Care of matchawares
Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 12:50 pm
I'm new to matcha in the past few months, and am trying to figure out how to best care for my matcha implements. I want them to last as long as possible by caring for them well.
The chawans are easy: I make sure they're rinsed with hot water, and dried with a soft towel. If, as often happens, I continue with the chawan for the rest of the day and the next, it will get a wash with baking soda to remove any tea stains, but nothing harsher than that.
For the chasen, I'm whisking it though a fresh batch of hot water, usually hotter than I use for the matcha itself, in the same chawan, making sure any green spots are rinsed off (spot rinsing with water direct from the kettle if needed, then leaving it on the ceramic chasen stand to dry, and storing it there between uses. Still wondering: does it matter how hot the water is that I use for the rinsing? Is it OK as long as there no visible matcha left and it dries thoroughly before the next use?
Lastly, the chashaku: right now I'm using a wooden tea scoop by Ondřej Sedlák, which easily scoops the right amount from my tin of matcha. But the matcha gets into the grooves, and using water to wash it and scrub those bits out seems likely to lead to cracking, whether of this lovely wooden scoop, or of a traditional bamboo chashaku (I haven't got one of those yet). It seems like wiping with a soft dry clean cloth after vigorously tapping it to try to knock off as much as possible is the best I can do for now, but.....what do you do?
Right now I'm using a small stainless steel strainer I already had for sifting the matcha, and it works great and is easy to just rinse or toss in the dishwasher if needed. But....if you use a traditional sifter--a matcha furui?--how do you care for that?
The chawans are easy: I make sure they're rinsed with hot water, and dried with a soft towel. If, as often happens, I continue with the chawan for the rest of the day and the next, it will get a wash with baking soda to remove any tea stains, but nothing harsher than that.
For the chasen, I'm whisking it though a fresh batch of hot water, usually hotter than I use for the matcha itself, in the same chawan, making sure any green spots are rinsed off (spot rinsing with water direct from the kettle if needed, then leaving it on the ceramic chasen stand to dry, and storing it there between uses. Still wondering: does it matter how hot the water is that I use for the rinsing? Is it OK as long as there no visible matcha left and it dries thoroughly before the next use?
Lastly, the chashaku: right now I'm using a wooden tea scoop by Ondřej Sedlák, which easily scoops the right amount from my tin of matcha. But the matcha gets into the grooves, and using water to wash it and scrub those bits out seems likely to lead to cracking, whether of this lovely wooden scoop, or of a traditional bamboo chashaku (I haven't got one of those yet). It seems like wiping with a soft dry clean cloth after vigorously tapping it to try to knock off as much as possible is the best I can do for now, but.....what do you do?
Right now I'm using a small stainless steel strainer I already had for sifting the matcha, and it works great and is easy to just rinse or toss in the dishwasher if needed. But....if you use a traditional sifter--a matcha furui?--how do you care for that?