sencha

If your daily tea is fukamushi sencha, the strainer matters more than the clay. A kyusu fitted with a fine stainless-steel mesh (either a full-body basket or a wide spout-side screen) lets the fine, cloudy particles through into the cup while holding back the leaf, and it rinses clean in a moment. Buy it if you mostly drink deep-steamed sencha or want the easiest cleaning; skip it if you prefer a pure all-ceramic pour with no metal in the path.

Check a fine-mesh kyusu (paid link)

Small kyusu (~150 ml) — one person

If you almost always brew for yourself, a ~150 ml pot keeps the leaf-to-water ratio right instead of leaving a big pot half-empty. It also cools and pours faster, which suits a single cup. Buy it if you drink solo; skip it if you regularly pour for two or more, where you'll be re-brewing constantly.

Check a small solo kyusu (paid link)

Shiboridashi / hohin (handle-less) — high-grade sencha & gyokuro

For premium sencha and gyokuro, which are brewed with very small amounts of water at low temperature, a handle-less shiboridashi or hohin lets you pour a tiny, concentrated serving with control. It's a specialist's pot, not a daily driver. Buy it if you're getting into high-grade, low-temperature teas; skip it if you just want a good everyday cup.

Check a shiboridashi (paid link)

Care and use

Treat an unglazed kyusu like a cast-iron pan in one respect: no soap. Rinse it with water only, knock out the spent leaves, and let it air-dry fully with the lid off so the clay doesn't hold moisture or odor. Never put it in the dishwasher. A sasame strainer occasionally needs the holes cleared with a soft brush; a stainless mesh just rinses. Over months of use, an unglazed Tokoname pot darkens slightly and develops a soft sheen — a sign it's seasoning, not wearing out.

What about the tea itself?

The best pot won't rescue stale leaf. Buy sencha in small amounts from a seller with turnover, keep it sealed and away from light and heat, and use it within a few weeks of opening. Everyday sencha is very forgiving once your water is off the boil; save the fussier low-temperature method for high-grade leaf. We don't link tea here — this guide is about the pot — but a fresh bag of standard sencha is all you need to taste the difference the right brew makes.

FAQ

We independently research the products we feature. This guide was written with AI assistance for drafting and organization; the brewing method and product facts come from tea makers and established pottery sources, and a human reviewer checks accuracy before publication.

← More buyer's guides