TeaChat

Oni wrote:I now have 2 koicha matcha, including the best grade from Horaido teashop, I always sift the matcha before making koicha, it is a must, and I use 4 to 5 chasaku with 40 ml of water, I add a little to make the thick paste, and add the rest to dilute to drinking consistensy, and I drink it and consume a little jaggery (indian date palm sugar) after to help my body absorb the tea, and I drink it once a day, it is a very intense stimulation that lasts 6 hours, if I drink it at 6 pm, I cannot get sleep until 2 am.

No wonder you can't get to sleep! lol I normally only drink koicha during the day, plus you're putting far too much koicha in for one person. Traditionally in chanoyu, 3 heaped chashaku scoops is plenty, followed by enough water to make a slightly runny paste.

Recently tried preparing koicha, about 45ml water and 3g of matcha. At first the plan was 4g, but when i saw how much 3g actually is (didn't count, but probably it was about 11-12chasaku) i backed off Preheated chawan well with boiling water. Used my first usucha chasen, 80 prongs, but they are quite hard. Probably this is my first real attempt, before i tried high ratio but still far from this one.

Taste was quite impressive or mind blowing i would say, only could handle tiny sips. Really concentrated flavor, not bitter or astringent, just really rich, probably like drinking honey. Most likely i will stay with usucha and only on rare occasion go with koicha.

Hard to tell but based on your photo, if it's supposed to be koicha it still looks a little thin to me. Properly prepared koicha is almost like pancake batter thick..

Kevangogh wrote:Hard to tell but based on your photo, if it's supposed to be koicha it still looks a little thin to me. Properly prepared koicha is almost like pancake batter thick..

Yep, it's only close to really thick koicha. Simply my preference, i knew that going higher would be certainly above my limit, i can't handle well too rich flavors. Although this year saw few episodes on TV about tea ceremony in this show 趣味DO楽 http://www.nhk-book.co.jp/doraku/201206_mon.html and koicha there was actually quite liquid. Perhaps it's the difference between schools?

Next time you are in Kyoto, head over to the Ippodo shop and order up a koicha, it's really thick. Reminds me of pudding almost...