Matcha: Koicha vs Usucha

[CutieAgouti]

Hi! It's been awhile since I posted but recently I was bold enough to spend a little bit on some koicha matcha. I tried it and it was sooo intense. Almost too intense. To be honest I couldn't finish it and had to water it down

Is this unusual? I know some teas can be an "acquired" taste but I'm wondering if anyone ever loved koicha from the get go? I love usucha and sometimes I make it on the "thick" side so it leaves a nice, long aftertaste, but nothing as extreme as the full-on koicha explosion.

Thanks!

[Geekgirl]

Nah, I'm with you, I much prefer usucha. Now, maybe if it were tea ceremony and I were only having my 3 sips, but an entire bowl just for me... overwhelming.

[olivierco]

I mostly drink matcha as koicha but I can understand that it might be too intense and overwhelming.

[chamekke]

I loved koicha the first time I tried it... but then, it was my tea sensei who made it for me, and with high-quality matcha too If I'd had to make and drink it on my own, made with God-knows-what variety of matcha, I might have hated it!

For most people it's an acquired taste - and some never do acquire it. I know several tea ceremony students who don't care for it, but it's not something you'd ever say when actually being offered some

My main problem with koicha is when it's so thick that it actually coats your lips. Nothing wrong with the taste, even then - but the appearance of it on the outside of your mouth can be embarrassing. It's something of a challenge to remove it unobtrusively, but the alternative is to end up looking like a "Got koicha?" advert.

[chingwa]

I tend to make a bowl of koicha, drink half, and then add water to the second have and whip it into usucha. Best of both worlds and a lighter finish to boot.

It's something of a challenge to remove it

chamekke, a problem even more exacerbated for those of us with moustaches...

[TEAcipes]

you're only suppose to drink itty bitty amounts, but it should go down fine if you're using high quality matcha.
when i just started getting into matcha, i made the mistake of doing koicha with food-grade matcha. it felt like someone threw a packet of silicagel into my mouth.

[Oni]

With koicha grade matcha, it is better to make koicha than a really light usucha, it is sweet and creamy, it is a great experience.

[CutieAgouti]

Sorry for the delay! Work's been busy!

I do have an alright matcha kociha (just from ito-en, I was in NYC and figured why not). I didn't want to "waste" it as usucha so I make an in-between consistency.

I'm still going to try full-on thick koicha every now and then just to see if I can cross the bridge.

[xuancheng]

I tend to make a bowl of koicha, drink half, and then add water to the second have and whip it into usucha. Best of both worlds and a lighter finish to boot.

It's something of a challenge to remove it

chamekke, a problem even more exacerbated for those of us with moustaches...

I was just thinking about this the other day...

Can someone who studies the tea ceremony explain proper decorum for people who have moustaches?

Maybe a resident teaware artisan would like to try make a 'moustache chawan.'

[fmoreira272]

I tend to make a bowl of koicha, drink half, and then add water to the second have and whip it into usucha. Best of both worlds and a lighter finish to boot.

I found that to be just perfect too.
Couple days ago i finally opened a can of ceremony grade matcha from Yuuki-cha. I had tried making koicha with other grades of matcha but i almost choked with the results. The proper grade makes a difference. the flavor is very complex but not too overwhelming. I read before someone describing the texture as melted chocolate and it couldnt be more right. I also expected the boost of caffeine to be instantaneous but i didnt get jittery or anything.
next I wanna try eating some sweets before having koicha, since its the way they do in the tea ceremony i wanna see how it changes the taste.
another thing i found is that making regular usucha with ceremony matcha isnt worth the price. i found the cheaper grade i had before to produce a frothier and tastier usucha. i guess that why they have grades.

[chamekke]

I tend to make a bowl of koicha, drink half, and then add water to the second have and whip it into usucha. Best of both worlds and a lighter finish to boot.

It's something of a challenge to remove it

chamekke, a problem even more exacerbated for those of us with moustaches...

I was just thinking about this the other day...

Can someone who studies the tea ceremony explain proper decorum for people who have moustaches?

Heh... there is no specific decorum as far as I'm aware. But since I have no moustache, perhaps I haven't been given the special transmission

Whichever type of matcha you drink, the trick is to tip the teabowl up so that the liquid flows into your mouth. In the case of koicha, sometimes you have to hold the bowl high and tilt at a dramatic angle since the liquid is so thick. As the koicha cools down, it becomes thicker (less runny) and is more of a challenge to "coax" out of the bowl... one reason why you may not want to be the last person to receive the shared bowl. The other reason is that the last person must try to finish whatever is left over from everyone else! (This may or may not be the situation of your dreams, depending on how you feel about koicha.)

At the risk of being irreverent, then. If I were a mustachioed gentleman who was receiving a shared bowl of koicha in the tearoom, and there were genuine reasons for fearing that I'd get the koicha all over my moustache, I would take tiny discreet sips and not be too concerned about taking my full share of the drink - i.e. the famous three-and-a-half sips.

By not drinking your share, you are being "less considerate" of the next guests by forcing them to drink more than theirs ... but you are also being more considerate of everyone by saving them the embarrassment/suppressed hilarity of looking at your green-mustachio'ed phiz for the rest of the event.

And the other option would be to trim or even shave off the moustache

[chingwa]

trim or even shave off the moustache

[chamekke]

trim or even shave off the moustache

No worries. I was joking

[coloradopu]

I tend to make a bowl of koicha, drink half, and then add water to the second have and whip it into usucha. Best of both worlds and a lighter finish to boot.

It's something of a challenge to remove it

chamekke, a problem even more exacerbated for those of us with moustaches...

I was just thinking about this the other day...

Can someone who studies the tea ceremony explain proper decorum for people who have moustaches?

Maybe a resident teaware artisan would like to try make a 'moustache chawan.'

i will give it a try
no bad jokes it might not look too spiffy