Purifying CHASHAKU tea scoop (Video)

In the tea ceremony, you purify the tea scoop before and after making the tea by ritually wiping it with a silk cloth.  This video introduces the way of purifying the CHASHAKU tea scoop.  The manner varies depending on school traditions.

 

 

Chashaku is available on our shop.  Click this picture to jump to the shop.

Measuring matcha and water

Do you think you prepare delicious matcha with correct amount of tea and water? I have talked about this topic before. However, it might not be so accurate to judge the correct amount by its looks or weight. Who knows, maybe your scale doesn’t exactly point to the right digit. You might not still be sure if your tea tastes right. Today, I want to share things that I realized when I was preparing things for the tea ceremony that I held the other day.

By the way, have you ever heard of the term “tatedashi”? Tatedashi is a way of serving tea by making it in another room and bring it to the guests in the tea room. The host prepares tea in the tea room only for the first few guests and the tea for the rest are served from the back by assistants. It makes the ceremony runs fast and smooth, and it’s often preferred at a ceremony with a lot of guests.

For the tea ceremony that I had, an assistant needed to make a lot of bowls of tea promptly and precisely in the preparation room. For my assistant, I looked for the way to effectively measure tea and water accurately. It helps to serve consistent quality of tea for everybody. 

1.8g of matcha and 60ml water are standard amounts of ingredients. I wanted to serve tea with light flavor because most of my guests were not so familiar with matcha. To find the best mixture for this gathering, I tried different amounts of matcha and water. My choice was 1.2g of matcha and 50ml of water. This tea is very mild but you can still enjoy the essence of matcha flavor. You will beam with delight from its sweetness hopping on a comfortable grassy note. I found perfect items in the kitchen to measure the ingredients. They are a 5ml spoon and a small sencha cup. I found out that you can scoop around 1.2g of matcha with a 5ml spoon. Take note, I said spoon, not spoonful (^-^) If I fill 95% of the Wabi-iki small sencha cup which is one of the products of our shop, it is about 50ml. With the spoon and cup, I could get my assistant to serve consistent tea.  

If you are a beginner about matcha and not sure how decent matcha tastes like. You can try using 5ml spoon to measure the correct amount. You might not have a problem measuring water but it may be difficult measuring matcha. So, 5ml spoon is useful. Try the mild tea with one spoon of matcha and 50ml water, and see how you like it. Then you can adjust the amounts to find your best mixture! Good luck.

Note:
Sift matcha with a tea strainer before measuring with the spoon.
Scoop matcha gently when measuring.

Question:
In Japan, we have two scale spoons for cooking. One is called the small spoon which is 5ml and the other one is the large spoon for 15ml. I found the equivalent English words in my dictionary, a “tea spoon (5ml)” and a “table spoon (15ml)”. Are they really for scaling? Are they common in your county? I’ll be happy if you leave a comment on this post for the answer.

Related posts:
Correct amount of matcha
Volume of sifted and non-sifted matcha
Does sifted matcha really have more volume?
Correct amount of matcha on a tea spoon

Resonance of successful ceremony

Most of the guests were new to the tea ceremony. They are fellows from my Aikido class. I took all the utensils into the living room of my Aiki teacher’s apartment and I served tea for twelve people with my assistant. These days, I frequently think back on how good the tea ceremony went.　I remember the excited faces of the fellows and kids helping on shifting matcha with their eyes alight.

 All of the guests properly sat on their knees even though I haven’t told them to do so. That’s Aikodo practitioner! Moreover, when I bowed at the beginning of the ceremony, all the guests synchronously bowed in silent. How nice it is! It instantly developed the feeling of unity in the atmosphere, and boosted my excitement. 

 I found the eyes on the person who were receiving sweets beatific. I could tell the guests were trying to sense something from my ritual performance by solemnly watching my movements with great interest. As I’m serving tea one by one, I noticed that the next guest looked slightly nerves and curious. I felt like that I could read the emotions of others without words. This session reminded me that the tea ceremony is different from casually enjoying matcha at the dining room. Maybe because you sit on your legs and bow with your hands on the floor, or the ritual gestures of the host. I don’t know what magic in it. I was more sensitive to the emotions of others. After all, I am simply glad to find that the guests were delighted. I’ve been basking in the resonance of the gathering this week.

Is it really Wabi-Sabi?

Is Rikyu’s tea really Wabi? I was shocked when I read such question in a book because I wondered about the same thing before. The author says that image of Chanoyu (The Way of Tea) is Wabi-Sabi or has a rustic ambience but when he saw a black urushi-lacquered water container which is one of Rikyu’s implements, he didn’t find it rustic at all. Urushi-lacquered utensils have luster and they are even amorous. It is difficult for me to consider them rustic, too.

