In honor of March Madness, I am going to be having fun with Matcha this march. Granted this has no bracket, and I certainly hope no one places bets on the matcha I will be drinking. In fact I will not even be doing head to heads so I won't really be comparing. But as I caved and purchased two brand new tea bowls/ Chawan in the past week I felt the need to order some matcha and a new chasen to make sure I had something to use in the chawan.
This morning though was the first morning I have given a decent bit of thought to start a morning ritual involving a bowl of matcha. It really is not a bad idea, and know quite a few people that fit Matcha into their morning routines. If I could consistently be awake and functioning upon waking up, I think I would definitely fit matcha into my morning ritual. Though sadly I am one of those people that gets up and fights tooth and nail to not fall back asleep, even when sitting up and trying to nibble on some breakfast.
Just in case any of my readers are having trouble with Matcha, I have noticed a few key things that are absolutely critical when preparing matcha. While you do not need to buy a special matcha sifter, it is incredibly important to sift your matcha. What I actually use is a metal tea infuser that I think came with a enameled tetsubin I got early in my tea drinking days. It is a basket that has a somewhat fine metal mesh everywhere except for its rim. To sift I use my Chashaku to scoop the required amount, then use it to push it through the mesh to sift it. Speaking of Chashaku, they are not necessary but the basic ones are somewhat inexpensive and do not actually ware out like Chasen, the only time I have heard of a Chashaku being ruined is when someone left it sitting in water ( the bambo when wet unbent itself). The other key item, which doesn't need to be a special yazumashi, but rather just any cup/ item that is hot water safe that can be used as an effective cooling vessel. While I have never actually tested out the kettles that heat water directly to preset temperatures, I personally feel that usually water below the oft quoted 180 is needed for Matcha ( though not much).
In fact, while the whisking may be somewhat unusual to begin with, the hardest thing to get right when preparing matcha is water temperature. Keeping in mind that these are similar to gyokuro leaves, so if the water is too hot you can get that horrible taste you often find in gyokuro leaves. If the water is too cool ( i. e gyokuro temperature) it is incredibly hard to get the proper amount of froth when whisking the tea.
4 comments:
Adam, would you give an advise how to store matcha. I'm planning on buying a 300 gr box of matcha tea (mainly for pastry and baking needs) and I wonder what is the proper way to store it.
Recently I've read that it's best to keep it in an airtight container in the freezer, is that right?
Mushitza, The biggest thing to think of is Air and Moisture are the enemy with matcha. You get any sort of noticeable moisture near the matcha and it can start to clump into little balls of "dough." So when storing matcha its best to keep it as air tight as possible, but that really depends on how long it is going to take you to use up the quantity. As 300 grams is a lot ( but I have no clue how much will get used each time you bake an item), it is best to go air tight. I have always been hesitant to freeze any teas whether sealed or unsealed.
Maybe because I rarely order an over abundance of tea, but I consider moisture from condensation to be a bigger enemy for just about every tea than a month or so of sitting at room temperature. Of course it all depends on how careful you are, if you have it very air tight, and you freeze it, then you make sure you let it completely warm up to room temperature before you open the bag, it can likely be one of the best ways to store the tea.
Nice post, Adam. It's very true about sifting: you MUST sift matcha for an optimum experience -- it's the only way to get a creamy, really smooth brew and perfect crema.
Try not to push too vigorously with the chasen, though: just shake the sieve as much as you can, then gently push through the rest. Violent pushing can create a lot of friction, which damages the delicate matcha.
Ideal temp seems to me to about 175, so we're in agreement there.
It's really key not to go any higher than that -- it will actually scorch the delicate match. You can't treat this stuff too gingerly!
Mushitza: always store your matcha in the fridge, sealed as tightly as possible. As Adam says, light, heat, and moisture are its arch enemies. Here's a little more on storage: http://masterclass.breakawaymatcha.com/#matcha9
Adam, Eric, thank you for the advises. I live on the Black sea coast and humidity is a major problem here.
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