Powdered green tea leaves · Whisked to order
Single-origin Japanese matcha, sifted, whisked, and served however you like it.
We start by sifting the matcha powder through a fine mesh gently, so the powder loosens and any clumps fall apart. Lumps are the enemy of a smooth taste and are what causes the signature bitter taste in casual matcha makes.
Three grams into a warmed chawan and 30-100ml of water depending on whether we're making a latte or usucha.
Then the whisk comes. A bamboo chasen held loose at the wrist moves in quick zig-zags across the bowl until a fine foam settles on top. After about a minute of whisking, the smooth foamy liquid gets poured.
Usucha - or thin tea - is matcha at its most honest. Just powder and water. No milk, no sugar, nothing to hide behind. The leaf has to stand on its own.
Sip it warm and in small mouthfuls. The first sip carries some foam - light, slightly sweet, grassy. The last sip is deeper, more vegetal, sometimes faintly marine.
We like to pair it with something small and sweet like a square of dark chocolate or a slice of fruit. The bitterness opens up against the sweetness and changes into umami.
For our lattes, we whisk a slightly more concentrated bowl. Essentially it's a small usucha poured over cold or steamed milk. The milk goes in first, and the whisked matcha gets poured over it. For iced variants, this is how we get the signature layer of green at the top.
Hot lattes come mixed and ready to drink. Iced lattes come with the matcha as a layer on top of the milk. We recommend sipping the top to experience the matcha by itself before mixing it to experience the full drink as-intended.