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.