Matcha tea whisk

Enjoying a bowl of matcha tea in the kitchen is a nice way to blend some of the formal elements of tea ceremony with the everyday casualness of a kitchen visit.

Matcha, a powdered form of green tea found mostly in Japan, is usually associated with intricate tea ceremonies where the tea is whisked and served in a special tatami-floored teahouse. It's a beautiful tradition but it has also kept many people from enjoying this delicious, creamy, slightly bitter/sweet beverage. It is possible to enjoy a bowl of matcha in your own kitchen using just a few key ingredients and utensils and a little less formality. Read on for instructions and a short little video I made showing how to whisk the tea.

I recently visited the kitchen of Scott McDougall, a tea teacher who has studied formal tea ceremony for over 25 years. Scott explained that we would be doing what he calls 'kitchen matcha' which means that he has dropped most (but not all) of the tea ceremony's formality while still producing a delicious bowl of tea. (Kitchn readers may recognize Scott from his kitchen tour a few years back.) Here is his method.

What You Need

Ingredients

Matcha Tea
Matcha is a special green tea that has been steamed, dried and ground into a power. The leaves are harvested 66 days after the vernal equinox when only the first three leaves of each branch are picked by hand. Often the plants are shaded when they begin to bud so they are not exposed to direct sunlight.

It is possible to find good matcha in some of the better teashops that are popping up around the United States or, if you live in a city with a large Japanese community, you can find it in tea and sweet shops, especially if they sell mochi. And of course you can look for it online. Scott recommends using a company that has a high turnover, as freshness is absolutely critical. He uses Marukyu-Koyamaen.

It's important that the tea come in a reusable, well-sealed canister and that once it's opened, it is consumed as quickly as possible. It can be refrigerated for a few days to extend its shelf life, and in the freezer even longer, but be sure to bring the canister to room temperature before opening. This may sound fussy, but matcha is delicate and your care will be greatly rewarded.

Water
In traditional tea ceremony, unchlorinated water is heated in an iron pot over a charcoal brasier. Scott believes that this produces a unique quality of water for the tea, but that it is also perfectly fine to use your regular kettle when making kitchen matcha. For our tea, we used Hetch-Hetchy water from Scott's San Francisco tap.

Treats
It is traditional to consume a small, very sweet treat just before drinking a bowl of matcha. There are beautiful Japanese versions of these treats where a sugary paste is colored and pressed into intricate shapes. For kitchen matcha, Scott has used jellybeans, jordan almonds, a good quality fruit gel wedge or pate, quince paste and even marshmallow Peeps. (A sense of humor is not forbidden in tea ceremony.) The most important thing is that it can be consumed in one or two bites and that it is not sticky.

Equipment

Tea Bowl
In traditional tea ceremony, choosing the proper tea bowl is extremely important. In kitchen matcha, this is important, too, but perhaps a little less so. Your bowl should be sturdy, wide enough so that you can whisk in it and pleasing to hold in your hands. The black and white bowl pictured above is used in traditional tea ceremony and is a reproduction of one designed by Tantansai, the head of the Urasenke school of tea in the 1950's and 60's. But you can also use a French latte bowl, as seen in the video clip below, or any other suitable bowl. Traditionally, tea bowls are also chosen for their seasonality. The Tantansai bowl, for example, is a New Year's bowl, as it depicts plum, pine and bamboo, all congratulatory symbols.

Whisk
The traditional bamboo whisk (also called chasen) is essential for this method of making matcha. You can use an electric latte aerator (here's a video of Eric Gower using one on a hike) but it's a much different aesthetic experience. A metal whisk is not recommended. You can purchase the bamboo whisks at shops that carry matcha tea or online, usually for under $15.00. Even Amazon offers them these days.