When I see a black urushi tea container in a tea room, I’m captivated with its elegance. Its form is extremely simple and the coating is so black and smoothly glossy. The author of the book says that urushi products usually consist of exquisite curves, and the roundness is more emphasized by the profound urushi coating. Those utensils have warmness and power.

I imagined if you arrange all the implements with old-looking items in a rustic tea room, it would be just miserable or maybe boring. Having a few items with warmness and power makes the space alive and provides a sense of formality. The author says that the beauty stands out because the luster item is in the rustic space. This is my understanding of Rikyu’s Wabi-Sabi so far. His world is not Wabi-Sabi completely. 



Kiriaiguchi black chu-natsume

 



Blakck chu-natsume

How to purify NATSUME tea caddy (Video)

In the tea ceremony, you purify the tea caddy before and sometimes after making the tea by ritually wiping it with a silk cloth. This video introduces the way of purifying NATSUME tea caddy. The manner varies depending on school traditions.

 

 

How to fold FUKUSA silk cloth (video)

I have avoided writing about this topic “Folding fukusa”. It is because I didn’t want people to think that the tea ceremony is complicated. Fukusa is a silk cloth to use for purifying the utensils during the ceremony. There is a certain way of folding it which is a little arduous. However I also realized that some people are interested in holding a proper tea ceremony on their own. On this blog, I’m planning to introduce a basic ceremony that you can try at home. Folding fukusa is the first thing that I leaned at the tea school. It is an inevitable manner. That’s why I think it is the time to introduce some of these arduous gestures. Once you acquire the movements, it is not that complicated.

You can enjoy matcha without fukusa of course. However, your tea will become much more authentic and fulfilling with fukusa. Your guests will simply get relaxed by watching your beautiful gestures while they are waiting their tea. 

In this entry, I’ll introduce how to fold fukusa and in two feature entries, I’ll show you how to purify a tea container and tea scoop with fukusa.  Please note that the manner of fukusa varies depending on school traditions.

Wine bottle??

Have you ever won a prize? I never have. But this summer, I got a bottle as a prize for my magazine entry! Yeah! Do you want to know what this bottle is for? It is a filter-in bottle to prepare cold green tea!

This bottle has a tea strainer at the inside of the bottleneck. Put 15 grams (0.5oz) of tea leaves and 750ml (26oz) of cold water in the bottle and just leave it in the refrigerator for 3-6 hours. You can prepare cold sencha very easily and it’s quite practical!! If you want to do it with an ordinary teapot with handle and spout, it’s difficult because the pot will be unstable and obstruct entry in the fridge. This is quite a useful item for people like me who drink cold green tea regularly.

It looks like a wine bottle. The design is simple and it looks good on the table. It might make you feel like enjoying the tea in a wine glass. I actually tried it, hahaha. 

Matcha is not about the price or origin

Yesterday, I had a chance to drive by Yoshimitsu, a confectionery shop with a good reputation on excellent tasteing sweets. I got their sweets, and on the way back home I wanted to stop by my favorite tea shop to buy some matcha. You know, you got to have matcha when you have a nice confectionery. But unfortunately, the tea shop was closed so I went to another store and bought matcha. 

What I wanted to write about is not sweets. It’s about matcha. The matcha I bought yesterday cost 1575yen (20g) and it's from Uji, Kyoto. When I think of the price, I was not satisfied with the tea, because it lacks the kick of umami. The flavor consists of grassy bitterness but not umami. It is like "senchatic" flavor and I wanted more richness and depth in taste.

My standard matcha is 1050yen (20g) from Toyota, Aichi. It has much nicer rounded flavor with mouth-filling sweetness, which is less expensive than the tea I bought yesterday. Toyota is a minor matcha producing region compared to Uji, which is very popular. When you shop for matcha and find tea from Toyota and Uji, you might want to go with the tea from Uji for safer choice. But you have to keep in mind that you can’t simply determine the quality of tea just by the price or production region. They can be deceiving. This tea reminded me about it. 

Note:
I’m not saying that matcha from Uji is not good. Of course, I have tried excellent tea from Uji, too.

Experiments don’t go well sometimes

I started to think that my cold sencha recipe is not very practical as I prepare the tea. It takes time and consume a lot of tea leaf, and I wanted improve them. So, every time when I prepare the tea at home or lately, in the office, I tried different mixtures.

This is the original recipe that I’m talking about.
  Tea leaves: 12g
  Lukewarm water: 50C/122F, 50ml/1.8oz
  Cold water: 200ml/7oz
  Ice cube: adequate dose

  Brew it with lukewarm water for 10sec to unfold the leaves and to help faster infusing. Then add cold water with ice and brew it for 10 minutes.

