When talking about making matcha tea, lots of people have asked me why they haven’t been able to create the sort of foam on the surface of the tea that they see on a cappuccino. The main reason for this is probably to do with your Chasen (bamboo whisk). It’s true that some chasen create foam more easily than others. I have written about this is detail in my blog, so do please read this if you’d like to know more. Also, I do recommend using the chasen just on the surface of the tea, and not have it touching the bottom of the bowl too much when you are whisking, as this will damage the chasen, and reduce its effectiveness.

Actually, it might not be necessary to create lots of foam. When I was practicing the tea ceremony at the Omote Senke School (one of the most prestigious tea ceremony schools in Japan), they liked their matcha surface to be ‘half foamy’ and ‘half green pond’. The tea ceremony is ultimately a comprehensive art and they believe that the surface of the bowl can reflect ideas that suggest images of landscape, which is a wonderfully elegant thought!

On the other hand, one of the other important tea ceremony schools, Ura Senke, does like very foamy matcha tea! Perhaps Ura Senke is more in line with today’s enjoyment, or perhaps you like the philosophical approach of Omote Senke. It is a matter of taste!