You do not need a tea room, a kimono or a year of lessons. You need a bowl, a whisk, 70 °C water and about two minutes.
Matcha has a reputation for being complicated, which is a shame, because the daily version is one of the simplest drinks there is. The tea ceremony is a beautiful thing, but it is a separate thing. Here is how we make matcha on a Tuesday morning.
What you need
- Matcha. Ceremonial grade if you are drinking it straight; a culinary grade is fine for lattes. Keep it in the fridge once opened.
- A bowl. Any wide bowl works. A proper chawan is nicer because it gives the whisk room to move.
- A bamboo whisk (chasen). This is the one tool worth buying. A milk frother works in a pinch; a fork does not.
- A small sieve. Optional, but it is the single biggest upgrade: sifted matcha never clumps.
Method
- Warm the bowl with hot water, swirl, and pour it out. Soak the whisk in that water for a moment so the prongs soften.
- Sift 2 grams of matcha into the bowl. That is about one heaped bamboo scoop, or half a teaspoon.
- Add 70 ml of water at 70–80 °C. Boiling water makes it bitter; if you have no thermometer, boil the kettle and wait two minutes.
- Whisk briskly in a W or M motion, from the wrist, for 15–20 seconds, keeping the whisk off the bottom of the bowl. You are looking for a fine, even foam.
- Lift the whisk out slowly through the centre of the foam. Drink within a minute or two; matcha is a suspension, not an infusion, and it settles.
Three things people get wrong
Too much water. Usucha, the everyday thin tea, is only about 70 ml. If you are making a mug’s worth, you will need more matcha, not more whisking.
Old matcha. It oxidises within weeks of opening. If your tin is six months old and brownish, that is why it tastes of hay. Buy small tins and finish them.
Whisking in circles. Circles move the tea around; the back-and-forth motion is what folds in the air. It feels wrong for the first week and then it does not.
Our starter set has everything above, with a card showing the steps. The Uji matcha is the one we drink ourselves.