Stone-ground tencha powder whisked with 70°C water. Ceremonial koicha is thick and pasty; everyday usucha is whisked frothy.
Powdered tea reached Japan from Song China via the monk Eisai in 1191, who planted seeds at Reisenji and wrote Kissa Yojoki (1211) prescribing tea as medicine. Sen no Rikyu codified the wabi-cha ceremony at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto in the 1580s — what we now call matcha.
Marukyu Koyamaen and Ippodo, both in Uji, supply the Urasenke and Omotesenke schools respectively. Top koicha grade Tenju from Marukyu retails around 8,000 yen for 20 grams — five servings.
Vivid jade-green slurry. Usucha is light, frothed, fresh-cut grass with a faint bitter edge; koicha is paste-thick, opaque, almost meaty umami with a long sweet aftertaste. A small wagashi sweet is eaten just before, never alongside.
Tencha (shade-grown, steamed, unrolled green tea) is stone-milled at 30g/hour — too fast and the friction heat scorches the powder green-brown. The 100-prong bamboo chasen breaks particle clumps and aerates the suspension; without whisking properly, matcha settles in seconds.
Variations
Koicha (thick tea) uses 4g per 30ml, kneaded not whisked, only first-flush leaves from 80+ year old bushes. Usucha (thin tea) uses 2g per 70ml. Culinary-grade matcha for lattes and desserts is later-flush and more astringent — Aiya and Ito En both sell food-grade lines.
On the Palate
Where Matcha sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 1How it's made
4 steps · 4 min
- 11 min
Sift 2 g matcha powder into chawan bowl.
- 21 min
Pour 60 ml 70–80 °C water (NEVER boiling) over the powder.
Watch outWater at 70 to 80 degrees, never boiling — boiling water turns matcha harshly bitter and kills the sweetness.
- 31 min
Whisk vigorously with chasen in M-shaped strokes 15–20 sec until thick foam forms.
Watch outWhisk hard in brisk M-strokes until a thick fine foam rises — skimp on the whisking and the powder clumps and settles out in seconds.
- 41 min
Drink immediately before foam settles; for koicha use double matcha + half water.
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