Den's Tea
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Made this w/ my new sifter today! http://www.lupiciausa.com/product_p/41401682.htm My chawan is the perfect diameter. I can rest the sifter on the edge of it while I scoop in the matcha and it is held up by the handle on one side and a metal loop on the other. It’s a very fine mesh- almost too fine for my matcha. Don’t really notice a taste or texture difference though…
Preparation
Aaaahhh… headache… I get these weird atypical migraines that actually involve little pain but come w/ a lot of spaceyness and just feeling… weird… I can’t explain it… But a half bowl helps quite a bit.
Preparation
I hope you’re feeling better, girl.
I get those. I get “visual” migranes, diagnosed by my Opthamalogist. No pain, most of the time, but vision disruption, spots in my peripheral vision, like bubbly black spots that jump around and close in. Spacey feeling, can’t concentrate, can’ t see good enough to read or drive, but otherwise I can usually work through it, if I HAVE to. Caffeine helps.
As I was drinking my half bowl something dawned on me. I think one of the reasons I love matcha so much is because it smells (and tastes, so I assume) like fresh mown grass and I have many happy memories sitting on my grandpa’s lap as a little kid as he mowed the grass. Say it w/ me… Awww!=D
Preparation
I love 52teas’ Mandarin Matcha so much I decided to try to make my own. I have a bag of Tazo’s orange blossom so I steeped it for 3 min (8oz water) in boiling water then added it to my chawan w/ a scoop of matcha and whisked. Yum! The orange is much stronger than my Mandarin matcha, but I much prefer the mouth feel of the Mandarin.
Preparation
Normally when I want a thicker matcha, I whisk 1 scoop w/ 3oz water, but today I decided to double the matcha. I was afraid it would get chunky and gritty, but thank God it didn’t! It was thick, creamy, sweet, vegetal, and wonderful as always.
Preparation
Ugh… Idk why, but my entire body has been extremely sore since yesterday afternoon. I need something comforting. So I went for my matcha bowl and whisked up a double batch of thick matcha. 6oz water/2 scoops matcha. The warm matcha warms my body and gives me “warm fuzzies”. It temporarily releaves my pain, I just hope it lasts.
Preparation
Lucky Gold Matcha! I dumped the last half of the gold flakes from my Lucky Gold tea onto my half bowl of matcha, unfortunately a lot of the flakes stuck to my chasen, oops. Didn’t think that thru I guess. Oh well.
It frothed a little more this time, yay! Smooth, rich, creamy, like a nice warm blanket for your tongue!
Preparation
The question came up yesterday "How much is a scoop?, so I measured it. For me, a scoop is how much wonderful matcha I can cram onto my scoop and I can fit .55g of organic matcha on it. This surprised me because I weighed Den’s Tea’s Kaze and that was 1.04g. Oh well, that means it’s cheaper per scoop and that’s ok w/ me:)
Made half a bowl this morning, 1 scoop per 8oz water. It was wonderful, I just wish I could get it to foam more.
Preparation
Made this before I leave to go w/ my friend looking for a bridesmaid dress for her dad’s wedding. 3oz water/1 scoop. Wow! The flavors pop even more when made thick! I just wish it frothed a bit more. This may be my favorite unflavored matcha yet, unfortunately it’s also the most expensive.
Preparation
What size scoop are you using? I thought thick matcha was ~3-4 bamboo scoops in 3 oz. water, and thin is ~1.25 scoops in 3 oz. water.
I haven’t tried organic matcha yet, but it sounds good!
There are different sizes of Chashaku? How can you measure .25 of a scoop other than measuring what a scoop of matcha weighs and then using 125% of that weight? Thin/thick is relative I guess then. My definition of thick is 1 scoop in 3oz water and thin is 1 scoop per 8oz water (for half a bowl, 2 scoops, 16oz for a full bowl).
Quality chashaku are handmade, unique and are all slightly different as a result. However, most bamboo cheapo ones are about the same. I was asking if you were using an actual chashaku or a tablespoon. Sorry, I cut off the last part of that, it says 1 1/4-2 scoops for thin. You can eyeball a quarter or half of a scoop pretty easily…
Sorry, I was a little confused by your reviews and your using the words thick and thin to describe how you prepare your matcha. Like I’ve said a million times, different strokes for different folks (to a point). If you like it like that, then you like it like that! :)
By the way, sorry, I got the water off…thick is 3-4 for 1.5 ounces, thin is 1.25-2 for 2.5-3 ounces. The rule of thumb is double the matcha and half the water, at least according to my Japanese teacher…
If you have any more info, that would be great.