Sometimes, I casually do experiments whenever I’m curious about tea. But, I notice that the conditions are not totally consistent through my tests or I get different results from what I expected. Then I realize how stupid I am, hahaha. This is the fourth revision of this article. This time again, even after doing many tests, I could not get satisfying results or reach an organized idea. Today, I just write about the two points that I learned from the series of tests I did.



First point is that you can shorten the brewing time to 5 minutes and cut down the leaf to 9 grams. Of course, the tea lose the richness that original recipe can offer but this mixture can still bring the full-sweetness that you can’t get with ordinary preparation. The tea is extremely mellow.

 

	Original	New
Tea leaves	12g	9g
Pre-brewing	Brew it 10sec with 50ml of lukewarm water (50C)
Main-brewing	200ml of Iced water
	10 min	5 min
Flavor	Rich	mellow

The second point is that my cold sencha recipe is not always beneficial. When I tried my recipe with kabusecha, I found a significant difference from ordinary preparation. It is definitely worth to try. But, when I tried it with deep-steamed sencha, I didn’t find obvious advantage using my recipe. The tastes are different but the tea brewed in ordinary way is also excellent, which is bitter and refreshing. There might not be big advantage using the recipe that need a lot of time and leaves. My recipe is a method to bring out abundant umami, so it works better with tea that has a lot of umami, such as kabusecha and fine sencha.

If you are suffering from hot summer, try cold sencha!

My original recipe that I’m referring in this post:
http://everyonestea.blogspot.jp/2012/06/exquisite-cold-sencha.html

Common way of preparing iced sencha is something like this:
http://everyonestea.blogspot.jp/2010/06/iced-sencha-my-recipe-of-trial-and.html

Ocobo, a café at Kakuozan

There is a café called Ocobo at Kakuozan, Nagoya, which I’ve always wanted to visit. The other day, I finally had the chance. When I got there a few customers are calmly enjoying their tea. The cafe only has 10 seats at the bar. A man was preparing tea and he seemed to be the only person working there at that time. He is probably the master of the café. He told me to wait a little, while I was watching the confectioneries in the showcase for to-go. The master has been trained at a confectionery shop in Kyoto, so I wanted to try their sweets. While waiting, I looked around. On the shelves, there are cute cups and small teapots are displayed. I heard nice sound of the master whisking matcha. On the wall, there are some magazines and books with picture of a temple in Kyoto. I noticed that one of the customer was reading the magazine from the wall. The café was filled with a tranquility. 

In the meantime, the master finished serving the tea and came to me. I was about buying some sweets to take them home, but at the last moment, I changed my mind and decided to have tea and the sweets there. I seated at the bar and had a sencha tea set. 

 

The sencha was very clear and refreshing. It didn’t have much bitterness and any unpleasant flavor. The aroma like roasted chestnuts filled in my mouth. It was quite nice. The sweets that I tried was a little different from what I’ve expected.　But, good ingredients seemed to be used.   

I definitely want to come back when I will be around Kakuozan. I want to try some other of their tea and sweets. Their matcha sorbet sounds good.

Ocobo (Japanese) >>> http://ocobo-wagashi.com/

How to wipe the tea bowl (video)

You rinse the tea bowl before and after making matcha in a tea ceremony. There is a certain way of wiping the wet tea bowl using a special linen cloth called chakin. 　The manner varies depending on school traditions. For instance, I have taught that you wipe the bowl with three and half strokes, but some books say three strokes.

Wiping the bowl is a little complicated. You don’t have to be perfect if it is difficult for you. The idea that we clean the bowl before making tea is one of the gestures to show your respect to the guests. The tea bowl is already cleaned in the preparation room before the ceremony begins. However, you dare to clean it in front of the guests once again. I think that it represents the whole concept of the tea that you’re serving. It is something special and purified with your hospitality. As far as, you politely clean the bowl from the heart, it will be fine. Don’t worry the details too much. Good luck with your tea gathering and enjoy!!

I’m sorry if you have difficulty checking the details on this video because of the bad camera angle. My arm seems to gets in the way of my demonstration.

Please refer the previous post for the proper way of folding chakin.

How to fold chakin (video)

A special linen cloth is used to wipe the tea bowl in a tea ceremony. It is called chakin which is about 30*15cm (12*6in) large. Before the ceremony begins in the preparation room, you nicely fold a damped chakin. Then it is ready to be taken into the tea room with other utensils.

I have introduced how to prepare matcha in the past entry. One of the readers told me that he wants to know how to wipe the tea bowl properly. The manner depends on school traditions. On this video, I’ll introduce the way that I learned at my tea school. I’ll show you how to fold chakin today, and how to wipe the bowl in the next entry.






Chakin linen cloth is available on our shop. Click this picture to jump to the shop.