I saw a video about cooking rice in gyokuro instead of water, and decided to give it a try.
As you know, gyokuro is rather expensive.
So I just made enough for a small bowl of rice.
I used 80 ml of sushi rice, 120 ml (4 oz) of tea (prepared with 4 teaspoons of gyokuro), and then my rice cooker did the rest.
Note than we you prepare the tea, you must add a little more water because the dry tea leaves absorb it. Otherwise you would have less than the 120 ml of tea to cook the rice.
Once it was done, I prepared more gyokuro to enjoy with the rice.
The rice has pretty much the same white color.
I should have chosen a gyokuro that had a greener liquor. This one was a very pale yellow.
It does smell like gyokuro, but the aroma is very faint.
Now that I think of it, adding some spent gyokuro leaves to the rice would have been better in terms of aroma and appearance.
I can feel more umami taste in the rice, but the overall flavor is quite light.
For a more dramatic effect, it may be better to dissolve some matcha in the water instead of gyokuro.
I prefer ochazuke, to be honest. When the rice is surrounded by liquid tea, it’s much easier to notice the tea.
Here’s the video that I saw:
