Sifter for matcha makes tea delicious!

Good morning everyone! Last night I had the third lesson of Jun. Can you tell what the silver item is in the picture?

It is a sifter for matcha. The tea made with old matcha often gets lumps which are not good for the taste. When you want to used old matcha, it is better to sift it to prevent lumps. You don’t have to sift flesh milled matcha from tea shop, though. I don’t have a specialized sifter like this at home, so I use a regular tea strainer instead.

At yesterday lesson we used matcha powder from a week before. So, we sifted it before putting into a natsume (container for matcha) at the preparation room. The powder got loose and light, and looked double in volume. At *temae, it was very easy to mix with water when whisking, and we didn’t get any lumps in the tea. What surprised me was the taste. It was very good. The tea was mild and smooth. It was as almost good as new one, or better than that. I realized again how sifting makes the tea better. I’m sometimes too lazy to sift matcha at home, but I’ll try it from now on.

Try it out, everyone. You just might like it, too.

* Temae is series of procedures followed to prepare for making the tea, then to do the tea making and then to put things away.