Though I’m usually an early riser these days, I don’t usually eat breakfast until almost noontime. My morning fuel generally consists of dizzying amounts of tea–sencha, yerba mate, black and herbal teas–I drink them all. Since I tend to eat breakfast late, lunch is usually small or is sometimes more of a snack, naturally taken with tea. Besides books, my main indulgence is nice Japanese green teas, especially matcha, and it is a wonderful drink to have in the early afternoon with a sweet. Matcha is a pleasantly bright-green powdered tea that is whisked with water to produce a foamy and richly-flavourful drink that is very different from steeped teas. Good matcha tastes like nothing else; it is creamy and smooth tasting, and though it has a vegetal ‘green’ taste, it is much more complex than that. If you haven’t tried it, you should! If you like fine green teas, you’ll love it.
I often order matcha from the online tea shop and producer Hibiki-an, and am always happy with their quality, though their teas are pricey. The matcha I’ve been enjoying lately is dubbed ‘Matcha Super Premium’, and you can click on the link if you’d like more information on it from their site.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Hibiki-an, I just like their teas.
matcha, kaki, mooncake
The furoshiki we use as a tablecloth was a gift from Toyoko, C’s very sweet mother.
Since matcha often has a slight bitter taste and some astringency (like many teas) it is often enjoyed with a sweet, especially in cha-do or sado, the Japanese traditional tea ceremony. The wagashi confection is eaten before the tea, and the slight sweetness left in your mouth is thought to enhance the taste of the matcha. With this bowl of tea I enjoyed two small pieces of mooncake; one filled with lotus seed paste as in this post, and one filled with red bean paste, and a kaki or fuyu persimmon, another great autumn treat.
this particular persimmon has a peculiar hollow inside
When drinking matcha, one is consuming the whole of the tea leaf (excepting the veins & stems) so it is said to have many more beneficial antioxidants and nutrients than steeped tea, as well as more caffeine. Beyond any health benefits it may have, it is a wonderful treat to drink, whether with a snack or alone. It has a long history in China and Japan, and has been used extensively by Zen monks to help stay alert through long meditation sessions.
Have you tried matcha? If so, what did you think of it?
love,
meg
