Friday, March 25, 2011

Can you make delicious matcha?

Are you sure that you are making matcha with correct amount of matcha powder and water? I introduced a video for preparing matcha on the previous post, and I had a chance to see some matcha making videos from other people on YouTube. I noticed that the amount of matcha powder or water is not quite correct on some of the YouTube videos. Some of them use too much water. I assume that the tea is too pale and not good. You don’t have to know the manners and procedures of sado (The Way of Tea) to make matcha, but I think you want to know the correct measurement of ingredients. Otherwise, you are drinking substandard tea. The amount makes a big difference to the taste.

In the tea lesson, you are not taught the exact amount of ingredient in grams or milliliters. What I have learned was a rough guide only, which is two chashakus (teascoop) of matcha powder and one scoop of hot water using hishaku (ladle). In the first few lessons, our master told us the amount by saying it’s too much or less as we made it. But since then she hasn’t taught us about it. We are kind of learning the correct amount thought the experience. You might not think it’s logical, but that’s the way it is. So I guess we Japanese are not good at telling how to prepare matcha in quantities to the world. It was not clear about the amount in my video as well. On the next entry, I will show you the close up pictures of powder and water in correct amount. See you next week!

This is the ladle, hishaku used in sado

2 comments:

  1. I think that some of the matcha clips on youtube are americans preparing it, and we all know how their relationship with sizes are ;)

    I usually go around the 50 ml mark. I never measure it either, although I once check where the water would stop when I put in 50 ml of water, and tried to stick with it. But the water level tends to go up and down, as with the amount of tea.

    I see it as a part of the tea making, that it's not exact all the time, but more a feeling, and I like that. Of course, that means that the taste may differ from time to time. :)

    Here's how I usually do it http://bit.ly/eCJrsb (run through google translate of course)

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  2. Nice blog! You seem using about the same amounts as I use (^^ You are right. The water level should be adjusted for the amount of tea.

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