For instance, my creamy chawan always makes me think about smoothness and simplicity and dunes: warmth and sea are never too far away. I just love it! As for the whisk, I realized how close it can be to a flower...
I know that some people prepare matcha using hot water at 80° C. I must say I find it very odd. Firstly, because matcha is a shade tea as gyokuro which requires warm water rather then hot. Secondly, because you are supposed to prepare it and drink it right away which means that either you will drink it very hot or you will have to wait it to cool down. In both cases, it seems to me that you miss quite a few nice subtleties of it. An inferior quality or an average matcha that do not have much to offer might require such a high temperature, but not a superior quality matcha.
So, as usual, I prepared matcha with filtered water at 50° C. The matcha I have is not supreme quality, but it is quite beyond average. I made a very light usucha : one good chashaku mesure for something like 10 cl. I used a small stainless sieve to transfer that amount of tea to the chawan. Then with a circular movement I slowly poured water along the chawan rather then directly on matcha. I whisked it and after a couple of wide quick Z's I had a nice froth.
This was indeed a very light usucha. I normally put two generous scoops to prepare usucha, so today I did taste something different. This one had a nice creamy texture and a slight powder milk note. I tasted a hint of bitterness at a certain point. It was OK, but a bit more thicker, matcha Ikuyo-no-mukashi offers more than that.
commentaires: 9 Post a Comment
July 27, 2009
Je viens de lire ton blog, bienvenue dans ce monde passionnant. Francine
August 07, 2009
Bravo Marisa!
Tes photos sont très belles et tes notes de dégustations donnent envie de venir partager ces thés avec toi...
Virginie
August 09, 2009
Merci Francine pour ce mot bienveillant! On se croisera sans doute bientôt sur l'un ou l'autre blog. Bonnes dégustations!
August 09, 2009
Merci pour ta réaction pleine d'enthousiasme, Virginie. Eh ben, tu es toujours la bienvenue!! Tu sais où me trouver...! Moi, tu le sais, je suis toujours partante pour déguster les délices de ton petit poêlon japonais.
August 15, 2009
Hi Lewis, thank you for your comment. I've just visited Matcha Source's website and I must say I was quite surprised. In a good way, I mean. I will definitely recommend it to people that seek to know more about matcha and its preparation. It's rather uncommon to find such a complete data about matcha in one single website, so... Long life to Matcha Source! Cheers.
August 27, 2009
A Marisa
Ignorant tout (ou presque) de l'art du thé, ce site m'a d'emblée conquise, par sa "beau thé" :
esthétisme des photos
plaisir des mots (tant anglais que français)
imaginaire de la narration (musique, poésie), bref une grande envie de m'y "projet thé"
A +
Jeanne H
August 27, 2009
Coucou Jeanne, j'ai beaucoup aimé ton petit mot. Merci! Cela me fait plaisir de savoir que tu as passé un agréable moment en parcourant ce blog. Mais bon mes articles et mes photos ne sont qu'un point de départ que les commentaires des uns des autres permettront de dépasser. Donc... ne t'abstiens surtout pas de laisser des remarques ou des questions, si tu en auras l'envie.
A bientôt!
September 09, 2009
I like hearing about your experiences with setting the environment just right to best enjoy the matcha experience. Brings it a little closer to what the Japanese do with their tea ceremony.
September 10, 2009
Thank you for your comment, Jason.
Did you read The Book of Tea, by Kakuzô OKakura? This is where I picked the quotation for my homepage. It's one of my favourite books about tea. I really like the way Okakura conceived tea tasting and more generally Chanoyu, which he called the path of tea, and an art of life.
In his view, Chanoyu was all about "aesthetic and moral sensivity". In other words, simplicity, sharing, awakening all your senses so you can see the beauty that lies in ordinary things, and then humbly reach Beauty.
I've been reading about japanese tea ceremony and I participated in one myself once - it was such a cold experience! Personally, I do not see Okakura's noble principles in this ceremony. Spontaneous joy is completely annihilate by the set of codes... We are so far from what Okakura believed in.
Okakura's impulsion is part of my general attitude (this is a on-going work of course), and when I prepare matcha I really try to become even more aware of it.
I'd be glad to know what you think about that.
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