Matcha set

Hey Tea,

I am not sure if I understood well your last post. Do you want some instructions for preparing matcha? Maybe I could help you a little bit. Formerly I was also begginer and in matcha case I am self_made_teaman. :)

Honza

It's not a meal but a small sweet that "goes with it". I have never been macha served without a sweet, but that can be nearly anything you like, even just a dry fruit.

You said you had a measuring spoon in the set. You should use it and put a little more or less according to your taste. Roughly I'd say the bowl is filled with one 5th of water. In Winter, rinse the bowl to warm it, or your drink will be cold before you finish whisking. (disclaimer : that's just what I do to casually enjoy that tea, not the "cha no yu" manner)

Kuri

Yup- I go over to Minamoto Kitchoan and buy wagashi a lot. It certainly doesn't have to be a 'meal' in the larger sense, although I've read about elaborate tea ceremonies where there might be several sweets. It's a 'meal' only in the sense that tea and cookies can serve as a meal.

No, I understand. But I was really talking about chanoyu instructions. The rest I was able to figure out on my own- it's not rocket science. But I want to learn chanoyu, which is a totally different animal.

Small ones. You'll never see, in the context of cha-no-yu, the amount of munchies you are proposed when you visit for a cup of tea (or coffee) in any decent Western house. You're supposed to do the ceremony around 3 p.m. That means you have had lunch 2 hours before and are not hungry. The meal taken before the tea ceremony has its own tradition, for the complete ceremony, the guests arrive in the late morning, so you prepare or have it served. It is very elaborated (with seasonal variations, effort on visual aspect, etc) and has to be particularly balanced, I fail to see the point of comparing with burgers. Is that meal part of the "cha no yu", is the ikebana part of it, is the calligraphy part of it, is the invitation card part of it, etc...? Well, the "tea students" learn about all that.

I've got a set like yours, nearly everybody has one in Japan. It's designed more for casual drinking than for tea ceremony practice. Most of the macha is drunk "casually".

For the ceremony, they don't really have a spoon, but a whole set of instruments (a good dozen), which they learn how to use in a number of sessions by observing the master. I don't think the quantity of tea is fixed.

Kuri

I actually have a cookbook for wagashi in which there are some menus. There's a great deal less sweet stuff than in the West. However, the sweets are visually stunning for the most part- and read and white beans are very sweet, at least to me. Ditto chestnut paste- yum.

I guess the point I was making is that it's not so much about food, in the way that we might view 'traditional meals' here. From my understanding, it's about the whole experience. All the senses are in play. The scent of the room from the flowers and the tea mean as much as the artwork and the flower arrangement- and both of those mean as much as what is served.

I would say- yes. Because it's about a total experience- it's about Zen come to life. The only comparison I would have (and it's an extremely limited one) is if one had a completely mindful and silent meal in a monastery or convent. The whole atmosphere encourages contemplation, and the food is plain but tasty. The lack of speech causes the mind to focus. The food tends to be somewhat seasonal- if the order grows its own food, one eats what is available. And, as with the tea ceremony, the sameness of the meal creates order out of chaos.

Which is what I figured. But this is why I didn't get the instructions (hah- I have better instructions in my tea books anyway) not mentioning how much water to use. It's not like one could do a tea ceremony with it. I didn't see four seasonal scrolls in the box, or an ikebana kit. And no, I didn't expect them either.

The quantity of tea is never really fixed, for anything (unless you're one of those people who uses a scale for every cup of tea). No, I know this, even though I haven't studied tea ceremony- yet. I just felt there wasn't enough info for the casual drinker, and that could be left with the erroneous impression that because one had tea, a bowl and a whisk, one could do a whole ceremony.

Or your misunderstanding. That's not a question of menu or style of dish. If someone invites you to see a film at the cinema, and you have dinner in a restaurant just before going to the theater, that doesn't make the film itself become a meal. Maybe it's not clear when I speak English : whatever the school of "cha-no-yu", the "chakai" itself is not the meal. There is only a minuscule to small portion of sweet snack per person.

I meant -no. The making of the ikebana, putting on the kimono, having your hair and make-up done, the "kaiseki" meal are things that are all closely related to the ceremony, but they occur outside the time-frame of the "chakai". Many times there is no kaiseki meal at all.

When I was a kid, I thought that you could do a marriage ceremony yourself if you had the suit, the dress and 2 rings. In a way, you can, if you believe it and don't care about what others think. It's the same for "cha no yu", you can practice outside of the existing "churches"$B!!!J(BI mean the official schools$B!K(Band have a great time with your friends.

That page talks about the tea hierarchies :

(unfortunately the most interesting pages of the site are not in English)

In "adult world", you cannot buy a set (even as complete as a pro's) to study the "cha no yu" by yourself with a book, the system is that you learn from a master linked to the schools. Unless you establish yourself founding tea master and start your own school...

Kuri