My tea time with matcha
You might think it strange, but a lot of Japanese people are biased against drinking matcha.
Their prejudice makes them keep a respectful distance from matcha.
They misunderstand that drinking matcha means practicing the difficult tea ceremony.
So they feel drinking matcha is troublesome.
This is a big misunderstanding.
Actually, I feel free to drink matcha at home.
Drinking matcha is the same thing as drinking coffee after lunch.
For your information, I would like to introduce my tea time with matcha.

Firstly, I warm up a tea bowl before preparing matcha.
I put some boiling water in the tea bowl.
Thereby the inside of the tea bowl becomes warm.
After that, I throw away the boiling water and wipe off the inside of the tea bowl with a kitchen cloth.
This is a little ingenuity to keep matcha hot in the tea bowl.
And then, I scoop up some matcha powder with a bamboo tea spoon, “Chashaku”, and put it in the tea bowl.
By the way, there are two types of matcha powder.
They are the weak-flavored matcha, “Usucha”, and the strongly-flavored matcha, “Koicha”.
I prepare Usucha this time and the amount is about 2 grams.
After I pour boiling water into the tea bowl, I stir with a bamboo tea whisk, “Chasen”.
By the way, this Chasen is for Usucha.
If you prepare Koicha, you should use a dedicated Chasen.
Both Chasen are similar in appearance, but each Chasen has a different function.
And now, I stir slowly for blending in both matcha powder and water for the first few seconds.
After that, I increase the stirring speed as much as possible.
As I finish, I stir the matcha surface lightly.
Thereby, the texture of matcha becomes creamy.
Matcha is completed with this.

I really like the bitter taste of matcha.
This green powder is effective for the mind and body.
Thanks to matcha, I’m in good health.
I have some tea bowl besides this Shino ware.
When I prepare matcha, I select one of them depending on how I feel on that day.
This is one of the pleasures of drinking matcha for me.
I sometimes drink matcha with seasonal Japanese confectionery.
Japanese confectionery goes really well with matcha. It is fun to look at.
In this way, I enjoy matcha at home without a ceremony.