How to make matcha: a quiet ritual for the morning

The day begins before it gets loud. Outside it is still blue, the street is empty, and the only sound in the flat is the kettle. It is the hour when rooms feel different: no artificial light, no conversation, no hurry. For many people, it is the hour for coffee. For us, it is the hour for matcha, and knowing how to make matcha well takes little more than a bowl, a whisk and three quiet minutes.

Matcha is green tea, but not like any tea you steep in a pot. The plants are shaded for a few weeks before the harvest, so the leaves grow more slowly and their flavour deepens. After steaming and drying, the stems and veins are removed, and what remains is ground on stone mills into a fine powder. You are not drinking an infusion of the leaf, but the leaf itself.

How to make matcha

It asks for very little: a bowl, the chawan; a bamboo whisk, the chasen; a slender bamboo scoop, the chashaku. And a few minutes set aside for it. The tools are deliberately simple. They draw attention to where it belongs: the hand, the water, the moment.

First, warm the bowl with hot water and let the whisk soak in it briefly, so its fine tines soften. Pour the water away and dry the bowl. Then sift in about two grams of matcha: two scoops with the chashaku, or a scant teaspoon. Sifting is not a minor detail. It breaks up the little lumps that would otherwise never dissolve.

The water should not boil. Between 75 and 80 °C is right: boiling water makes matcha bitter and takes away its sweetness. Start with just 10 ml and stir the powder into a smooth, thick paste with the whisk. Then pour in another 20 to 50 ml, to taste, and whisk, don't stir: quickly, from the wrist, in W-shaped strokes, until a fine, dense foam forms after fifteen or twenty seconds. To finish, lift the whisk slowly out from the centre. Drink it soon, while the foam still holds.

What happens in those minutes is hard to describe without making more of it than it is. You are doing something with your hands that asks for attention but no effort. You cannot look at your phone. You watch the colour change, from a dull powder to a bright, living green. Perhaps three minutes, no more. But they set the tone for the hours that follow.

Why the room is part of the ritual

The room plays a quiet part in all this. A table by the window, a surface with nothing on it but the bowl, morning light falling at a slant. In Japanese tea culture, the room is never a backdrop but part of the preparation: tidy, simple, with a single object that hints at the season. You do not need a tea room to borrow from this. A corner with no other job to do is enough.

This is why Niyu Matcha and Niyu Design belong together. Not because tea and furniture are the same thing, but because they ask for the same outlook: that beautiful, everyday things deserve attention, and that calm is not something you find, but something you make room for. At the Niyu Residenz, tea and space meet in one setting.

A final, practical note: matcha is delicate. Light, heat and air rob it of its colour and freshness. Keep it sealed, in the dark and somewhere cool, and once opened, use it within eight weeks.

And tomorrow, while it is still blue outside, it begins again: water, bowl, whisk. Three minutes that belong to the day, before the day belongs to everyone else.

Frequently asked questions

What temperature should the water be for matcha?

Between 75 and 80 °C. Boiling water makes matcha bitter and takes away its sweetness.

How much matcha do you need for one bowl?

About 2 g, which is two scoops with a chashaku or a scant teaspoon. Sift it straight into a warmed, dry bowl.

Why make a matcha paste first?

With only 10 ml of water, the powder dissolves completely, without lumps. Only then do you add 20 to 50 ml more, and the foam turns out finer and denser.

How do you use a chasen, the bamboo matcha whisk?

Soak the chasen briefly in hot water so its fine tines soften. Then whisk quickly from the wrist in W-shaped strokes, rather than stirring, until a fine foam forms after fifteen to twenty seconds.

How should you store matcha once it is opened?

Keep it sealed, dark and cool, because light, heat and air take away its colour and freshness. Once opened, use it within eight weeks.