Whisking Matcha for Enjoyment at Home

Hello and happy Spring!  I'm going to be writing a series on the "Japanese Tea Ceremony" experience, known as Chanoyu or Chadō (the Way of Tea). But before we dive into that, I want to share how you can easily make and enjoy a bowl of matcha at home. 

And when I say bowl, I mean just that! In this style of drinking matcha, each person gets their own bowl of tea. I'll be making thin tea, called usucha. It's the frothy kind and it's amazing!

It's important to understand that there are many different schools of Chadō, and each has its own way of making tea. There are differences in how to whisk, the desired frothiness, etc. And yet each produces a beautiful and delicious bowl of tea. The school from Japan that I am associated with is Urasenke.  My local school is Issoan. Even though the instructions below are not for a tea ceremony, the style I've learned will show through.

In the picture above, you see a shaped "mountain" of matcha in a traditional tea caddy. Below are the typical implements: a bowl, whisk, scoop, tea caddy and a water ladle. You will not need all of these things.

What you WILL need: 

• A bowl with a wide enough bottom for the whisk to move freely. Something like a rice or cereal bowl.
• A measuring cup
• A mesh strainer
• Teaspoon
• Bamboo whisk 
• Matcha 

I recommend two investments for home enjoyment of matcha: A bamboo whisk (chasen) and good matcha. A reputable source available in the US is Ippodo. Please be careful where you buy your matcha and do not use cooking grade. You are ingesting the ground-up leaf and the flavor is intensified. You want the good stuff for drinking. Expect to pay $25-30/canister for a decent matcha.  See this site for more options. Also, don't buy large quantities and store the canister of matcha in a plastic bag with the air pushed out, in the freezer. 

To make your bowl of matcha:

1. Rinse your bowl with hot water, then dry it out.  This pre-warms the bowl and removes liquid that might cause the matcha to clump.

2. Place the mesh strainer over the bowl. Measure in a scant (less than full) teaspoon of matcha. Tap the strainer or use the back of a spoon to push the tea through. Straining the tea helps reduce lumps.

3.Now add between 1/4 and 1/3 cup of hot water, ~170 degrees Fahrenheit. Please do not use boiling water. When I remove my kettle from the heat source and take the lid off, it takes ~3.5 minutes to cool to the right temp.

4. Take your whisk and lightly press down any floating tea. Then move the whisk briskly in a straight up-and-down motion. (Other tea schools do this differently.)  See the video below. You do not need to press down hard on the whisk (that can break the tines). Placing your hand over the top of the bowl helps to steady it.

                                                                            5. Keep whisking until you see a thick foam forming.
                                                                            Keep going a wee bit longer.  Then move the whisk
                                                                            across the top lightly to pop any big bubbles.

                                                                            6. Set the whisk down and enjoy the tea! 
                                                                            Matcha is commonly enjoyed with a small sweet.

Notice how the foam gets thicker over time.  Keep going!

If your matcha froth isn't thick, try using a little more matcha, a little less water, or whisking a little longer.

Chigusa, a Cinderella Story

I recently visited a fellow tea adventurer in Virginia and she took me to see the Chigusa exhibit at the Freer-Sackler Museums of Asian Art at the Smithsonian. COOL!  Chigusa, a tea storage jar of Chinese origin from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, tells an important story related to chanoyu history.  But let me begin with my story of visiting the museum and a docent named Lois.  She guided us through the museum, our small party discussing ancient Chinese artifacts.  Then she escorted us to the Chigusa exhibit where we enjoyed a private tour.  She knew of our interest in tea and she took a portion of her busy day to spend extra time with us. Thank you Lois! Now allow me to tell you the Cinderella story.

Chigusa started as a humble storage jar, mass-produced in China for export. But in Japan, tea people had yet to make this glaze, and it was appreciated for its color and texture. In addition, the size of the jar allowed for storage of an ample amount of tea.  (One of the things that struck me about seeing the jar in person was its size.  It's larger than I anticipated.)  The third desired feature was the lightness of the jar, due to a special manufacturing technique in which the top curve is flattened to reduce heft. So then the jar received its name, Chigusa - myriad grasses or thousand flowers - and its dressings of finery (the blue cording). All dressed up, and like Cinderella, Chigusa went to the ball living a celebrated life as a special named object.

 

Chigusa is important to tea people and historians because of the story it and its accouterments tell.  There is much documentation about its life and ownership progression.  For example, the boxes above were added by a series of owners, each contributing documentation to the story. Chigusa has also been written about in the tea records of the period, allowing scholars to understand how these tea utensils were valued and used in the period from several different perspectives.

If you happen to be in DC before July 27th, the exhibit is well worth your time.  (And it's free!)  I also learned that if you are in DC after the exhibit closes, you can contact the museum to arrange for a private viewing of Chigusa.  (They do that!)  If  you've seen the exhibit, I'd love for you to share your highlights.

