No Matcha Today

[beforewisdom]

I have a tea cafe near where I live, so I thought I would go try matcha. See what it is like done properly before I invest any cash in trying it.

The shop turned trendy with many iced teas, many bubble teas and only one page of straight tea.

All of their matcha was part of milkshake-like drinks and I don't drink milk.

I asked if I could get matcha without the milk, but I got the feeling that the waiter didn't know what I wanted so I passed.

I tried Dragon Well instead but inside the pot was just a fancy tea bag. My first few cups were clear water and then went straight to bitter dregs.

[britt]

I have a tea cafe near where I live, so I thought I would go try matcha. See what it is like done properly before I invest any cash in trying it.

The shop turned trendy with many iced teas, many bubble teas and only one page of straight tea.

All of their matcha was part of milkshake-like drinks and I don't drink milk.

I asked if I could get matcha without the milk, but I got the feeling that the waiter didn't know what I wanted so I passed.

I tried Dragon Well instead but inside the pot was just a fancy tea bag. My first few cups were clear water and then went straight to bitter dregs.

It may be a good thing you didn't get to try matcha in this tea shop. They may have given you an undeserved negative impression that would turn you away from it.

I'd suggest something like this:

Buy some Kiri No Mori matcha from O-Cha. Skip the expensive utensils for now, like the whisk, matcha bowl, and bamboo scoop. These things have great estetic value, but are not absolutely necessary. They do add to the enjoyment and they do make the job easy, but at a fairly high cost. Initially just use any bowl about 4 to 5 inches in diameter and any whisk or even a fork. If you like the matcha, you can then purchase the additional items. If you don't like it, you've lost only the amount of money you paid for the can of matcha.

This may be a primitive way to start, but the results will likely be superior to what you'd get in a local tea shop that serves Long Jing in tea bags. I'm not knocking tea bags, as there are some very good ones, but it's surprising that a tea shop would use them.

[Sydney]

For the ultracheap approach, I still encourage people to at least sift the stuff through the screen on a tea ball to avoid clumping. (What else you gonna use that old tea ball for anyway?)

I think a cheap chasen is also a pretty good idea, and it would only bump that kiri order from $17 to $30.

[entropyembrace]

Of all the fancy utensils the only one that really makes a difference is the bamboo whisk.

sifting the matcha is important too but you can just do that with a basket infuser, kitchen strainer or whatever...any fairly fine mesh metal filter that´s clean for food use.

And any shallow bowl is fine for drinking out of.

You can use an ordinary kitchen whisk to mix the matcha and it works ok...not as well as a bamboo whisk but good enough if you sift the matcha through a strainer first.