Tender leaves are hand-picked, washed, dried, then ground under two-foot-wide granite wheels that yield about one ounce of powder per hour. Slow, shaded growth spikes the production of chlorophyll and amino acids -particularly L-theanine, which Gower calls "a remarkable molecule" that delivers "a strangely calm, prolonged energy boost rather than the quick jittery effect" of most caffeinated drinks. When new leaves sprout in spring, tea gardens are draped to block out 97 percent of sunlight. Matcha Latte mix, sold at Richmond's 99 Ranch Market. Ninth-century Buddhist monks first brought matcha from China to Japan, where it was sipped almost exclusively in monasteries and noble households until Sen no Rikyu expanded its popularity among samurai and ordinary citizens. This spurred him to source and sell the good stuff himself. But I loved the tea."Īfter moving back to the States, Gower "couldn't find any good matcha - only unpalatable, horrible matcha" - even in Japantown, "a major offender" whose shopkeepers "obviously think there's no customer base for authentic, expensive matcha, so they stock tons of crap priced at $6.99 a can that's destined to sit unloved, dusty and unrefrigerated on the shelves forever." While lower-grade matchas - known as culinary-grade and agricultural-grade - are now popping up everywhere in sugary-sweet treats, the only tea considered worthy of sipping unadorned in the pure, plain-water chado-style is ceremonial-grade matcha, the finest of the three grades.Īnd that's what chef/author/teamonger Eric Gower, owner of San Anselmo-based Breakaway Matcha, sells for about $108 per ounce.Īfter earning a UC Berkeley BA "in that rip-roaringly useful subject, Japanese literature," Gower spent sixteen years living in Japan, where "I wasn't into the tea ceremony, per se. Whisked ceremonial-grade matcha, ready to drink. This choreographed-down-to-the-last-glance ritual emphasizes respect, harmony, purity, tranquility - and features matcha sieved into a tea-bowl (cha-wan), then whipped briskly (back and forth, not circularly) with a whisk (chasen) in water (hot, but not boiling) to yield a uniformly tiny-bubbled (because big and uneven bubbles are considered gross, thus must be popped by the master before serving) froth. Peet's, Starbucks and other cafés have leaped into the game with matcha lattes and matcha freddos that would surely horrify Sen No Rikyu, the Zen-trained 16th-century tea master who created the Japanese tea ceremony, aka chado (the way of tea) or chanoyu (hot water for tea). Manufacturers are churning out mass-produced matcha-flavored drinks and snacks. "However you use it, matcha's kind of like butter in that you pretty much can't go wrong." Matcha-flavored Kit-Kats for sale at Richmond's 99 Ranch Market. "You can use matcha as the main star or to complement a dish," Kwon says. Beignets with matcha crème Anglaise at Joshu-Ya Brasserie. Streaking across the plate alongside the beignets is a vivid trail of matcha powder in which to dip forkfuls for a kaleidoscopic flavor epiphany. "Its flavor doesn't occupy just one or two dimensions but many," says Kwon, who sprinkles savory dishes with house-made matcha salt and creates globally inspired desserts such as yuzu panna cotta with strawberries and matcha foam, and beignets served with matcha ice cream and matcha crème Anglaise. Yuzu panna cotta with strawberries and matcha foam at Joshu-Ya Brasserie. It's a trendy cooking ingredient at restaurants such as Berkeley's Joshu-Ya Brasserie, where award-winning owner/author/executive chef Jason Kwon sees matcha as "belonging to the same family as chocolate and vanilla, in that it's that rich and that versatile. A growing tribe of devotees discuss it with the same intensity and insider lingo (think "mouthfeel," "body," "finish" and "notes") typically applied to wine, third-wave coffee and artisanal cheese. Matcha - the shade-grown, stone-pulverized, high-antioxidant, air-dried Japanese-tea-ceremony tea that tastes bitter, sweet, creamy and astringent within one sip and whose dazzling hue is the love child of emeralds, shamrocks and jade - is now officially a Next Big Thing. It's about time, given that this stuff has existed for over 400 years. A silky-smooth, stimulating powder is suddenly getting (and giving) tons of buzz in the Bay Area.
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