Here is an excellent article about Chigusa:  http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/29335 

Images from the Freer Sackler museum.  The exhibit did not allow photography.

Making Shiro An (White Bean Paste)

"Mountain" of Shiro An

Shiro an, a white bean paste that is lightly sweetened, is the base of so many Japanese  tea sweets.  And I love it.  Love it.  LOVE it!  I know that sweetened bean paste sounds funny to Americans, but it really IS good!  When I began studying chanoyu, I had no idea how much I would come to love the sweets that go along with the tea.  What a wonderful surprise!  And sweets with shiro an are one of my favorites.

While it's possible to buy the red bean paste in the Asian markets around here, it is not possible to find the white paste.  So earlier this year I tried making it myself.  My sensei had prepared me well for the all-day process!  You can find her detailed steps here.  If you attempt this, please do use her recipe.  My notes below don't include all the steps.

First you buy dried Lima beans and sort through them, then let them soak overnight. Then comes the part that was hardest for me: Peeling the skins off the beans.  I was making a big batch (because you don't want to do this very often!), and so I had a lot of skins to remove.  Fortunately, they slip off easily.

Then you enter into several rounds of bringing the beans to a bowl and changing the water.  Repeat, repeat until the beans are falling apart.  Then you send the beans through the food processor.  Now you let the liquids and solids separate, draining off the liquid (this also takes several rounds).

Finally, you are ready to add some sugar.  Add the sugar in small increments and stir, stir, stir until  it is the right consistency.  Whew!  

Still needs to be a little thicker - keep stirring!

Fortunately, shiro an freezes really well and will make for many happy tea times in the future!  The bean paste is very mold-able and flexible.  It can be colored and made into interesting shapes, traditionally something that suggests the season.  If you ever get the opportunity to try a sweet made with shiro an, please do!  It's naturally gluten free and fat free, too.  And there's only a little sugar.  Big on taste and texture!

Robin's Egg Blue: Japanese Tea Sweet

I've been having so much fun playing with Japanese tea sweets!  This is one of my favorites.  It's made from a center of red bean paste, surrounded by white bean paste for the nest.  The little blue eggs are white bean paste that I colored.  (The bean pastes are sweetened.)

The naming of sweets is an important part of the process, as the guests may want to know the story of the sweet.  I'm learning what makes a good sweets name.  Generally, it should be something suggestive of the season, and poetic.  Do you have ideas for a name for this sweet?     

Matcha Brownies

OK, these were really, Really, REALLY good!  And easy.  And green.  :-)

Take your regular brownie recipe.  Pour the batter into the pan.  Spoon the filling (recipe below) in dollops across the top and blend with a knife for the swirl effect.  Bake as normal - it may need a wee bit longer.  I also keep them refrigerated, due to the cream cheese.

Matcha Filling:
*4 oz cream cheese
*1 egg
*2+ teaspoons of matcha, depending on how green you want it
*2 tsp sugar

Blend in mixer until smooth.

By the way, use food grade matcha for this.  Matcha can be expensive and you want to save the more expensive tea grade for drinking.  The less expensive food grade is perfectly fine for cooking. 

Matcha Jelly Roll

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day...a matcha jelly roll!  Not only is it pretty, but it also tastes (gently) of matcha.  This was my first-ever attempt at a jelly roll, so it's a little messy, but I was pleased overall.

I used this recipe.  It worked pretty well.  I agree that you need to sift the flour three times!  Not only does it add air to the flour, but it also ensures your matcha is evenly distributed throughout the mixture.

Pre-sift

Post-sift

I had a tear along the side of the roll, but it remained intact overall and worked out OK.  I also thought the cake was a little dry. Next time, I will wrap it in a moist towel (instead of leaving it in its parchment paper). If you have jelly roll tips, will you share them?  Thank you!

Sprouts Under the Snow (Japanese Sweet)

Sprouts Under the Snow

Recently, we had snowy weather in Oregon!  I was also playing around with my first batch of shiro an, a sweet bean paste made from white beans.  I'll write more about the process of making the bean paste soon.  But for now...the sweet.

This type of sweet is served with matcha, powdered green tea, during the Japanese Tea Ceremony.  It's customary to provide a poetic name to things...to utensils, the tea bowl and to sweets.  So in that spirit and given the weather, I named this sweet "sprouts under the snow".  This sweet is nothing more than bean paste and sugar (with a dot of food coloring).  It's naturally vegan and gluten/soy/dairy-free, so a great sweet for anyone with food allergies.  It's also DELICIOUS!  I know that sweetened bean paste sounds a little funny to most of us Americans, but it really is yummy! 

Daffodil sprouts under the snow

Sharing Matcha over the Holidays

I had the wonderful opportunity to make matcha for a good friend and my niece while visiting my family over the Christmas holiday. It's always a gift to me to serve tea to those I love. 