Gasp! Tablespoon/teaspoon?! lol. J/k personally I’d never make matcha w/o the authentic tools (which is part of the reason I have a beef w/ Rishi). That’s just me though.:) Sorry, I thought that was clear by my use of the word scoop instead of tsp. I cram as much as I can on the scoop then just use 3 or 8oz water. I’m really freakin bad at eye balling things so no I can’t eye ball it easily. It doesn’t help that matcha balances very precociously on my chashaku and I’m absofreakinlutely terrified of spilling and wasting it. Not to mention it makes a HUGE mess. I’ve spilled matcha once and I bawled for 20 min, yes I’m very attached to my matcha lol.=D
I see…funny, I wouldn’t have pegged you as the type to be a purist about making matcha, considering your notes about steeping and cooking tea :-) Personally, I don’t see why not using a chasen or chashaku is a big deal if you’re not even making it traditionally. :) I don’t think I could stand sitting on my knees for so long either, LOL!
Careful with the matcha! Especially if it’s the 52teas matcha :)
I think I can clear up the thin, thick thing. ;). It slightly depends on what school of sadou you follow! The temple I studied at only used koicha for special occasions. Shanti’s teacher is right, though. The “typical” system is to double the tea and half the water. Koicha should be thick, almost like honey (but not so sticky of course!) Also… if you want to be technical about it, you RARELY make koicha from the same tea as you would make usucha. You can… but generally a higher grade is used for koicha. Koicha is usually sweeter and the matcha powder selected for koicha comes from older trees almost exclusively.
If your matcha brewing is for private use, there is no need to be a purist about it. Make it to the taste you enjoy the most. In my case I like a heavy flavour but am not a big fan of Koicha’s texture. I usually put in 2 HEAVY scoops. Unless you are performing the ceremony or making it for guests, go with the flow and make it how you like it. It sure will last longer as usucha though! ;)
お茶を楽しもう！
Thanks Haruka for the explanation! There is a wonderful woman who teaches tea ceremony at my school, but her class filled up quickly so I didn’t get a chance to sign up for it.
I agree with you, I think if you’re making tea for yourself, you might as well make it as you like it. I use the chasen because I like my tea frothy, but I’m not going to make fun of someone if they don’t use one. Not to mention, chasen/chashaku/bowl/sifter can be hard to find unless you order online or have a specialty store nearby.
(And yay, I think I understood the last part…you wrote “o-cha wo tanoshimou/Let’s enjoy tea!” right? My kanji is really bad so sorry if I’m reading that incorrectly!)
your reading is correct.
;)
Curled up w/ this before Prayer + Share this morning. My 4th unflavored matcha, 3rd prepared myself, 2nd from Den’s, and 1st organic matcha. I really wish I had some Kaze left to do a side by side comparison.
The powder is a pretty bright green and the smell is quit strong, stronger that O-cha’s Kiri No Mori and, from what I remember, a bit stronger than Den’s’ Kaze as well.
Half a bowl- 1 scoop/8oz water.
This matcha incorporatesw/ the water a little differently than Kaze. A few bubbles of foam form on the rim of my bowl. Yay! The color is an absolute gorgeous green color.
Wow! Boy do these flavors pop! I wonder if it’s because it’s organic? It’s definitely vegetal like all matchas should be, but it’s also smooth, clean, and… sweet? I’m not sure if that’s the word I’m looking for, but it’s not bitter. Spectacular.
Preparation
Janefan made matcha lemonade so I decided to make my own variation. I used this cuz I’m getting very low on unflavored matcha.
1 tsp powdered sencha/6oz (minus 2TB) cold water/2TB lemon juice. Unlike Janefan, I didn’t sweeten mine. Approx. ratios of a double portion of Usucha and almost 8x stronger than the suggested parameters for powdered sencha.
Wow… measuring by the tsp sure is messy! I had to be very careful not to spill. I put it in a empty plastic water bottle so I could shake it well. It created a lot of foam that didn’t collapse easily. Lemon and matcha were both very evident. Personally I think I prefer my matcha hot. That and not drinking it from my chawan just wasn’t the same.
Preparation
This is by far the thickest preparation I’ve made so far. 1 heaping scoop and 3oz water. Wow! It also froths a lot more… so maybe my frothing problems are due to the thickness. The 1st thing I notice is the astringency. This isn’t an overly sweet matcha, although it’s by far bitter. Definitely more of a wake me up vs “oooh this is comforting” preparation. All formulas are delicious!
