What size chazen?
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Going to try some matcha and need a chazen. I see they come in different shapes and sizes, some longer and thinner, others short and more squat. What should I look for in a basic starter chazen?
I suggest going with a basic chasen of 80-100 branches. More branches will produce foam more quickly. Black is beautiful but is for certain schools of chanoyu, whereas white is standard. Some very thin ones are for unusual types of bancha, etc. If you are starting off, go with a standard one like this: http://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php? ... cts_id=423
The curl of each branch will straighten out over use but still remain forgiving. You can find them more or less expensive than the one I’ve linked to.
Each chasen is good for 10-15 preparations of matcha in my experience. When the ends of the branches start to tear off it will be time to replace your chasen. In Japan there is a ceremony each year where worn chasen from the previous year are collected and ceremonially burned.
You didn’t ask, but let your chasen air dry after removing tea residue from it. Some people mistakenly put them back into plastic holders before they dry, causing mold to develop.
The curl of each branch will straighten out over use but still remain forgiving. You can find them more or less expensive than the one I’ve linked to.
Each chasen is good for 10-15 preparations of matcha in my experience. When the ends of the branches start to tear off it will be time to replace your chasen. In Japan there is a ceremony each year where worn chasen from the previous year are collected and ceremonially burned.
You didn’t ask, but let your chasen air dry after removing tea residue from it. Some people mistakenly put them back into plastic holders before they dry, causing mold to develop.
There are a few things worth mentioning on just this part of your question:
1) Quality matters a lot with matcha. There’s culinary grade which is self explanatory, but there’s a large range in quality even among ceremonial grades. I used to dislike matcha until I had a higher end one. Now I dont know how I lived without it. A lot of flavors come through up to 15 minutes after drinking it: chocolate, lingonberry, citrus, etc.
2) It can seem bitter until you become accustomed to it. Having something delicate but sweet, like a fruit bar, a few minutes before preparing and drinking matcha helps tame the bitterness. For ease, I like a bite of a blueberry Larabar if I can’t get real wagashi. It’s a mildly sweet date bar with blueberries and cashews, so it tames the bitterness while being unobtrusive: American wagashi!
3) Even if you dislike matcha at first, try it again a few times. The first time I had that first higher end one matcha I remember thinking “boy, am I gonna have a lot of matcha sitting around!” Two sessions later and I ordered 2 more cans so I wouldn’t have a gap day between fixes.
4) While unorthodox, it is easier to get a good foam if you temper the matcha with a couple teaspoons of cold water, mix it thoroughly to eliminate lumps, before adding hot water. Proportions for thin matcha (usucha) are 2 grams matcha to approximately 70ml of water at 80°C. To get 2 grams without a scale, it’s 1.5 large scoops from a chashaku. Instructions here:
HTH
My first sessions with matcha were unsatisfactory: I bought matcha from local stores, probably not the very best but not cheap stuff meant for cooking rather than drinking, watched online videos, and just did not like the result. So I determined that I would wait until I could have matcha prepared by an expert, and then I would decide if it was worth going after or not.
When I went to Japan a year ago, I had matcha at a temple garden, where staff brought us a tray with a tea bowl, the right quantity of matcha, a chasen, hot water, and an instructional card with directions in multiple languages. I followed the directions, whisked my own matcha, and I enjoyed it. It was not just the setting, the tea was very good. Then I went on a tour of Obubu tea farm near Kyoto, and part of the tour was a tasting and again, a guided preparation of matcha. It was again delicious. So I bought a couple of tins of matcha during the trip (but I goofed and did not buy any of Obubu's own matcha that day due to an oversight). I've been enjoying it ever since. I think it was a combination of better quality matcha, and getting a better sense of the proportion of matcha to water and how to whisk to get good foam.
And now I have matcha in the morning once or twice a week, although I still love sencha too much to make matcha an every day thing.
When I went to Japan a year ago, I had matcha at a temple garden, where staff brought us a tray with a tea bowl, the right quantity of matcha, a chasen, hot water, and an instructional card with directions in multiple languages. I followed the directions, whisked my own matcha, and I enjoyed it. It was not just the setting, the tea was very good. Then I went on a tour of Obubu tea farm near Kyoto, and part of the tour was a tasting and again, a guided preparation of matcha. It was again delicious. So I bought a couple of tins of matcha during the trip (but I goofed and did not buy any of Obubu's own matcha that day due to an oversight). I've been enjoying it ever since. I think it was a combination of better quality matcha, and getting a better sense of the proportion of matcha to water and how to whisk to get good foam.
And now I have matcha in the morning once or twice a week, although I still love sencha too much to make matcha an every day thing.
BTW, I have only had one chasen of my own, that I bought on the trip, and I've washed it carefully after each use, and bought it a chasen stand to dry over, and it's probably prepared a hundred bowls of matcha, and it still works fine. I did have to clean it aggressively once because of some spots of mold that started before I got the drying stand, but other than that, it's been just one whisking in hot water to rinse the chasen and the bowl (I drink that rinse), and then one more with water off the boil before shaking it out and placing it back on the stand.
That’s amazing! No matter the quality I go through them at about 10-15 uses. Here is a new one and worn one side by side, due to be retired any day now.
Apparently one of us is getting more fiber than the other!
(I hope all this helped @Recoil Rob)
So @debunix, that’s still a lot of matcha with one chasen. Are you getting a lot of foam? Are you making a paste first as in the video?
I make a thin pastn which probably damages my chasen more than if I did it the ceremonial way, as I am kneading the matcha into a paste with the chasen at first. I get velvety matcha with copious foam doing it this way so I am wary of doing it in a potentially problematic, if more traditional, way.