On the proper preparation of usucha.
Usucha — thin tea — is the everyday form of matcha. A guide to the tools, the ratio, the motion, and the foam, so that the bowl you make tomorrow is better than the one you made today.
4 min read
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By the editors of soqi
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May 2026
The Japanese tea ceremony recognises two main preparations of matcha. Koicha, thick tea, uses four grams of powder per forty millilitres of water and produces a concentrated, syrup-like bowl intended to be shared. Usucha, thin tea, uses two grams per sixty millilitres and produces the lighter, frothier bowl that most people think of when they think of matcha. This is the one to learn first — and for most people, the one they will make every morning of their lives.
The tools
What you need, and why.
A chawan, a chasen, a chashaku, and a sieve. The chawan should be wide — at least twelve centimetres across at the opening — to give the chasen room to move. The chasen should have at least eighty prongs; a hundred is better. The chashaku is a small bamboo scoop that holds roughly one gram per level scoop. The sieve breaks up the powder before it meets water, preventing the clumps that become bitter on the tongue.
The ratio
Two grams, sixty millilitres.
The standard ratio for usucha is two grams of matcha to sixty millilitres of water at eighty degrees Celsius. This is not a suggestion — it is the result of eight centuries of practice. Less water and the texture becomes unpleasantly thick; more and the flavour thins. Less powder and the bowl lacks body; more and the bitterness compounds. Start here. Adjust by feel once you know what you are tasting.
The motion
Wrist, not arm.
Hold the chasen lightly — as you would hold a pencil for shading. The motion is W-shaped: fast, back and forth, not round. The wrist moves; the forearm stays still. The prongs of the chasen should move just above the surface of the liquid, not plunging deep into it. After fifteen seconds, slow the motion and lift the chasen straight up from the centre of the bowl, letting the foam settle cleanly.
The common errors are circular whisking (which pushes powder to the edges), a grip that is too tight (which tires the wrist and breaks prongs), and water that is too hot (which makes the foam coarse and the taste bitter). All three have the same fix: slow down and start again tomorrow.
Reading the foam
What good looks like.
A well-made bowl of usucha has a continuous, pale green foam across its entire surface. The bubbles should be fine and tight — like the surface of a very fresh cappuccino — not coarse and open. If you see large individual bubbles, the water was too hot or the whisking motion too slow. If the foam is absent, the water was too cool or the powder undissolved. If the powder has pooled at the bottom, you skipped the sift.
Drink it straight away, while it is still warm and the foam intact. A bowl of usucha does not wait. This is, perhaps, the point of it.
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A small house of ceremonial matcha, grown by a single family in Uji and shipped from Kyoto. Stone-milled to order.
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