Matcha

2024/5000
If you've ever tasted popular Japanese sweets, you'll probably have a taste for green tea. Green tea ice cream, green tea mochi, green tea cake: the flavor is elegant, sweet without being too sweet and, above all, ubiquitous and delicious. However, when the obtained substance must be gelatinous or creamy, the green tea scenting these delicacies must be fine and versatile. And that's when the matcha enters the stage.

RENDEZ-VOUS MATCHA

What is matcha? This is a very fine green tea powder. The tea leaves are ground between two stones. Although the process seems quite simple, finding matcha - or matcha utensils - can be tricky outside of Japan. Moreover, it should also be mentioned that in Japan itself, matcha is a luxury commodity. Not only does the matcha powder come at a nice price (which goes up to extravagant levels, along with its quality), but its instruments, made from bamboo in a traditional way, can also cost a good sum. No wonder matcha is associated with a refined tradition - the Japanese tea ceremony.

HISTORY AND PREPARATION

Surprisingly (if we notice the relative absence of matcha in China), it was under the Chinese Song Dynasty that matcha was invented. This tea powder became a key element of Chan Buddhist rituals and it was with this spiritual connotation that it was brought back to Japan by a monk in the 12th century.
A few centuries pass. The Chinese have stopped using this form of tea. The Japanese, meanwhile, codify its use in a context of tea ceremony, chanoyu. We must sift the matcha; place it in a tea bowl with a scoop of bamboo (chashaku) and whip with a traditional whip, the chasen, until a uniform liquid is obtained. According to tradition, matcha is drunk three times, with a little sweetness between sips to soften the bitter taste.