Taking a Closer Look at Matcha Production Below
The team at Obubu Tea Farms have produced a lovely 3-part series about how matcha is produced that I would like to present here below:
Part 1:
Moe-san gives an introduction that looks at harvesting the tea leaves and tencha brewing recommendations.
Part 2:
Marie delves deeper into the processes of making tencha (“matcha” before it is ground into ‘matcha’) and mejiro kukicha (stem tea as a by-product of tencha).
Part 3:
George visits a factory in Japan where aliens grind Obubu tencha into matcha.
You can, of course, make matcha for yourself and enjoy it. Alternatively, you can make matcha for somebody else – and enjoy it !
There are well over 40 different styles on how to serve matcha properly taught at Japan’s tea schools. The three schools with the most followers, the 三千家, which all have founders who descend from Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591) are
Here is a video that shows what part of a Japanese tea ceremony can look like at the Urasenke Tea School. (The entire ceremony, which can be roughly divided into a first part with koicha, a second part with victuals, and a third part with usucha, lasts 4h – and this is just the ceremonial part without preparation by either host or guests).
If you find this a little too elaborate, then you may want to try Chubu Ryu, a simplified way for Westerners to prepare matcha and still reach a professional result.
Beware: Do not use this method in Japan. Chubu Ryu works astonishingly well, but your moves and actions will be heavily frowned upon in Japan.