My Japanese tea teacher shared with me some white bean paste (Lima beans cooked down, with sugar and a bit of rice flour - it's an all day process), and I had some red bean paste frozen. These made it through airport security "). I made traditional Japanese tea sweets for my guests. The grown up guest liked it and my niece thought it was OK. I was impressed she even tried it!

In fact, she was eager to be my helper and try everything. The horses came along too. 

I made the matcha very very light for her, and with plenty of froth. She liked it!  That's my girl!

Sencha Natural Mints and New Products

Many of you have probably tired these green tea mints from the Sencha Naturals company.  What do you think of them?  I enjoy them.  The company recently sent me a sampling to review.  My favorite flavor is the yuzu ginger.  I had never before noticed that the mints use Stevia leaf as one of the sweeteners.  I would encourage the company to continue working its formulation in this direction.  Love this company's packaging and visual look.  The cardboard tube was hard to work until the DH figured out that the bottom pushes up and then it turns much better (note to company - you may want to make this note on the product).

A newly released product is this Green Tea + C immune support powder.  The ingredients include matcha, vitamin C derived from acerola cherries, coconut water powder, ginger, tumeric and orange peel, sodium bicarbonate (for fizziness) and Stevia.  I can't make claims about the efficacy of this as a health tool, but I can tell you that I'll be trying it out as I fly around this December.  The flavor is pleasantly sweet with a mild matcha note and that back-of-throat bite from the baking soda.  I like matcha, so this works for me but I can imagine it might not work for those who don't care for the spinach-like notes.  Have you seen or tried this?  What's your opinion? 

Anticipation

This is a sweet for the Japanese Tea Ceremony.  Sweets have poetic names, I love that!  Sweets for usucha (thin tea) are often named with a nod to the season.  Names for the koicha (thick tea) sweets are more zen or abstract.  I have learned that poems are a great source for naming both, though there remains still an art to selecting just the right name.

I learned to make this sweet on Saturday.  The base is a sweetened white bean paste (which took my sensei all day to make!).  We added in a bit of pickled plum paste and a touch of gold flake.  I call it Anticipation.  The daffodils have begun to push out of the earth, their golden heads I long for.

Behind the Museum Cafe

Amanda and Chisumi

Welcome to the Behind the Museum Cafe!  This lovely place will become a regular stop for me as I enjoy tea and snacks or a light meal.   The cafe serves Japanese green and matcha teas, herbal infusions, traditional Japanese sweets and other pastries, soups and sandwiches, sake and Japanese beer, and coffee.

One of the co-owners, Tomoe Horibuchi, has taught Japanese cooking and practiced the Japanese tea ceremony for years.  Her experience shines through in the balance of wabi elements (hand-thrown tea bowls, wooden tables) and modern elements (large glass windows, creative foods).

I was here for a business meeting.  We sat at the corner of a large shared table and enjoyed the lovely light through the windows.  The food was delicious and novel, and we had plenty of time and space to attend to our work. 

I wish the Behind the Museum Cafe much success.

Matcha cupcakes, among other delicious treats

 The space is also a gallery, showcasing Japanese Tea bowls and kimono

 Love the yo-yo placemat!

 The matcha set

The matcha brownie, dense and delicious

Tea Explorations

I've been having lots of fun exploring new (and old) teas lately! 

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to try some unusual matcha-styled (powdered) teas with Lindsey, of Vee Tea.  She's had special training in the preparation of matcha, and I loved watching her whisk up the fine powder to a froth.  These teas were non-traditional matchas, in that they were chosen for their high antioxidant levels and made into powder.  The thought is the powdered tea will offer even more health benefit when a person ingests the whole leaf.  I'm not able to comment on the validity of this claim, but I find it an interesting concept.  One of the teas, a white, made a lovely froth and silver-green color (reminding me of a silver artemesia plant).

We started with a high-quality matcha, Matcha Hekisui, then progressed to the non-traditional ones.  Here is Lindsey whisking up the first matcha.

The powdered white tea, after whisking

Today we had a puerh sampling session.  We tasted two special varieties, one packed in a bamboo stalk and the other in a pomelo rind.  These are the "old" teas I referenced above because puerh tea is aged.  It was fascinating to loosen the brick-like tea from its container and then notice the aroma of the dry leaf, the wet leaf and the flavor differences both within the same tea at different brew lengths, and between the teas.

Tea will continue to be a life-long study and passion.  There is so much to learn and explore.

Matcha Salt

Matcha is a powdered green tea traditionally used in the Japanese tea ceremony.  It's also a key component in many recent developments in using tea for cooking.  It adds a lovely bitter flavor and bright green color. 

Matcha salt is easy to make.  Combine the powdered tea with coarse see salt.  I first saw reference to it here and here (recipe).  I added cracked pepper into my blend. 

Mmm...Try this on poached eggs, popcorn, tomatoes, rice, or soup.  Warning - a little goes a long way!