Matcha: What It Is, Grades, and How to Whisk It

Matcha (抹茶) is Japanese green tea ground into a very fine powder and whisked with water, so you drink the whole leaf. It's made from tencha: leaves shaded for several weeks before harvest, steamed, dried flat without rolling, stripped of stems and veins, and slowly stone-ground. Good matcha is vivid green, smells sweet and grassy, and tastes creamy and savoury with gentle bitterness.

There are two classic ways to prepare it, usucha (thin tea, whisked to a froth) and koicha (thick tea, kneaded into a paste-like drink). "Ceremonial" and "culinary" are marketing labels, not official grades.

The powder in the tin matters more than any technique. A dull olive-green powder, bitter and dusty, and a bright green one, sweet and creamy, are different drinks entirely.

A Chinese habit that stayed in Japan#

Powdered, whisked tea was the fashion in Song dynasty China. Japanese monks brought it home, and it became the heart of the Japanese tea ceremony. Back in China, the Ming dynasty moved to loose-leaf steeping and powdered tea faded away.

So matcha is Japanese today, with Chinese roots. The longer story is in the history of Chinese tea.

Shaded, flattened, then ground on stone#

That's why matcha isn't just ground sencha. Sencha grows in the sun and is rolled; tencha is shaded and dried flat.

The best-known matcha comes from Uji (Kyoto) and Nishio (Aichi), and increasingly from Kagoshima.

What "ceremonial" actually means#

Not much, officially. There's no Japanese grading system behind "ceremonial" and "culinary". Sellers use the words, mostly outside Japan, and in practice they describe roughly this split.

Judge by colour, smell and taste rather than by the word on the tin. Your eyes and tongue are the real grading system.

Thin tea and thick tea#

Usucha is the one you'll make at home.

Whisking a bowl of usucha#

1. Warm the bowl and whisk with hot water; soak the whisk tines briefly. Pour out and dry the bowl.
2. Sift about 2 g of matcha into the bowl.
3. Add 60–70 ml of water at about 80 °C (70–80 °C).
4. Whisk fast in a zigzag (M or W shape), not in circles, from the wrist, for 15–20 seconds.
5. Finish by lifting the whisk slowly through the foam; aim for fine, even bubbles.
6. Drink straight from the bowl.

It shouldn't be harsh. Good matcha is sweet and creamy, and strong bitterness means low quality or too-hot water.

Buying a tin, and using it up#

Look for vivid, bright green powder, never olive or yellow, with a sweet, grassy, fresh smell. It should come from Japan, ideally with the region named (Uji, Nishio, Kagoshima), in a small tin with a recent packing date. Be wary of very cheap "ceremonial" labels.

Matcha oxidizes quickly once opened. Keep it airtight, dark and cool. An unopened tin can go in the fridge, but let it warm to room temperature before opening, and use it within a few weeks of opening.

Because you drink the whole leaf, a bowl of matcha has more caffeine than a cup of steeped green tea. For most people it's a morning or midday drink (more in caffeine in tea).

So buy a small tin of good matcha rather than a big bag of cheap powder. With the right powder, whisking a bowl takes two minutes and feels like a small ritual. For the rest of Japan's teas, see the Japanese tea guide.